There is clear and increasing recognition within International Development that the decolonial moment, as well as the COVID pandemic and the over-arching planetary crises, have focussed renewed attention on the uneven relationships and power dynamics that lie at the heart of all 'development' research encounters (Smith, 1999; Grasfoguel 2007; Kothari et al. 2019). These dynamics include the imperfect nature of research 'collaboration', 'participation' and 'partnerships', as well as the thorny epistemic contests over ideas and the more prosaic controversies over authorship of outputs. Evermore research funders and universities are setting out directives for what constitutes 'responsible' research and ‘research integrity' (see the Hong Kong principles – Moher et al. 2020; UKRIO's 2019 'Research Integrity' initiative). Whilst concepts like 'co-production' have gained rhetorical prominence, we think more is required to move decisively beyond modes of extractive research. This special issue asks, 'as researchers, who exactly are we 'responsible' to? When does the research project and 'our' responsibility begin and end? What would constitute more deliberative ways to think about and share experiences regarding the technologies and practices of being responsible?' The special issue, builds on Panel 25: Responsible Research: Ethics and Integrity in the Anthropocene of the DSA2023 Conference: Crisis in the Anthropocene: rethinking connection and agency for development, 28–30 June 2023, by welcoming papers that explore 'responsible' research through theoretical/ methodological innovations, case studies, and personal/auto-ethnographic reflections in this critical area of scholarship.
