Commentary | Open Access
Anchoring in Strong Currents: Strategies for Reflexivity to Enhance Inter- and Transdisciplinary Marine Research
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Abstract: Marine research increasingly demands that early career researchers collaborate across disciplines, work with diverse communities including Indigenous peoples, and navigate social-ecological challenges characterised by ambiguity, uncertainty, and contested values. Yet the conceptual tools needed to do this well—chief among them reflexivity—are rarely taught in science training. This commentary argues that reflexivity (i.e., the practice of actively and continuously examining how one’s position, assumptions, and subjectivity shape the research process and its outcomes) is not an optional methodological add-on, but a foundational practice for rigorous, ethical, and inclusive inter- and transdisciplinary marine research. It is addressed primarily to early career researchers and their supervisors: people who can act on the strategies offered here within their own research practice. We acknowledge that sustaining reflexive practice also requires institutional and structural change—but that change is beyond the remit of any individual researcher. Rather, our focus is on what individual researchers can integrate, practise, and lead by example: from writing a positionality statement and asking reflexive planning questions, to active listening, peer dialogue, and keeping a reflexive personal journal—as entry points into larger accountability.
Keywords: early career researchers; interdisciplinarity; marine science; positionality; reflexivity; transdisciplinarity
Published:
Issue:
Vol 3 (2026): Tides of Change: Reflective and Practical Skills for the Next Generation of Marine Researchers (In Progress)
© Annette Breckwoldt, Christopher Cvitanovic, Asha de Vos, Amy Diedrich, Leonie Dziomba, Marie Fujitani, Denis B. Karcher, Priscilla F.M. Lopes, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Shannon McLaughlin, Vitor Renck, Ma Suza. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.