From tokenism to partnership: A methodological approach for engaging peer researchers and fostering participatory research practices

Despite growing interest in participatory research, peer researchers, or lived-experience researchers, are too often included in the process symbolically. Many projects still rely on practice models that limit their influence and that risk reproducing epistemic injustice. This article presents a methodological approach to implementing a genuine partnership model for peer researcher involvement. Drawing on the literature and the experience of the Research Chair in the Reduction of Social Inequalities in Health (RSIH Chair) in Montreal (Canada), we identify practical elements to support equitable and sustainable collaboration. Beyond procedural inclusion, this approach recognizes experiential knowledge as legitimate, redistributes power within research teams, challenges entrenched hierarchies, and invites a critical rethinking of who holds authority in research and how collaboration can foster more just and meaningful knowledge production.