Taking the Benefits of Science to Underrepresented regions of the world: Promoting Horizontal collaboration in social science research as a meaningful extension of cross-cultural research des

In a previous paper on cross-cultural research design, we had underlined the importance of crosscultural research design in scientific activity. We had also underlined the importance of obtaining various types of emic and etic perspectives on various kinds of issues, and had also attempted to bucket cultures into various categories. In this paper, we attempt to take those concepts a step forward, and call for a horizontal collaboration among nations. We also define the terms horizontal collaboration and vertical collaboration as being the two types of collaboration involved in cross-cultural research. Thus, this paper adds on meaningfully and significantly to the concepts introduced in our paper on crosscultural research design, and introduces several new concepts and terms as well. The concepts proposed in this paper hold good for all branches and fields of sciences, though they assume added meaning for various fields of the social sciences where culture-specific data plays a major role in the formulation of hypotheses. Horizontal collaboration must not replace vertical collaboration entirely, but only complement it in places where such collaboration makes eminent sense. Western science has contributed greatly to human welfare, and developing countries must also not be self-centric. They must also contribute to human welfare and human progress in general. This also assumes added importance because the dividing line between developed countries and developing countries will become thin in the times to come as economic performance of various nations also converges.