The IGM is a private research and collaboration network among friends, which is accessed by invitation from one of the members of the group and approval from the group of researchers. Its main purpose is to join forces to advance scientific productivity in the form of inter-institutional, international research, preparation of special issues, and international academic events. Also, the group considers as another of its purposes to promote greater visibility of the constructs that unite us as a research group, among which are studies in the field of metacognition, self-regulated learning and executive functions, with applications in the educational, clinical and daily life topics, from an intercultural perspective, as we recognize and wish to make our ethnographic, cultural, and social diversity and its impact on learning processes even more visible to the world.

We are a non-profit research group, without specific affiliation to any University, or Research Center, without large budgets, in which what unites us is the genuine desire to collaborate as friends in research, dissemination, and writing projects about which we are passionate. For this reason, we self-govern from two basic principles: respect and cooperation.

Respect is a value that comes from the Latin ‘respectus’ which refers to attention, consideration, appreciation, and recognition for other people, ideas, or institutions. It manifests itself in different attitudes and behaviors that are important for coexistence in harmony. Among some of the group’s agreements to guarantee this value, the members have agreed that:

1) Each country will be represented within the group by one or a maximum of two researchers who have been recommended to become members by someone in the group.

2) Only new members will be received for the group, from countries that are not yet represented among the group of researchers, given the multicultural vocation of the working network.

3) A monthly meeting of the full members will be held, lasting an hour and a half, on the last Friday of each month.

4) Commitment, ethical behavior, and ongoing communication with other members will be considered essential for permanence in the group.

Cooperation is a value that comes from the Latin ‘cooperor’, which means to act together, it is much more than collaborating to the extent that it not only groups actions to encourage personal interaction and group similar interests, but also emphasizes aligning the interaction of people to achieve a common goal based on mutual help, responsibility, and solidarity. It is a value that implies the ability of people to work effectively and respectfully, make commitments, create consensus to make decisions, assume shared responsibilities in collaborative tasks, and value individual opinions and contributions, based on the common good. Among some of the group’s agreements to guarantee this value, the members have agreed that:

1) All researchers in the group collaborate on an annual research plan that the entire group has.

2) Some members, according to calls and interests, may participate in other research according to the opportunities that arise. These calls will be public, and all members will be able to participate and access them on equal terms.

3) In the products derived from the annual investigations of the work plan, all members of the group are authors, so these studies have very large samples and are authored by all members.

4) Given the large number of members, some working subgroups are being created, in which all members who wish to do so may register in each group, if they can respond with the commitments and products agreed upon in each working subgroup.

5) The leadership of each of these work subgroups will be represented by a member of the group, who will have this responsibility for a period of two years.

6) The scientific products derived from the working subgroups must give credit and refer to the entire research group, even if only the members of the working subgroup are authored.

7) Other work subgroups that derive from the international metacognition group must be made up of members who belong to the entire group. Researchers who are not part of the IGM will not be able to speak on behalf of the group.

8) Within the framework of the general meetings held every month, all work plans for products derived from the joint actions of the IGM members will be formed, presented, and approved.

9) Some possible collaborations are recognized with researchers from other countries, who are not part of the IGM, if the representative of the group within the country authorizes the collaboration and leads the process from their country and credits the collaboration to the IGM.

Finally, following the agreements of the members of the IGM, we believe in the ethical values ​​of honesty, transparency, social responsibility, and concern for others, which is what unites us as a research work group and as friends.

Updating of operating agreements for the year 2025

Some guidelines and administrative decisions derived from the Costa Rica meeting.

a) It was agreed that no new members of the GIM will be received during the year 2025, in order to consolidate the base working group and establish which people really have the time and commitment to participate in one of the two possible working roles: representative of the working group in the country, or academic ally in the country of reference.
b) Based on the academic links and networks generated at the meeting in Costa Rica, two clear work roles were established:

  • The confirmation of the role of one, maximum two people, as representatives of the country with time to exercise this role, and with the commitment to exercise this leadership in their context.
  • The new figure of ‘academic allies’, with specific collaborations with the group from some countries, in which at least two or three of the researchers of the international metacognition group participate.
  • The researchers accepted as ‘academic allies’ from each country must be recommended by at least three members of the GIM. Likewise, when proposing a collaboration with the group, these allied researchers accept that any member of the GIM can participate and be involved in the research project proposed to the group.
  • All the projects that are proposed to the GIM, will have to be offered so that any member of the group can participate and be linked, because within the group if any researcher wishes to participate in all the projects and collaborations that we have in course, he/she will be able to do it, if he/she has the time to fulfill the commitments that are established in each work subgroup.
  • The new members who aspire to become members of the group, will participate in a previous process of collaboration with some researchers of the GIM who will endorse their entry to the group.