Intercountry Adoption Research Group is an attempt to bring together academics, researchers, adoption professionals and lay people engaged in and/or interested in current research pertaining to intercountry adoption. The idea to start this e-group was in response to the difficulty in obtaining information about intercountry adoption and the growing research interest in the field.

There are many many lists for people to share their personal adoption experiences and opinions about ICA adoption. This is not, however, the purpose of this list. The ICA Research Group is distinct in that the purpose is to bring together information and research about intercountry adoption. Since the research in this field is nascent, we have not limited participation to this list as we understand the importance of practice wisdom, which is often based on personal experiences. However, personal experiences should be shared with the intention of furthering research questions, or practice knowledge. While we understand that there are yet many problems in ICA adoptions this is not a forum for personal attacks, but rather critical and thoughtful dialogue.

The ICA Research Group is intended to enable scholars and practioners to communicate current research; to discuss new articles, books, papers, approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to test new ideas and share comments on ICA practice, history, and policies. Relevant academic job announcements, and fellowship announcements may also be posted. Organizers of conferences and symposia relating to ICA issues are encouraged to post calls for papers and program contents. Similarly, we encourage graduate students to post abstracts of their doctoral dissertations. Reports on new archival or bibliographic sources, new software, datasets or CD-ROMs are also welcome.