Community-Based Research: Key Considerations for Researchers and Community Partners When Collaborating

Community-based research (CBR) is a research orientation that emphasizes equitable engagement in the process of knowledge production, though researchers and community partners may navigate collaborative partnerships with differing expectations, priorities, and understandings of success. Extant research has demonstrated that successful CBR partnerships can benefit both researchers and community partners, yet little is known about how both groups simultaneously conceptualize successful collaboration across diverse partnership contexts. In this study, we ask: What considerations do researchers and community partners identify as important when engaging in community-based research partnerships? Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 university researchers and 10 community partners engaged in CBR partnerships across multiple social science fields, we employed reflexive thematic analysis to examine shared and group-specific considerations related to collaborative research partnerships. Our findings reveal shared concerns about understanding community contexts, ensuring community benefit, and anticipating operational challenges. Researchers additionally emphasized institutional constraints, sustainability, and limitations of standardized ethics training, whereas community partners highlighted communication, empowerment, and relational accountability. These findings suggest that successful CBR partnerships require navigating relational, ethical, institutional, and operational tensions across academic and community settings. We further present key questions that research and community partners can consider when establishing successful collaborations.