A Comprehensive Library of Community-Engaged Research Resources - Glossary

Glossary

This glossary defines key terms used throughout the resource library to help you more easily explore the materials.

Community and Researcher

A community is a social group whose members share one or more commonalities—such as race, gender, geographic experience, or life experience—that connect them through values, interests, goals, and/or kinship. A researcher is an individual trained to carry out research activities. For the purposes of this resource library, we will refer to community and researcher using these definitions.

Within CEnR, all individuals involved may be members of a community, researchers, or both. Their roles are often fluid, as community members contribute to research and researchers can be embedded within the community, emphasizing the collaborative and interconnected nature of CEnR.

CEnR Spectrum

The spectrum of community-researcher partnerships describes different ways community partners and researchers can work together on a project. It focuses on two things: engagement and decision making. Engagement describes the degree to which partners are involved in research activities, such as planning, collecting data, or sharing results; engagement ranges from simply being informed to co-creating knowledge. Decision making is about who helps decide things like what questions to ask, how to do the research, and how to use the findings. Together, these ideas show how partnerships operate and evolve over time. The categories of partnership on the spectrum include:

• Informed: Community partners are valued by research partners as a key audience for research findings.
• Consulted: Community partners serve as thoughtful and knowledgeable advisors to research partners throughout the research process.
• Involved: Community partners are active partners in carrying out specific research activities.
• Collaborative: Community and research partners work as co-creators throughout the research process.
• Empowered: Community partners lead the research effort, with research partners serving as supportive advisors.

CEnR 5Rs Framework

The 5Rs of effective CEnR framework helps researchers and community partners think about how they work together on a research project. These five ideas guide people to build strong, ethical, and respectful partnerships. They also help teams deal with challenges and grow their work.

• Representation: Making sure people, especially those who have been left out in the past, are meaningfully involved in all parts of the project.
• Relationships: Building trust and respect between partners by recognizing that everyone brings something important to the table.
• Reflexivity: Regularly thinking about your own role, assumptions, and decisions. This helps partners stay aware of how their actions affect the project and the people involved.
• Responsibility: Staying focused on what matters most to the community. This includes being clear about roles, being responsive to changes, and doing the work well.
• Resources: Making sure there is enough time, money, and support for everyone to participate fully. This also means building skills and systems to help the partnership grow and last.

CEnR Stages

These are the five key steps that guide a CEnR project from starting relationships to sharing the results.

• Partner: Build strong, trusting relationships. This is the foundation for all the other steps.
• Plan: Create a research plan that reflects shared goals and community needs.
• Implement: Carry out the research activities. Be flexible and ready to solve problems.
• Analyze: Look at the data and decide what it means. Bringing different perspectives can make the findings stronger.
• Share: Communicate what was learned in ways that are clear, useful, and meaningful. The goal is to support learning and action.