Abstract

Community researchers, including community members without formal research training, are increasingly being hired as part of research teams, especially on research projects guided by a community-based participatory research approach. Health disparities research necessarily focuses on communities that have encountered historical and ongoing racism, inequities, and discrimination. Within this dynamic, fluid context, study protocols superimpose rigid expectations that may fit poorly to dilemmas faced by community researchers as they navigate their roles. Thus, community researchers hired on projects may experience a range of challenges associated with physical, social, and emotional proximity. This chapter will examine specific real-world ethical considerations that community researchers face in the field. Academic researchers and universities must better prepare to support community researchers, so their engagement becomes more than a university news headliner or a lofty maxim. We will draw upon our experiences from research projects that engaged community residents who had no previous research training to conduct participant recruitment, data collection, and data dissemination. We provide practical recommendations for academic researchers to operationalize policies and practices that can facilitate the credible representation of community members in this multidimensional frontline role as community researcher.