Community-based participatory research: opportunities, challenges, and the need for a common language.

I n January of 2002, a call for papers featuring community based participatory research (CBPR) was issued. The intent was to highlight the outstanding work being done in this area and the role CBPR can play in improving the care and outcomes of populations at-risk. 1 What emerged from this call was more than what any of the editors expected, and has been illustrative of both the superb scholarship and community engagement occurring in CBPR and how much more can be done in refining and broadening the application of CBPR in what we do. The body of research submitted for consideration also highlights several important realities: 1) CBPR is appropriate and applicable across disciplines and within many diverse community settings; 2) the potential for CBPR to make meaningful contributions to improving the health and well-being of traditionally disenfranchised population groups and communities is very real and, in many instances, being realized; and 3) we need to do a better job of articulating CBPR to our peers and colleagues as``research-plus'' that is both methodologically rigorous and that makes unique contributions not possible using other means. The 11 original research papers presented in this Special Issue came from an impressive pool of 81 submissions. And while CBPR may seem somewhat straightforward in theory, as these articles demonstrate, the degree to which CBPR is applied and how it is represented are far more diverse and varied. The peer review process and several editor meetings for this Special Issue brought out many of the challenges inherent in CBPR. How do we define community? What is a meaningful impact? How do we distinguish between community-placed and community-based research? How do we balance the importance of the research process with the importance of the research product or findings? Is there a methodologic threshold with which to determine whether a project is or is not CBPR? What is evident from the submissions is how broadly CBPR is being applied, geographically, within specific population groups and clinical scenarios, and methodologically. For example, Angell et al. 2 and Stratford et al. 3 both describe CBPR projects in rural settings, while van Olphen et al., 4 Horowitz et al., 5 and Masi et al. 6 all describe urban-based research. Initiatives targeting specific vulnerable or at-risk populations are featured in work by Lauderdale et al. 7 with older Chinese immigrants, by Lam et al. 8 with Vietnamese-American women, and by van …