A: Some community members may distrust a researcher who has no visible ties to the community, so partnering with a community-based agency can give researchers a way to enter communities that aren't usually available to them. Also, these kinds of partnerships give researchers a chance to study behavior in typical contexts rather than artificially created settings, which serves to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

A: The reasons a community-based agency would want to partner with researchers are as varied as the agencies themselves. Overall, the promise of additional services and experts in a needed area like program evaluation or the analysis of complex problems can be very appealing. A researcher interested in working with a group should find out what that particular group needs so that the relationship can be mutually beneficial. Meeting with key leaders and giving them an opportunity to shape the direction of the interactions to follow also provides validation of the research partner as a potentially useful ally for telling the community's stories.

A: Considering the many advantages of these partnerships, one may wonder why they aren't more common, but the perceived costs on either side can be enough to block potential partnerships. Researchers may worry that they will have to give up too much control of the research process. Community leaders may be concerned that an outside researcher won't care as much about the agency's goals.

The issue of status can also be a factor because a strong partnership needs to acknowledge that expertise exists on both sides rather than assuming that the researcher is the only one with something to give to the partnership. On a more basic level, scheduling can cause conflict as researchers may expect regular and predictable working hours that are not possible for community members who have jobs with little flexibility and long and/or irregular shifts. Scheduling also works against the researcher when students abandon the project at the end of a term or upon graduation.

There are also issues of trust. Community members may be reluctant to make themselves vulnerable as researchers seek to uncover information that only insiders may have. In fact, there have been instances when communities have refused to participate with researchers after earlier experiences with broken promises or unmet expectations.

A: The key component is strong communication, which includes explicitly stating goals so that all parties can be involved in negotiating the common goals of the partnership. Agencies and researchers also need to respect any cultural differences and work to develop a common language. All parties should engage in frank and open conversation in an attempt to unpack the assumptions that each party inadvertently holds. Moving beyond stereotypes and common misperceptions will be very useful in achieving trust and keeping communication lines open.

A: Researchers need to understand that community-based research is different from lab-based research. Local conditions can impact the behaviors or situations of interest, and researchers need to work with the partner agencies to develop guidelines for matching groups and selecting participants.

Decisions also need to be made about how data will be collected so that no one feels overburdened. Staff in agencies may feel data collection takes away valuable time from services, so they need to be involved in those discussions. All parties also need to agree how to evaluate the program and how to track clients in the program, which can be difficult as community members come and go.

A: First, researchers and agencies need to build an organizational infrastructure to support the partnership. Before any difficulties arise, people need to decide who is responsible for what so that everyone knows where to go with any particular questions and/or concerns.

Second, communication needs to involve every level of the partnership. Don't forget the agency staff and the clients when decisions need to be made.

Third, researchers need to make a strong and visible commitment to the community, and there are a variety of ways to do that such as regularly reporting findings and attending special events. Most importantly, researchers need to avoid coming into a community with a project and then abandoning the participants once data collection is finished.

Fourth, researchers can invite community members to help interpret the data by asking their opinions about findings. Representatives of the community can also be included in panel discussions and conference presentations to make certain a balanced view is presented.