How Do You Define Community and Why Is it Important?

Researchers have an ethical responsibility to understand the communities they invite to participate in their research and that their research ultimately impacts. The commonalities that characterize a community are broad and complex, and everyone belongs to multiple, diverse, formal, and informal communities. Understanding experiences of members of different communities can help researchers fine tune their questions, assesses disparities faced by these communities, refine recruitment strategies, and assess whether proposed interventions would be equally as effective in the broader patient population. Before planning research with or in any community, it is important to explore what data has already been collected. Incorporating community voices can also help frame research to be the most inclusive and therefore more generalizable. When researchers understand a community, this can help with recruitment and improve study outcomes.