About this Research Topic
Community and public engagement (CPE) is increasingly recognized as an important component of clinical and biomedical research and its inclusion is becoming a prerequisite for research funding. In general terms, CPE has been described as an interactive process that supports the exchange of knowledge, ideas and opinions between researchers, research participants and other stakeholders. CPE is often facilitated by engagement practitioners or social scientists who work alongside medical researchers to design and implement engagement activities. Many different approaches have been taken to engage community and public audiences in clinical and biomedical research, ranging from large-scale multi-directional communication efforts in vaccine trials to more in-depth interactions with focus groups as part of small research projects.
It is widely agreed that listening and responding are core principles of CPE. In fostering these principles, engagement initiatives are often designed to enable community residents or members of the public to have their say. However, when platforms for CPE are restricted by socio-economic, cultural, political or structural constraints, possibilities for listening and responding become limited. These constraints and limitations are mostly experienced in low-and-middle income countries where much clinical and biomedical research is undertaken, and where CPE is on the rise. This Research Topic will tackle the following questions: what are the central aims of listening when we facilitate CPE initiatives; what challenges or risks are introduced when we listen and acknowledge but don't - or are unable to - respond, and what are the outcomes and impacts when we do. The collection will aim to address questions such as these by assembling the experiences of multiple engagement practitioners and scientists working to integrate CPE into clinical and biomedical research in the majority world. Perspectives will be drawn from large clinical trials to small research studies. The findings will contribute to crucial debates on the purpose of CPE, highlighting its transformative potential and underlining its biggest contentions. The collection will also illuminate changes that are needed, both in research systems and engagement practice, for meaningful advances to be made in the field of CPE.
We welcome papers that will discuss engagement initiative(s) that have:
• Included community and/or public engagement activities;
• Formed an integral part of clinical or biomedical research in a majority world context, exploring communicable or non-communicable disease(s)
(this encompasses large scale research programmes [e.g. vaccine trials] to small/localized research projects);
• Been implemented as a research project OR
• Gathered sufficient information to allow for robust analysis of the process and outcomes;
• Described the feasibility, attempts and outcomes of listening and responding to the ideas, opinions, requests or demands of the community and public audiences that have been engaged;
• Contributed to debates on CPE with a strong focus on methods or approaches that enable or prevent listening and open up or block pathways to responsiveness.
Papers that discuss emergency responses to public health crises will be welcome
Types of manuscripts:
Original research papers, articles reflecting on engagement methods, practice and outcomes, theoretical papers.
It is widely agreed that listening and responding are core principles of CPE. In fostering these principles, engagement initiatives are often designed to enable community residents or members of the public to have their say. However, when platforms for CPE are restricted by socio-economic, cultural, political or structural constraints, possibilities for listening and responding become limited. These constraints and limitations are mostly experienced in low-and-middle income countries where much clinical and biomedical research is undertaken, and where CPE is on the rise. This Research Topic will tackle the following questions: what are the central aims of listening when we facilitate CPE initiatives; what challenges or risks are introduced when we listen and acknowledge but don't - or are unable to - respond, and what are the outcomes and impacts when we do. The collection will aim to address questions such as these by assembling the experiences of multiple engagement practitioners and scientists working to integrate CPE into clinical and biomedical research in the majority world. Perspectives will be drawn from large clinical trials to small research studies. The findings will contribute to crucial debates on the purpose of CPE, highlighting its transformative potential and underlining its biggest contentions. The collection will also illuminate changes that are needed, both in research systems and engagement practice, for meaningful advances to be made in the field of CPE.
We welcome papers that will discuss engagement initiative(s) that have:
• Included community and/or public engagement activities;
• Formed an integral part of clinical or biomedical research in a majority world context, exploring communicable or non-communicable disease(s)
(this encompasses large scale research programmes [e.g. vaccine trials] to small/localized research projects);
• Been implemented as a research project OR
• Gathered sufficient information to allow for robust analysis of the process and outcomes;
• Described the feasibility, attempts and outcomes of listening and responding to the ideas, opinions, requests or demands of the community and public audiences that have been engaged;
• Contributed to debates on CPE with a strong focus on methods or approaches that enable or prevent listening and open up or block pathways to responsiveness.
Papers that discuss emergency responses to public health crises will be welcome
Types of manuscripts:
Original research papers, articles reflecting on engagement methods, practice and outcomes, theoretical papers.
Keywords: community engagement, public engagement, community and public engagement, clinical research, biomedical research
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
