Challenges in conducting research in community settings and community engagement strategies in response

Traditional research paradigms have often treated communities primarily as passive sources of data, resulting in extractive practices that overlook local priorities and knowledge systems. Community-Based Research (CBR) challenges this dynamic by emphasizing equitable co-ownership of research processes, shared decision-making, and active participation of community members throughout the research process. This review article examines challenges in conducting CBR and how multifaceted community engagement strategies can serve as an essential response. Specifically, the review uses a framework-mapping approach to explore their areas of relevance and contribution. The challenges span multiple dimensions, including ethical and equitable partnerships, collaboratively defining research priorities, co-designing methods, fostering community capacity, ensuring sustainability of partnerships, and meaningfully assessing outcomes over time. Importantly, these challenges are not static; they shift in nature and intensity across different stages of the research lifecycle and vary according to community, cultural, and contextual factors. Mapping these challenges against community engagement frameworks highlights areas of convergence and complementarity, illustrating how different approaches contribute to addressing distinct aspects of CBR. The review underscores that addressing these challenges requires flexible, relational approaches rooted in genuine power-sharing, supported by institutional commitment to long-term collaboration. Embedding comprehensive, context-specific engagement strategies into CBR is critical to ensuring research is methodologically sound, socially responsive, culturally attuned, and co-owned by communities. No single framework fully encompasses the breadth of challenges encountered in CBR, underscoring the value of integrating complementary engagement approaches. Such practices enable research to move beyond knowledge extraction toward a collaborative and transformative endeavor conducted with, by, and for communities.