Abstract
Community-engaged research (CEnR) is now an established research approach. The current research seeks to pilot the systematic and automated identification and categorization of CEnR to facilitate longitudinal tracking using administrative data. We inductively analyzed and manually coded a sample of Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols. Comparing the variety of partnered relationships in practice with established conceptual classification systems, we developed five categories of partnership: Non-CEnR, Instrumental, Academic-led, Cooperative, and Reciprocal. The coded protocols were used to train a deep-learning algorithm using natural language processing to categorize research. We compared the results to data from three questions added to the IRB application to identify whether studies had a community partner and the type of engagement planned. The preliminary results show that the algorithm is potentially more likely to categorize studies as CEnR compared to investigator-recorded data and to categorize studies at a higher level of engagement. With this approach, universities could use administrative data to inform strategic planning, address progress in meeting community needs, and coordinate efforts across programs and departments. As scholars and technical experts improve the algorithm's accuracy, universities and research institutions could implement standardized reporting features to track broader trends and accomplishments.
Highlights
The last few decades have seen increasing calls for universities to transform their relationships with communities and policymakers
Developing categories of Community-engaged research (CEnR) In the first round of coding the sample dataset, we focused on how the studies were classified based on the custom fields in the Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol (Figure 1)
Using a ~100 protocol sub-sample from the training sample of 280, we identified research activities that provided evidence of CEnR characteristics as well as conventional indicators of CEnR such as specific research approach or roles
Summary
The last few decades have seen increasing calls for universities to transform their relationships with communities and policymakers. Universities seek to collaboratively produce knowledge with stakeholders, provide service that is beneficial to communities, and reaffirm a ‘scholarship of engagement.’[1] Many colleges and universities identify community engagement as a core part of their mission.[2] Community engagement within universities cuts across teaching, research, and service missions.[3] The focus is on transformed scholarship that recognizes the value of lived experience and non-academic expertise and the importance of partnership with organizations and communities. CEnR is conceptualized as a range of activities and commitments that indicate the depth and reciprocity of research team-community member relationships. Deriving from the International Association for Public Participation’s Spectrum of Public Participation,[6] CEnR thought leaders theorize public participation in research as characteristics of “community involvement, impact, trust, and communication flow”[7], (pp8) that deepen across, commonly, three to five levels of engagement
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