This special issue of Progress in Community Health Partnerships (PCHP), “Maximizing Community Contributions, Benefits, and Outcomes in Clinical and Translational Research,” seeks to advance the field of community-based health research by providing information, tools, and understanding of the accomplishments, best practices, and challenges that community and academic partners have experienced in their engagement with National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awardees (CTSAs) and other research entities.* Much of the editorial work has been performed by guest editors: a collaboration of academics and community-based partners who strived to publish papers that amplify community perspectives in clinical and translational research, including those involving participatory approaches with a wide range of communities, participants, settings, and geographic locations. The resulting special issue includes papers that cover a wide range of multidisciplinary topics that reflect collaborations across many diverse communities, CTSAs, and community-engaged practice-based research networks. Authored and co-authored by community partners, the papers often reflect the perspectives, experiences, contributions, and value that community partnerships add to the research enterprise. This issue advances novel ideas, evaluates the implementation and development of community– academic partnerships, and highlights best practices. The focus is on lessons learned from community engagement in health research that will strengthen the research enterprise while building community and academic capacity to engage effectively for the improvement of public health in our communities. The papers in this issue highlight the important concept of community-based participatory research (CBPR), which has varied definitions. CBPR is, however, generally used to describe qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research that is designed, planned, and conducted by and in collaboration with institution-based researchers and “community-based entities,” such as members of community-based organizations, public interest groups, and/or other associations. Investigations are on a topic or area of need identified by members of the community or by the researchers. 1–4 CBPR is also considered to be an approach to research that aims to use and develop knowledge, products, and outcomes that are mutually beneficial to researchers and community members. This issue features eleven papers in five categories: Community Perspective, Original Research, Theory and Methods, Workin-Progress & Lessons Learned, and Policy and Practice. In response to a national solicitation, 27 manuscripts were received. The guest editors sent the articles out for review to both community and academic reviewers. One guest editor was assigned to each manuscript and led a teleconference discussion of the manuscript with the rest of the guest editors and then worked with PCHP’s editor to give feedback to authors, almost always seeking to highlight the community’s perspective on the collaboration. Ultimately, nine manuscripts were rejected, seven were judged as less in concert with the goals of the special issue and were accepted with revision for a regular issue of PCHP, five were accepted for the special issue with minor revisions, and six were * The CTSA program of the National Institutes of Health provides infrastructure support to facilitate translational research, to promote the training and career development of translational researchers, and to develop innovative methods and technologies to strengthen translational research. Currently, 61 medical research institutions in 30 states and the District of Columbia participate in the program. Until recently, the program required that each CTSA explicitly include a community engagement component.