Principles

(adopted by the Dean’s Executive Committee Feb. 6, 2003)

1. Community-based projects need to be consistent with the overall objectives of the College of Public Health (COPH) and of its other organizational partners.  These objectives include an emphasis on the local relevance of public health problems and an examination of the social, economic, and cultural conditions that influence health status and the ways in which these affect lifestyle, behavior, and community decision-making.
    

2. The purpose of community-based projects is to enhance our understanding of issues affecting the community and to develop, implement, and evaluate (as appropriate) plans of action that will address those issues in ways that benefit the community.  Community-based projects may include any of the traditional missions of a university:  teaching, service, and/or research.
    

3. Community-based projects are designed in ways that enhance the capacity of the community-based participants in the process.
    

4. Representatives of community-based organizations, public health agencies, health care organizations, and educational institutions are involved as appropriate in all major phases of the process (e.g., defining the problem; developing the information collection concepts and approaches; gathering the knowledge or data; using the results; interpreting, sharing, and disseminating the results; and developing, implementing, and evaluating plans of action to address the issues identified).
    

5. Community-based projects are conducted in a way that strengthens collaboration among community-based organizations, public health agencies, health care organizations, and educational institutions.
    

6. Community-based projects produce, interpret, and disseminate the findings to community members in clear language respectful to the community and in ways that will be useful for developing plans that will benefit the community.
    

7. Community-based projects are conducted according to the norms of partnership:  mutual respect; recognition of the knowledge, expertise, and resource capacities of the participants in the process; and open communication.
    

8. Community-based projects follow the policies set forth by the sponsoring organization regarding ownership of the data and output of any studies undertaken (policies to be shared with participants in advance).  Any publications resulting from the work will acknowledge the contribution of participants, who will be consulted prior to submission of materials and, as appropriate, will be invited to collaborate as co-authors.  In addition, following the rules of confidentiality of certain data, participants will jointly agree on who has access to the information and where the data will be physically located.
    

9. For the partner universities, community-based research projects adhere to the human subjects review process standards, and procedures as set forth by the sponsoring organization.