Community Based Participatory Research in Global Health: Time to Provide Appropriate Ethics Training for Community...

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and participatory action research (PAR) methodologies incorporate community engagement throughout the research process to reduce health inequities, support research capacity, and ensure that research supports community goals. To foster true reciprocity between academic institutions and community members, ethics training required by academic institutions should be culturally and linguistically adapted to partnering communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Current ethics resources have been adapted for non-academic populations. However, these ethics resources do not yet effectively allow community researchers in LMICs to develop their own framework or tailor trainings to their specific communities. A framework guiding the adaptation of ethics training methods specific to conducting CBPR and PAR in LMICs is necessary in developing research capacity in LMICs. Such adaptive ethics training models could also be beneficial for research conducted among marginalized populations in HICs.