I’ve been fortunate to participate in a number of studies that engage community members. In some studies, community members have provided light consultation. In other studies, there has been a deep collaboration between researchers and community members who guide the project. The MEND study, which I recently concluded, was the latter kind of project. It involved a deep collaboration during which I, the researcher, learned from and alongside 4 community advisers.

Whose voice is part of community engagement? How do you ensure patients who are marginalized are heard? And who makes the decisions about what is shared with patients?

Scientists like numbers. Words and narrative can help illustrate or describe research results, but scientists typically expect trustworthy results to take a numeric form. Well-trained researchers recognize that quantification does not assure unbiased objectivity. Nevertheless, in scientific communication, numbers enjoy the presumption of innocence while narrative triggers suspicions of subjectivity and bias. How can qualitative data from a small number of people be scientific

Three cheers for NIH’s enshrinement of rigor and reproducibility (R&R) as principles of research quality. First, who doesn’t love a little alliteration? Second, like all good poetry, R&R are terse, thorough and thought-provoking. Third, R&R have proved useful beyond their intended domain of bench and clinical science.

In March 2022, I embarked on a journey to conduct ethnographic research via field work at multiple senior centers in my county. With a larger research team, I sought to understand the culture, values, and social environment of their setting. Our study, DiscernMC, aims to understand the lived experiences of people living with dementia (PLWD), specifically Alzheimer’s Disease, and their caregivers and providers.

Settling on a design for data collection and analysis is daunting for any qualitative researcher, especially those new to the field. There are books and other resources available to learn about qualitative research, but they often include jargon or assume background knowledge that can make it challe