This paper was prepared to assist the planners of the National Children's Study (NCS) as they assess possible study design options and consider the role of the community in this initiative. The consensus among the planners is to involve the community in the conduct of the study. What is not yet clear is how to what level and at what capacity the community will be involved. To answer those questions, the NCS planners will need to understand potential strengths and weaknesses of a study design that depends on community involvement and the level and type of support that local study sites would need to be able to work with the communities. In response to the planner's need to learn more about community-based research (CBR), RTI International (RTI) conducted a literature review and searched the Internet for information on the status of community-based research in the United States today. In this report, we identify the methods used to gather the information to develop the white paper.