The most fundamental source of conflict between researchers and communities is evident in defining the overall goal of a program or enterprise. Ultimately, researchers attempt to expand the body of knowledge concerning prevention efforts. In contrast, communities are more often preoccupied with developing and/or implementing a service or program. The divergence between research and community goals finds expression in the researcher's struggle to impose and maintain control over the introduction of new initiatives in the face of community demands for universal dissemination. Another source of conflict between researchers and communities involves scientific rigor versus administrative priorities. In a sense, both researchers and communities are self-serving; they are responsive to their own agendas, needs, and reinforcement contingencies. Even though some conditions imposed by conducting research in community settings will never be completely eliminated, researchers are nonetheless part of the community and are indirectly supported by it. Researchers must convey the importance of their contributions to the community, and communities must give researchers the change to demonstrate what can be learned from the appropriate use of scientific procedures in addressing community problems. 7 references