Understanding the Use of Community Advisory Boards in Autism Research: A Scoping Review

Author(s)

• Margaret Janse van Rensburg, University of South CarolinaFollow
• Elisa Niunin
• Alexia Ostrolenk
• Sydney Arsenault
• Anja Wilson
• Courtney Weaver
• Valérie Courchesne
• Robert M. Hock, University of South CarolinaFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Community engagement is increasingly promoted as a good practice in autism research, yet little is known about how Community Advisory Boards are used. This scoping review mapped the extent and nature of empirical literature on Community Advisory Boards in autism research. Five databases were searched, supplemented by reference list searching. Twenty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Most were published recently, conducted in the United States, and used mixed methods. Community Advisory Boards were rarely formally defined and were typically described functionally rather than conceptually. Most operated in consultative roles, with inconsistent reporting of recruitment, compensation, onboarding, communication, and influence on decision-making. Findings suggest that use of Community Advisory Boards in autism research is expanding but remains conceptually and methodologically underdeveloped.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-026-00590-w

Publication Info

Published in Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2026.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2026

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

APA Citation

Janse van Rensburg, M. G., Niunin, E., Ostrolenk, A., Arsenault, S., Wilson, A., Weaver, C., Courchesne, V., & Hock, R. M. (2026). Understanding the use of community advisory boards in autism research: A scoping review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-026-00590-w