A psychologist on the staff of a research preschool in Chicago found that contact with black community leaders was essential to the success of the project. Specific questions dealt with the proper focus of research and the use of research funds in the community. This essay presents the research psychologist's views concerning the Negroes' questions about research and the public's growing disenchantment with research. It is recognized that the research enterprise itself has engendered problems, deriving from intervention-evaluation projects, basic research studies, and research "oversell." Intervention research poses problems of goals, methodologies, validity of findings, replicability, and the change and confusion in the researcher's role as the program progresses. The difficulty of explaining basic research issues to the people involved is discussed, and professionals are encouraged to resist the tendency to oversell the purposes and probable outcomes of research. Considering the context of social change in which these issues are raised, researchers are urged to be aware of their values and goals for research and to communicate these honestly to black people. In sum, negotiations between researchers and community are considered a means to acceptance in the host community and should form the basis of valid research designs. (DR)