Participant Information Sheet

Study Purpose

Researchers often use abstracts to judge various elements of a research. We aim to understand how people evaluate different research abstracts on a range of criteria, including the quality of the research, its rigor, novelty, and potential for publication. We are especially interested in how researchers’ own area of expertise and academic experience might shape the way they evaluate abstracts. This study is being conducted by a large team of international researchers (see list at the end of this page) and is led by Dr. Hema Preya Selvanathan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Psychology in The University of Queensland, Australia.

What is involved?

In this study, you will be asked to read a series of abstracts and answer several questions about each abstract. These are hypothetical abstracts that you might encounter as a researcher. Note that there are no right or wrong answers; we are just interested in your evaluation of the abstracts. At the end of the survey, we will ask for some basic demographic information and details about your academic background. No personally identifying information will be collected, so your responses cannot be linked back to your identity. The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Risks

The survey does not pose a risk beyond those of everyday life. You can choose not to participate now or withdraw your participation at any point.

Participation and withdrawal

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and you are free to withdraw from this study at any time without prejudice or penalty. If you wish to withdraw, simply stop completing the questions and close the survey on your computer. If you do withdraw from the study, the answers you have provided up until that point will be destroyed and will not be included in the study.

Confidentiality and data security

All data collected will be coded in a de-identified manner and subsequently analysed as well as reported in such a way that responses will not be able to be linked to any individual. If findings from this study are published in an academic journal or are required for a meta-analysis or systematic review, the de-identified data will be made publicly available in an online repository, but it cannot be linked to your personal identity in any way.

Ethics clearance and contact information

This study adheres to the Guidelines of the ethical review process of The University of Queensland and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. You are free to discuss your participation in this study with the lead researcher, Dr. Hema Preya Selvanathan (h.selvanathan@uq.edu.au). If, however, you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact the Ethics Coordinators on +617 3365 3924 / +617 3443 1656 or email humanethics@research.uq.edu.au.

If you would like to learn the outcome of the study in which you are participating, you can contact Dr. Hema Preya Selvanathan at h.selvanathan@uq.edu.au and you will be sent a summary of the findings.

Research team:

• Fouad Bou Zeineddine (University of Innsbruck, Austria),
• Idham Eka Putra (Universitas Persada Indonesia, Indonesia),
• Ana Figueiredo (Academy of Christian Humanism University, Chile),
• Demis Glasford (John Jay College, City University of New York, USA),
• Andrew Livingstone (Univeristy of Exeter, UK),
• Harry Manley (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand),
• Rashmi Nair (Ashoka University, India),
• Sandersan Onie (Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Australia),
• Suzy J. Styles (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore),
• Hema Preya Selvanathan (The University of Queensland, Australia),
• Melis Ulug (Sussex University, UK),
• Jasper Van Assche (Ghent University, Belgium),
• Johanna Ray Vollhardt (Clark University, USA).