Internet-Based Research - SBE

Which scenario best describes a researcher making thoughtful considerations in the design of their informed consent process on an online study?

The researcher will ask for a waiver to document informed consent and instead will have a live button that reads, "If you agree to be in this study click below to begin

The internet can be used as a research tool or as the object of a study. Which of the following examples best describes an investigator using the internet as a research tool?

An investigator uses his Facebook wall to post a URL link to a survey he is hosting on SurveyMonkey.

Which of the following examples of using the internet to conduct research meets the federal definition of research with human subjects?

Conducting an on-line focus group with cancer survivors to determine familial support systems. The researcher also invites subjects' significant others to be a part of the focus group.

To minimize potential risks of harm, a researcher conducting an on-line survey can:

Design the survey so that no direct or indirect identifiers are collected.

Researchers designing online studies should consider the following with respect to participant protections.

Re-identification methods are unique to internet-based research.

Which of the following methods could be considered a "best practice" in terms of informing respondents how their answers to an on-line survey about personal information will be protected?

The investigator uses the informed consent process to explain how respondent data will be transmitted from the website to his encrypted database without ever recording respondents' IP addresses, but explains that on the internet confidentiality cannot be absolutely guaranteed.

What consideration should researchers take into account when designing an online study that presents participants with misleading information?

Researchers cannot guarantee that participants reached the end of the study, and read and understood the debrief.