Reading the 20th Century discussion

Dear Members,

We hope this finds you well.

We are a team of researchers based at the University of Portsmouth and the University of Copenhagen studying what and how people are reading throughout the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.

We hope that you might be interested in participating in this research project by completing our survey, which should take approximately 10 minutes. Participation is voluntary and anonymous.

The project has been approved by the Ethics Committee at the University of Portsmouth.

If you would like to participate in the survey, please click on the following link:

https://bit.ly/31WmMzC

Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Ben

Just out of interest, Ben, how do you propose to weed out repeat participants as I see that the link allows me to fill out the survey again (I haven't, but I could)? That could skew your results, no? Are you relying on the goodwill of the participants who can remain anonymous?

Also, when will the project end and the results and analysis be available? Will you be publishing it where it will be generally accessible?

And do you have a link to an official University website which lays these details out? Since you are potentially gathering information on people that could be used in other ways, particularly if they opt for future contact with you it seems odd that your project details do not include a link of this nature. And which department at Portsmouth are you based in? And which body is funding the project btw?

This is the page about the study on the official university website. I checked it was genuine before passing on the link previously, but I don't know any more about it.

https://www.port.ac.uk/research/resea...

Thank you for posting the project web address, Judy, which includes the funding details, etc.

I am in English Literature and my colleagues in Copenhagen are in the Dept of English, Germanic and Romance Studies. 

In terms of data, confidentiality, etc., the survey has a 'Privacy Notice' on p. 2, which includes the following:

'We do not need your name or any identifying details; the questionnaire can be completed anonymously, and all reasonable steps will be taken to ensure confidentiality. At the end of the survey, you may supply your email or telephone number, should you be willing to take part in a follow-up interview. This is entirely voluntary, and any information supplied here will only be used for the purposes of contacting you to arrange an interview.
The processing, management and storage of completed questionnaires will be undertaken in accordance with the University of Portsmouth’s Data Protection Policy and Research Data Management Policy and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)'.

On completion of the project, the data will be deposited and made publicly and freely available from the Portsmouth Research Portal (Pure) in line with the University of Portsmouth’s Data Protection Policy and Research Data Management Policy, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation. The data will be shared under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence to enable unrestricted re-use. The dataset will be allocated a DOI which will be included in data availability statements in all associated publications. The data will also be held for a minimum period of 10 years following the end of the project. After 10 years’ retention on Pure, the data will be reviewed in line with the University of Portsmouth’s Research Data Management Policy: http://policies.docstore.port.ac.uk/p...

The project ends in 2022.

Best wishes,
Ben

Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far. It's fascinating to read all about everyone's lockdown reading.

Best wishes,
Ben

The survey is still open: https://bit.ly/31WmMzC