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The IACUC does the same for animal subjects. The material should be visually attractive with a short clear heading in the form of an invitation and may include illustrations. * Be ready to reapply. Students need a lot of time to think about participating. "You might want to use a test that the school doesn't own, and it might be only $10 per use--but who will pay for it?" My name is Tamara, I am a PhD student at the University of Salzburg in Austria. If they know your a priori assumptions, for instance, it may be very difficult for them to provide a contradictory view. If youre like me, for instance, youll hate getting very generic research invites that have obviously just gone out to hundreds of people. Experts offer advice on how to make your IRB approval, participant recruitment and data collection go smoothly. Remember, chances are theyre looking for reasons not to take part rather than reasons to; so you need to consider what the incentives might be and make those explicit. They need to adjust to the idea, figure our their schedules, test whether they trust you, and find out what their friends think. Although you dont want to spam or harass anyone, try sending your solicitation email out on a regular scheduleonce a week, for example. Theres no doubt that some groups of participants are more difficult to recruit than others. So avoid headlines phrases like, Please take part in my research, or Participants needed, or Would you like treatment for your anxiety?. And as with the start of all relationships it needs to be done with care, sensitivity, and attention. Even if that doesnt get you the most participants, its the ethical and right thing to do. It always takes longer.". 3 Questions for Yales New Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives, Jenny Frederick, Ask the Administrator: Trying Not to Hire Jerks, Arizona Global Campus Absorbs Its Outsourced Online Program Manager, New Survey of Student and Parent Views on Value of College, New Paper Finds College Vaccine Mandates Saved Lives, Professor Suspended for Profane Video Agrees to Retire, Eckerd College President Resigns, Citing Exhaustion. I remember, as a kid, having the same feeling when Id spent all my money in the arcades and had to beg random strangers for the tube fare home (in fact, I found it so torturous that my best mate, James, always had to do it!). Usually, it happens after you've written your literature review and decided on your research design and methods. But if, after a few weeks, youre still not getting any eligible volunteers, it might make sense to start looking at what adjustments you might want to make. Additionally, they should be short; the subject box should contain a short description of the study. The information, materials, opinions or other content (collectively Content) contained in this blog have been prepared for general information purposes. If your recruitment strategies arent working, dont panic! Ukraine: Statement from the Interim Vice-Chancellor, Looking for Bright Sparks: Engineers to teach Physics in new project, Humanities team gets positively disruptive with festival funding win, International students work with Wolves to extend esports reach in India, University science festival back with a bang, Our thinkers, educators and innovators are on hand to ensure your business continues to thrive during unprecedented times, CLASS OF 2021: Sam takes control of her future to build a career in Surveying. With your IRB approval in hand, you're ready to start signing up participants. Head of Department) responsible for use of the list, or her/his authorised deputy. This project contributes to University of Wolverhamptons role in conducting research, and teaching research methods. Recruitment materials are, essentially, the adverts that you put out there to attract interest. That strategy is perfectly legitimate, says Leach, but comes with pitfalls such as the stress of coordinating and being one step away from your data. Finally, on this point re anonymity, prospective participants may be much more likely to respond to you if they can get a sense of you, as a person, rather than as an unknown name on a flyer. Ask what students can learn about/for themselves when they participate. Not all members of the IRB or IACUC will be psychologists, and none may be experts in your subject area, says University of Wisconsin psychology professor Charles Snowdon, PhD. I am a researcher from the University of Essex and I am running a research study that involves photographing food that you eat and throw away for 8 days. Sometimes students look at the proposal defense as an adversarial situation, says recent psychology graduate Ryan Martin, PhD: "It's like they say 'I have to go in and prove myself to this committee.'" * Cost and expense. Depending on your research and IRB regulations, you may have less flexibility in meeting students or soliciting face-to-face. That, of course, makes the recruitment process more time consuming, but its generally worth the payoff: more prospective participants, and prospective participants who feel welcomed into the research, respected, and understood. You are under no obligation to reply to this post, however if you choose to, participation in this research is voluntary and you may withdraw at any time.'. * Explain your research rationale in layperson's terms. All communications to members of the University community or the wider public that ask for volunteers for research participation must include the following information: Recruitment of participants should be undertaken in such a way that participation is truly voluntary and there is no coercion, either explicit or implicit. Jasmine Childs-Fegredo, a colleague on our PsychD team at the University of Roehampton says: In a qualitative study for example, you might be asking people quite personal, and possibly even potentially distressing questions, about their past experiences. Martin agrees that relying on others to collect data has its downside: "I did it, and it worked out fine for me," he says, "my research assistants did an outstanding job. Maybe this is just for the introverts amongst us, but I remember, when running psychology experiments for my PhD, just how excruciatingly embarrassed I felt asking people to take partI wanted to die inside. Be clear and concrete about what people should do next if theyre interested. Thanks to trainees and tutors on the PsychD Counselling Psychology Programme at the University of Roehampton for suggestions and advice. I enthusiastically wrote an email and survey soliciting study participants, triumphantly clicked send, and sat back and waited for the volunteers to roll in. If you are planning to conduct research in England which potentially involves research participants identified in the context of, or in connection with, their past or present use of NHS services (either as practitioners or clients), you are likely to need NHS REC approval. Adequate information for making contact should be given. If, like me, you have a resting bitch face, or tend to write quite curt emails, then think about ways of conveying a warmer and more welcoming invite. Of course, as above, you dont want to be pushy, and you also need to be explicit about any potential risks. If the participants cant see/know the researcher, ask a colleague to solicit or give out surveys on your behalf. So, for instance, if you can go along and do a talkeven 5 minsat a service user group, or chat to people over a conference poster, that might really help with response rates. Circular emails should meet with all requirements in guidelines for posters. Recruitment will not happen to you. Reddit: again, think about groups (subreddits) that may be specific to the topic youre focusing on. My name is Tamara, I am a PhD student at the University of Salzburg in Austria. "My advice is that anything that is out of your control is scary," he says, "so if you have the data in hand when you go on internship, you're in a much better place.". If only! "If you decide you need 15, you'll need to file an amendment. But eight from Facebook and one from snowballing leaves the latter a bit of an odd man out. We dont know if their responses are specific to them or to the strategy they were recruited through. Some advice he and others offer: * Consider the availability of the population you want to study. See if there is a way for students in psychology classes to get extra credit for participating. Waiting for IRB approval can be a frustrating experience, as it can take anywhere from several weeks to several months, says Ryan Martin, PhD, a recent graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. "I've had students who say 'I'll write up the IRB form and I want to start data collection next week,'" he says. Try sending an email with a blurb about you and your research, so the students can get to see the person behind the request. in the message header) the individual identities of other recipients. Length of notices and other written materials is another challenge. Think of creative ways to stretch your limited research dollars, says Axelrod. I was asking students to give up their valuable time and privacy to a stranger, and shouldnt have been surprised that only one student volunteered from solicitation emails alone. Different programs have different expectations about how students should prepare for the proposal defense, says neuropsychologist Bradley Axelrod, PhD, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Detroit. But theres another, third, reason why recruitment can be so difficult: because, for us as researchers too, it can just feel so incredibly awkward. With proactiveness, persistence, and creativity, youll get there for sure. If you are wanting to recruit clients into your study, one way of reaching them is through counsellors and psychotherapists. Tailor your materials to the specific audiences. Find intuitive, user-focused software for surveys. For more information about using archival data, see the article "New uses for old data" in the September 2004 gradPSYCH. Pay attention to the details of the IRB process--like what forms are due when and what precise information is required, says Leach. This has to be done with extreme sensitive, though, and without in any way breaching confidentiality. "A lot of people assume that, especially if they use the undergraduate participant pool, they'll get it done in two weeks. Give it a bit of time and see what emerges. This can be done on software like Word or Excel and, in most cases, is something you should be detailing in your ethics submission in any case. Sufficient information should be given for potential participants to know roughly what is involved. Where applicable, the subject box should contain a short description of the study, and the post should start with the sentence: Information regarding recruitment of volunteers for study [Title]. Also, he suggests, look for creative ways to compensate nonundergraduate participants for their time. "When I did my dissertation research I found participants at senior centers," he says, "and I said that for every 10 people who signed up I'd donate $20 to the coffee fund. The dissertation proposal defense is the first formal meeting of your dissertation committee. Be prompt in emailing students back, and send follow-up emails if you dont hear from them. A research or clinical supervisor, for instance, might have a wide network of people theyd be willing to forward an email on to, or to post on their social media sites. The University email address and phone number of the researcher or student (personal e-mail addresses or telephone numbers should not be used). "Usually, that's not going to happen." That means it's time to decide whether you want to work alone or with research assistants, and to get down to the nitty-gritty of what your timeline and expenses will be. My Course Director, Mark, thought I should end this blog on an upbeat note, and hes absolutely right. Theres many different strategies through which you can try and recruit participants, and generally Id say over do it rather than under do it. The use of indirect approaches rather than face to face individual requests to potential volunteers is generally preferred, although it is also understood that the nature of the research may not lend itself to indirect approaches. Remember, too, that of the many people who are potentially available to take part, many wont. And like any adverts, they have to be carefully thought through. Have you got a spare hour and time to read information sheets and fill in consent forms. studies). Later use of lists not envisaged in the application must be notified to the Faculty Ethics Committee. When there are a large number of inclusion/exclusion criteria it is sufficient to state any generalisable criteria within the poster and include more specific details in the Information Sheet so as not to confuse or put off potential participants. If no one is showing any interest, it generally makes senseat least initiallyto stick with your participant group and look at additional, or alternative, strategies for recruitment. Remember that youre part of a wider research community, and successful enquiry, across the board, requires research participants to feel like they are valued participants in that processnot just subjects that get discarded when the research is done. Again, no right answers; but being open to adjusting your design, where necessary, can be a real advantage. Look for small grants outside of mainstream funding sources, he suggests. When recruitment is to take place door-to-door, it is expected that potential participants are made aware of the study in advance. The experience taught him a lesson. One workable option may be to ask psychotherapists and counsellors to pass on a flyer to their clients giving them information about your study, and then the clients can contact you, in their own time, if they are interested. Why is it so hard to recruit for your study? Keep surveys short and to the point. You can follow her on twitter@slhedge. So write in a way everyone can understand. Participant recruitment its the make-or-break of many a research project, so its surprising that its not addressed more in the literature. Make it as easy as possible for potential participants to follow through. Its an obvious thing to reiterate, but its essential to treat prospective participants with courtesy and respect. If your prospective participants are anything like me, theyll be really put off by misspelt emails or slapdash flyers which seems to change font half way through. You dont want to put people under pressure to take part, or feel coerced in any way. A student who wants to study some aspect of arthritis, for example, might look to the National Arthritis Association for support. The text of such posts or tweets should be submitted for approval along with that for traditional media. A researcher working on, say, intelligence and another working on memory could sign up participants together and administer both memory and intelligence tests during the session, thus doubling the number of participants in their studies. That is, given the challenges of finding participants, explore and identify a wider range of strategies than you may actually need, rather than cautiously and conservatively just choosing one or two. Applications for ethical approval must provide information about the proposed use of email lists, whether existing or created specifically for the project. I guess I'm seeing participant recruitment as part and parcel of a wider mindset and epistemology required for projects that might involve highly personal, painful, or sensitive material. "If it's for convenience only, that's probably not a strong enough reason," he says. Can a high school teacher ruin an applicant's chances? So, as a general principal for successful recruitment, a key thing is to be proactive. Ethically, theres a lot that you may want/have to say, but it can easily be overwhelming and off-putting for participants if its too much, too soon. And difficulties over recruitment are one of the main reasons why people have to extend their research projectssometimes by years. Indeed, experts advise students to at the minimum complete their dissertation proposal defense before internship. This is a guest post by Stephanie Hedge, a PhD Candidate at Ball State University in Rhetoric and Composition. Here are some things to think about: * Concurrent data collection. Again, though, the value of conducting research with such clients may outweigh the additional demands. Incentives dont arent just participate for a chance to win a $5 iTunes card!, although they can be. Communicate your passion and excitement for your work, and for learning from your prospective participants. But there are lots of ways to encourage student participation beyond spending money. * Find out what your chair and committee expect. Here, you may need to balance the coherence and homogeneity that comes from having participants from just one source, against the greater recruitment possibilities that come from broadening things out. Virtual mailing lists and email facilities in the VLE, which allow contact with specific groups of students, and are accessible to academic and administrative staff, may only be used to recruit research participants when the researcher has demonstrated through the application for ethical approval that participation would be beneficial to students, for example by giving them experience of research methods in their discipline. Still, I found it to be unnecessarily stressful trying to stay on top of it--I wish I had gotten my data collected before internship.". Supervisors are busy people and may not be able to see you immediately, but its always worth getting an advance meeting in the diary with them to discuss where you are in your recruitment strategy. My directions were too complicated, and mired in dense IRB language. Dont be pushy. Where student data is being used as part of the research the continued access and utilisation of the data must be expressly approved by the Academic Registrar after discussion with the Dean of Faculty and then approved by the Ethics Committee. So submit your paperwork well in advance of when you'd like to start collecting data. Small wonder, then, that few students bothered to click through to the survey itself, particularly given that the link is buried down at the bottom. If strategies dont seem to be successful, strike them out and, where relevant, develop others (but dont forget that those new strategies might need ethical approval). For instance, three participants recruited through Facebook and six from snowball sampling can be fine, and you might even be able to say something about the differences between them. Even though he needed only 20 participants, it took him two years to collect the data. Photo: Maya, by Daniel Walford. Many IRBs meet only once per month or even every couple of months, says Leach. Online recruitment sites (mechanical Turks), like Prolific, where you pay people to complete your survey (this is mainly just for large scale, quantitative (and funded!) The experiRead More Hi, If you can align your research with the specific wants and needs of an organisationfor instance, if it will provide evidence on their service effectivenessthey may be particularly keen to support you in it. The bottom line, Leach says, is that collecting data takes time. Posters and leaflets may be used to recruit participants. A really systematic way to think recruitment through is with a written recruitment plan. * Double the time you think it will take. Teaming up with another student can greatly expand your participant pool, says Axelrod. Look for opportunities where participating in your project can benefit students as much as possible. "The committee can bring that to their attention. A statement that the research has been approved by the relevant Ethics Committee. That means that I am not responsible for, nor will be liable for any losses incurred as a result of anyone relying on the Content contained in this blog, on this website, or any external internet sites referenced in or linked in this blog. * Who will collect your data. Its as if, once youve chosen your research questions, decided on your methodology, and obtained ethical approval, you just close your eyes and, as if with a sprinkling of fairy dust, your data appears. You also need to make sure that the therapists clients are not feeling under any pressure to participate: deference effects means that clients may feel obliged to say yes to their therapists, even if they dont want to. Also, if you change any aspect of your study, you'll need to file an amendment with the IRB before you can continue your research, says Snowdon. This is true even if the member of staff transfers their studies, based on this data, to another HEI. They are impersonal, dry, and long. Its best not to just leave things, and expect things to get better without some support. Ask instructors for their help publicizing and sharing the details of your project. And finally, dont be weird. You can then use that to track recruitment once youve started. Some may expect elaborate, PowerPoint-enhanced presentations while others aim for a free-flowing conversation. Researchers who work with nonhuman subjects should be particularly careful to explain their reasoning and methods, adds Snowdon, who works with nonhuman primates. Whilst Ive endeavoured to ensure the Content is current and accurate, the Content in this blog is not intended to constitute professional advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances. "Studying a low-frequency population might be a career, but often it's not a dissertation," he says. But it does mean taking active steps to make recruitment happen, being on top of it, and pushing throughwhere appropriateyour own embarrassment or awkwardness barrier. Prospective participants may also be reluctant to take part because what were inviting them to do is hard, emotionally as well as cognitively. Its an obvious thing to say, and weird can mean many different things to different people, but if a prospective participants wants to feel assured that its safe to take part, its best to keep quirkiness in how you approach people, and what you put on your recruitment materials, to a minimum. [Image by Flickr userroboppyand used under Creative Commons license]. A good starting point is to think where the participants you are looking for may be most likely to congregate. You dont want to come across as too mechanistic or formal (it can feel intimidating), but too informal can also feel overly-casual and potentially unsafe. He and other psychologists offer a few IRB tips: * It's all in the details. I am a researcher from the University of Essex and I am running a research study that involves photographing food that you eat and throw away for 8 days. Recently, says Leach, he's noticed that more clinical psychology students are collecting their dissertation data during their internship year, and thus relying on undergraduate or other research assistants to run the experiment. This can be a time consuming process (3-6 months or more) and one that should be built into any research timeline. As emphasised throughout this blog, trust is everything! Recruiting Research Participants: Some Pointers, How to (almost) Fail a PhD: A Personal Account, Applying for a PhD in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Some Pointers, Factors influencing recruitment to research: qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of research teams, Swiss chocolate and free beverages to increase the motivation for scientific work amongst residents: a prospective interventional study in a non-academic teaching hospital in Switzerland, Overcoming barriers to recruiting ethnic minorities to mental health research: a typology of recruitment strategies, Recruitment and retention of older minorities in mental health services research. Be sensitive: for instance, putting a research request on Twitter for people who have been traumatised could trigger all sorts of responses in some peoplemany of whom may never actually get in contact with you. With this issue, theres no right answers; but one thing I would say is to try and have a few from each if you can. The rest of the hour or so is devoted to a question and answer session. Dont forget that, if your research is conducted digitally (e.g., video conferencing interviews or a web-based survey), you might want to consider recruiting internationally. E-mail requests for research participation should not disclose to participants (e.g. All recruitment emails should include a statement to indicate that use of the mailing list to recruit participants has received ethical approval (including the name of the relevant committee). Having said that, help participants see the potential benefits of taking part: to themselves, to the therapeutic field, to their wider communities. List each of the different strategies/channels youre going to use for recruitment (for instance, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, emails, approaching voluntary organisations), what youre going to say, when youre going to do it, and any other relevant details. Understandably, people may be less likely to respond to your research request if they dont know who you are. "When she told me about this, I realized that I know a woman who runs a crisis and short-term counseling center for abused women near the university, and I put them in touch," he says.