Participation in this study involves being observed when working on your daily tasks. You will be asked to ‘think aloud’ describing what you are trying to do, why you take specific actions, etc. In addition, the investigator will periodically ask questions to clarify understanding. Following the observations, you may be asked to participate in a focus group or interview (depending on which is more convenient to you). The consent form contains additional detail and is repeated here for your convenience:
Participation in this study requires that you agree to be observed when working on your daily tasks. You will be asked to ‘think aloud’ describing what you are trying to do, why you take specific actions, etc. In addition, the investigator will periodically ask questions to clarify understanding. Following the observations, you may be asked to participate in a focus group or interview. The study will consist of one session during which you will be the only participant present. We will observe you as you interact with the software and will take notes of our observations. If you have no objections, we would like to use various recording mechanisms (videotape, microphone, screen capture) while you are using the software and during the insert interview or focus group should this apply. Audio and video recordings will only ever be reviewed by the investigators. Audio tapes will be transcribed, video tapes will be reviewed and additional observations noted. Upon completion of this study, the recordings will be destroyed. Please indicate your preferences:
• I have no objection to being videotaped.
• I prefer not to be videotaped.
• I have no objection to having my voice recorded.
• I prefer not to have my voice recorded.
• I have no objection to having my screen recorded.
• I prefer not to have my screen recorded.
The following details the amount of time you will need to spend participating in this study. First, you will need to read the consent form (approx. 5 mins). The observation session will last 2 hours. Focus groups are expected to last 1 hour, and interviews are expected to last a ½ hour. We will make every effort to schedule your session at a time that is most convenient for you.
Your participation is completely voluntary. No names or other methods of identifying you in reports will be used. The data will be used to improve future tools to support navigation in ontology editors. It may also be presented in aggregate form in academic papers and presentations. Only trained researchers will be analyzing the data. These researchers are neutral third parties and are not responsible for any evaluation of your work.
In terms of protecting your anonymity, you will be assigned a unique ID so that your identity will only be accessible to the principal researchers. The unique identifiers will be used to aggregate your data but will in no way be used to identify you personally. As mentioned previously, any recordings authorized will be destroyed once they have been transcribed. Information gathered will only ever be reported as an aggregate description, neither you nor your company will be identifiable in the reported results. At no time will anyone be able to identify any of the participants by using any of the reported material. All information disclosed to researchers in this project is confidential. All data will be kept secure and protected at all times in password protected files on a secure server. Study data will be kept for three years. At the end of this time, computer data files will be deleted.
As a way to compensate you for any inconvenience related to your participation, you will be entered into a drawing for an iPod. It is important for you to know that it is unethical to provide undue compensation or inducements to research participants and, if you agree to be a participant in this study, this form of compensation to you must not be coercive. If you would otherwise choose not to participate if the compensation were not offered, then you should decline. You may benefit from this research by gaining insight as to your work practices by reflecting on them and you may also gain insight into how you currently navigate the ontology. There are no known or anticipated risks to you by participating in this research.
If you choose, you can withdraw from the study at any time. To withdraw at any time, you may contact Tricia d’Entremont (tdent@uvic.ca (250) 472-5777). Note, that you may also request to withdraw previously recorded information by contacting the principal investigator (Tricia d’Entremont). If you choose to withdraw at any time, you will still be eligible to win the iPod.
In addition to being able to contact the researchers, you may verify the ethical approval of this study, or raise any concerns you might have, by contacting the Human Research Ethics Office at the University of Victoria by telephone: 250-472-4545 or by email ethics@uvic.ca.