PD-Net Ethical Worksheet

This worksheet documents a particular experiment within PD-Net that is covered by one or more Study Process Templates (SPTs). It is used for documentation purposes and forms part of the corresponding deliverable in which this experiment took place. It helps researchers within PD-Net to ensure that all personal information collected and processed in PD-Net is treated in accordance with the project’s ethical guidelines and the feedback from its ethical advisory board (EAB).

Study Information

Study Title

Give a concise title to your study that describes the particular problem you are investigating in your experiment and/or field study.

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Brief Description

Describe your experiment in a few sentences (no more than 3-4 sentences). The description should include the problem you are trying to address and the methods you are planning to use.

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Planned Duration

How long (start, finish, duration) do you plan to run these experiments and/or field studies for?

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Work Package

What PD-Net work package(s) does this work fall in?

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Project Staff

Principle Researcher, Institution

Who are the principle researchers responsible for this experiment/study (incl. institution)?

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Other Staff (Project Members)

Name all personnel involved in this set of experiments/field studies. This may also include project members from other institutions,

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External Staff

Name all personnel involved in this set of experiments/field studies. This may also include project members from other institutions, as well as external researchers.

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Aims and Methods

Goals and Research Questions

What are the goals of this research effort? What research questions do you hope to be able to answer with this set of experiments? Please be as specific as possible.

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Envisioned Methods (Planned Experiments and Studies)

Describe the set of experiments and/or field studies that you are planning to conduct within the scope of this research effort. If there is an order to the experiments, enumerate them in order. Otherwise list them as bullet points in no particular order. Be as specific as possible (e.g. instead of “interviews” write “online interviews through SurveyMonkey” or “Student focus groups on campus”…)

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Study Type and ID

Select the type of study and if appropriate enter a reference to the guidelines used. If the experiment does not fit into one of the existing PD-NET categories select “Other” and contact the coordinator in order to verify if additional EAB input is needed.

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Observational Studies and Interviews (follow local best practices)

Volunteer Studies (follow local best practices and see guidelines)

Public Trials (follow local best practices and see guidelines)

Others (describe and contact coordinator in case additional ethics advice req.):
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Adequacy of Methods

Briefly explain why the experimental methods indicated above are adequate for the research questions

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Subjects and Recruitment Process (if any)

Who are the subjects of your research, and how are you planning to recruit them? Be as specific as possible. Note that you might not require recruitment if you are simply planning observations in public.

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Data to be Collected

What information are you collecting in your experiments? Try to be as inclusive and specific as possible, listing all potential data types that you might be interested in collecting. If you are not collecting identifiable information from your subjects, state this here, but still list the (anonymous) data that you are planning to collect.

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Risks and Precautions

Potential Risks

Try to envision the risks that your data collection might pose to your data subjects. What if the data you collected would wind up on the Internet, together with your subjects’ real name and contact info? Could they suffer problems at work if their employers would find this information? What if hackers would be able to break into your system and steal your data collection? Would they be able to commit criminal acts with this information?

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Planned Precautions

Given the risks you identified in question 4.2, what precautions will be taken by you and your team in order to prevent data leakage? Try to be as specific as possible. You can also refer to your description of data storage in the next section.

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Data Storage and Processing

Storage Locations

Describe where each of the data enumerated under 3.6 will be stored. Also consider potential backup processes.

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Access Control

Explain how access to the data is regulated. Try to be as specific as possible. Use the PD-Net Guide to Secure Storage Document for guidance, but make sure to describe your actual implementation of these guidelines here.

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Data Processing

Describe how the collected data will be used. What kind of statistics will be assembled, what kind of qualitative information extracted, what kind of information combined?

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Data Anonymization

If some or all of your data will be anonymized or pseudonymized, explain how you do this. What algorithms will be used for the anonymization, and what guarantees do they offer? How are pseudonymous identifiers generated and where is lookup information (if any) for those pseundonymizers kept?

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Data Retention

How long will you keep personally identifiable information (PII)?

No PII will be kept

3 months after study finishes

3 months after results have been first published*

3 months after PD-Net finishes

Others (describe): Click here to enter text.

*Or within 3 months after PD-Net finishes, if results are not published until end of the project

Ethical Checklist

Use the checklist below for a quick overview of the ethical issues in your planned experiment.

Aspect	Yes	No
1.	Informed Consent Form Needed? If yes, attach. If no, justify here by overwriting this text.
2.	Deception Used? If yes, justify here by overwriting this text
3.	Private Information collected? (c.f. to 3.6. for list of data items)
4.	Subjects Remunerated? If yes, enter amount here by overwriting this text.
5.	Involvement of Children, Patients, People with Cognitive Disorders? If you answer yes to this question, you must explicitly consult with the EAB!
6.	Internal IRB Review Needed? If yes, attach feedback after obtained

Worksheet Versioning

Provide date, authorship, and changes made to this specific worksheet in the history table below.

Date	Author	Comment
Date	Author	Initial Version
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