Wikipedia:Research recruitment/Requests for approval/example

Contact information
Principal investigator (real name): Josh Parris
Affiliation CGNU LA (Crazy Go Nuts University, Los Angles campus)
Wikipedia username Josh Parris
Institutional review board approval (if applicable)
Board jurisdiction LA county
Contact (phone or email) lac-irb@cgnu.edu.us
Identification number 828299912-3884823#993294/38929.b3
Study information

I don't know what this means

Study description

The participants will undertake an adaptive questionnaire to measure IQ; an adaptive questionnaire to measure English comprehension; a graphic test of hand-eye coordination; a graphical test for reaction time; a physical exam to measure eye colour, height, shoe size, Body Mass Index, waist measurement and skin hue; positron levels will be obtained, and a time-scored test of participant's ability to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow inside an oscillating gravimetric disturbance (contained to within 30 Newtons of Earth standard). This will be correlated to the participant's edit count, adjusted for previous measurements.

Possible harms to Wikipedia/Wikipedians
  • 30 Newtons of gravimetric disturbance is LD10 for certain ethnic populations
  • If a participant dies, that reduces the editor count and Wikipedia could miss its deadline
Time required from each participant

Approximately four days.

User sample criteria

Active, experienced editors (Editors with more than 1000 edits who have edited within the last seven days) who have the "this user uses FireFox to contribute" edit box on their user page.

Who do you propose to generate the user sample? How?

I hope a volunteer will assist me. I don't really understand computers.

Description of the type and number of Wikipedia users requested for the study

type of Wikipedia users?

27

What factors may cause the failure of your study?

If I get below 12 participants my thesis adviser will kick me in the shins, killing me.

Previous research in Wikipedia

Why are these questions asked? To gain credibility?

What are the details of your previous research of Wikipedia without user interaction?

What are the details of your previous research of Wikipedia with user interaction?

When and where will you publish your results? Will they be easily accessible to Wikipedia users? Will you be leaving the access details on this page? How will you make your study available if it is not accepted for publication? Will you make the raw data available for other researchers? How?

My thesis, as with all CGNU thesi, will be published on the GCNU web server when accepted by my review panel. Yes, I will be leaving access details on this page when that happens. I will put my thesis up on my personal website in the event that my review goes poorly. Anonymous raw data will be included as an appendix.

What date is proposed recruitment will commence?

2009-12-16

What date is proposed for the study to no longer accept participants?

2009-12-30

What is the text you propose to be included in the recruitment message?

My doctoral thesis is on the predictive factors of Wikipedia editors' contributions - do people who work well under pressure and use FireFox make large contributions to Wikipedia? Help find out by participating in my study. All travel expenses will be paid to attend our testing facility in sunny Los Angeles, and you can swim in my jacuzzi.