The Role of Supplementary Material in Journal Articles QT

NCT02961036 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: ThinkWell
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 2,872
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Questionnaires are frequently used in online research, however recruiting, and completion rates of online participants from a variety of cultures and demographic backgrounds can be challenging. The challenge is greater in an online cohort because there is no way to observe the participant beyond what is contributed online. Poor recruiting and completion can result in underpowered research that may not be representative of the sample population. This can trigger an increase in costs as the recruitment period may have to be extended until sample size is reached. When recruiting and completion rates are inadequate studies may have to be terminated and the answer to the research question can remain unknown. To mitigate these challenges, incentives may be offered in the form of gift certificate draws. There is uncertainty about whether this strategy is effective in online research and if the value of the incentive alters the outcome. A randomised trial can be used to test the intervention to establish an evidence base. This study (SupMatQT) proposes to link with a large 20,000 person international cohort study (SupMat) that will test the utility and preferences of journal supplementary materials for reviewers, authors,and readers. The research described here will examine the evidence of effect for offering a prize draw incentive on rates of recruitment, and completion for consented participants. All participants will be entered in the draw. Information about the value of the incentive of a prize draw will differ according to what group a participant is randomized to. The entry in the prize draw will not be conditional on levels of participation or group allocation. The other question researchers will address is what effect do survey reminders have on outcomes? All non-responders will be sent an initial reminder to complete the survey (Group A) and for those who have still not responded a second reminder will be sent 14 days later (Group B). Outcomes will be compared at three time points: for initial response, following reminder 1(Group A), and following reminder 2 (Group B).

Conditions

Incentive

Keywords

Surveys and Questionnaires

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Completion

  proportion of questions completed in the questionnaire

  Duration of study up to 60 days

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Recruitment

  Duration of study up to 60 days

Study Arms (7)

Group 1 Information

EXPERIMENTAL

Group 1 Information about the prize draw incentive for 100% of an Amazon gift (or currency equivalent) in the invitation letter.

Other: Group 1 information

Group 2 Information

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Group 2 Information about the prize draw incentive for 75% of an Amazon gift (or currency equivalent) in the invitation letter.

Other: Group 2 information

Group 3 Information

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Group 3 Information about the prize draw incentive for 50% of an Amazon gift (or currency equivalent) in the invitation letter.

Other: Group 3 information

Group 4 Information

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Group 4 Information about the prize draw incentive for 25% of an Amazon gift (or currency equivalent) in the invitation letter.

Other: Group 4 information

Group 5 No Information

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Group 5 No Information incentive for an Amazon gift certificate (or currency equivalent) in the invitation letter.

Other: Group 5 no information

Group A reminder

EXPERIMENTAL

One survey reminder at 14 days

Other: Group A Reminder

Group B reminders

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Two survey reminders 14 days and 28 days

Other: Group B Reminders

Interventions

Group 1 information OTHER

Group 1 prize draw information for participants to win 100% of an Amazon gift card (or currency equivalent) in invitation letter.

Group 1 Information

Group 2 information OTHER

Group 2 prize draw information for participants to win 75% of an Amazon gift card (or currency equivalent) in invitation letter.

Group 2 Information

Group 3 information OTHER

Group 3 prize draw information for participants to win 50% of an Amazon gift card (or currency equivalent) in invitation letter.

Group 3 Information

Group 4 information OTHER

Group 4 prize draw information for participants to win 25% of an Amazon gift card (or currency equivalent) in invitation letter.

Group 4 Information

Group 5 no information OTHER

Group 5 no Information for participants to enter a draw to win an Amazon gift card (or currency equivalent) in invitation letter.

Group 5 No Information

Group A Reminder OTHER

One survey reminder at 14 days

Group A reminder

Group B Reminders OTHER

Two survey reminders one at 14 days and one at 28 days

Group B reminders

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Part of SupMat Research
• Corresponding authors of BMJ Group full-length original research submissions in 2013
• BMJ Group Reviewers who completed a review of a manuscript for "original research", "research" or "paper" in 2014.
• BMJ authors, reviewers, and reviewers with a viable email address

You may not qualify if:

• Not Part of SupMat Research
• Potential participants who have opted out of BMJ communications
• Participants in BMJ surveys within the last 6 months

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ThinkWell: lead
• The BMJ: collaborator
• University of Oxford: collaborator
• Queen's University, Belfast: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

ThinkWell

Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX4 4DN, United Kingdom

Location

Related Publications (7)

• Asch DA, Jedrziewski MK, Christakis NA. Response rates to mail surveys published in medical journals. J Clin Epidemiol. 1997 Oct;50(10):1129-36. doi: 10.1016/s0895-4356(97)00126-1.

  PMID: 9368521 BACKGROUND

• Kenyon J, Sprague N, Flathers E. The Journal Article as a Means to Share Data: a Content Analysis of Supplementary Materials from Two Disciplines. J Librarianship Scholarly Community 2016;4:eP2112. doi:10.7710/2162-3309.2112

  BACKGROUND

• Baruch Y, Holtom BC. Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. Hum Relations 2008;61:1139-60. doi:10.1177/0018726708094863

  BACKGROUND

• Cobanoglu C. The effect of incentives in web surveys : application and ethical considerations. Int J Mark Res 2003;45:475-88.

  BACKGROUND

• Beebe L. Supplemental materials for journal articles: NISO/NFAIS working group. Information Standards Quarterly 2010;22:33-7. doi:10 .3789/isqv22n3.2010.07

  BACKGROUND

• Education section - Studies Within A Trial (SWAT). J Evid Based Med. 2012 Feb;5(1):44-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-5391.2012.01169.x. No abstract available.

  PMID: 23528122 BACKGROUND

• Price A, Schroter S, Clarke M, McAneney H. Role of supplementary material in biomedical journal articles: surveys of authors, reviewers and readers. BMJ Open. 2018 Sep 24;8(9):e021753. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021753.

  PMID: 30249629 RESULT

Study Officials

• Mike Clarke, PhD

  Queens University Belfast

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 5, 2016
• First Posted: November 10, 2016
• Study Start: November 15, 2016
• Primary Completion: February 15, 2017
• Study Completion: February 25, 2019
• Last Updated: March 22, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)