FAQ

We are recruiting individuals who are (i) at least 18 years old, (ii) use Twitter less than an hour per week or not at all, and (iii) are also active researchers with PhDs (including postdoctoral scholars) or PhD students who have completed their coursework.  We exclude individuals located in a country where Twitter access is currently restricted (China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan, or Uzbekistan).

We are committed to protecting the identity of survey participants.  All data will be kept strictly confidential. No identifiable data will be made publicly available, and all publicized results will be based on aggregated responses. Any document that connects identifying information to the survey responses will be password-protected and accessible only to the research team. After the study is completed, all identifiers will be deleted, and the data will be anonymized.  

Yes, this study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Brandeis University (IRB Protocol #23197R). If you wish to raise any concerns about this study, please contact the IRB at Brandeis University via email at hrpp-group@brandeis.edu. (Please note that Wellesley College contracts with Brandeis University for Institutional Review Board (IRB) services).

This research has not been commissioned by any journal, publisher, association, or private firm. It is being conducted in a fully independent manner.

The email list for this survey was constructed from public contact emails appearing on at least one research paper published in an academic journal since the year 2017 and/or was listed on a public faculty/department website.  For information about academic research exemptions to GDPR, please click here. 

If you would like to stop receiving certain emails (e.g., survey reminders) but still want to be included in the study, please find and click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of such an email. If you wish to discontinue your participation in the entire study, please email us at professional-visibility@illinois.edu and mention that you would like to stop participating in the study. If you also wish to withdraw all of your data from the study, including data from surveys you have already completed, you may do so by emailing professional-visibility@illinois.edu and stating that you would like to withdraw your existing study data. You can do this at any point.

No, it does not. We are aware of the rebranding, but it does not affect the study in any way. In our materials, we will refer to the platform as “Twitter” or “X”.