MRP Mindfulness survey

Who am I?  

The primary researcher involved in this project is Ms Marike Fordonnell. She is a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology student in the Department of Psychology. She is conducting an online study to understand early experiences of mindfulness practice and attitudes, beliefs and intentions towards mindfulness. This research is funded by the University of Bath.    

What is this study about?  

In this study you will be asked to listen to a 10-minute guided mindfulness practice. You will then be asked to complete a brief questionnaire about your attitudes towards mindfulness, and motivation and intentions towards mindfulness. Lastly, there will be a section with demographic information and an option to complete another brief practice. Demographic information will include age, gender and education, however whilst this information would be useful for our research, you do not have to complete any question you feel uncomfortable with.      

Taking part in this research is entirely voluntary, and you are free to make your own choice about whether you want to participate. If you agree to take part you can choose not to answer any questions that you do not want to and you are free to withdraw at any time.  

All survey response data will be anonymous, with no personally identifying information. At the end of the survey you will be auto-redirected to a new page where you can provide details to be paid via bank transfer. This means that your survey responses will be stored separately from and not linked to any payment details. Any payment detail information will be deleted as soon as payment is completed. Note that you are free to withdraw from the study at any time, without having to give a reason. As the data is anonymous from the point it is submitted, data cannot be withdrawn after this point. The data will be used to publish a research study. Apart from this publication, only researchers directly involved in the study will have access to the data. 

What may happen to my data?  

Any personal data you provide (i.e., bank details for bank transfer) will be collected via a separate survey page (therefore, not linked to your survey responses) and deleted as soon as payment is complete. Therefore, the survey data collected from you will be anonymous, with no identifying information. As such, it will not be possible to identify you by name or any other identifying information in any aspect of the data, documentation or reporting from the research study. At the end of the study your anonymised data may be made "openly available". This means that it will be published in an online data repository so that it is discoverable and publicly available.

Publication of research data means that data are made available, free of charge to anyone interested in the research, or who wishes to conduct their own analysis of the data. We will therefore have no control over how these data are re-used after the end of the study. However, all data collected will be anonymous and therefore there will be no way to identify you from the research data.

Publication of research findings and research data in an open format is considered best scientific practice and is a requirement of many funding bodies and scientific journals. As a large proportion of research is publicly funded, the outcomes of the research should be made publicly available. Sharing data allows findings to be tested, to ensure integrity in the research. It also helps to maximise the impact of investment through wider use, encouraging new avenues of research and maximizing the benefit to society.

What do I do if I would like to take part or have any more questions?  

You can contact me, Marike Fordonnell to arrange a suitable time or to discuss any questions you might have.   Email – msod20@bath.ac.uk   Our address is:  Department of Psychology  University of Bath  Claverton Down  Bath, BA2 7AY