I am currently in the last steps of planning my PhD thesis, which focuses on some aspects of psychedelics. The first part of the project is a survey composed of multiple demographic questions, as well as information and scales about the participants' psychedelic experience.
Since the survey will be available without incentives (given the illegal nature of the topic), and could be a bit lengthy compared to other questionnaires, I am expecting some incomplete answers (most likely due to participant fatigue). Nevertheless, I have done pretty much everything to minimize this (survey as short as possible, estimated completion time, progress line, concise questions, limited open-ended questions etc.)
In my ethics application, I have written that given the illegal and stigmatized nature of the topic, incomplete answers will be treated as a voluntary withdrawal from the study, and the incomplete responses will be deleted as to maximize participant autonomy and privacy. Is this a good way to approach this? If not, what would you recommend?
Hi,
Apart from alcohol and Cannabis (in some areas where it is legal), while doing research on illicit drugs we obtain consent from the subjects for participation. . in the study. The protocol is presented before the Ethics committee for approval, hence the whole process is legal.
Regarding the design, one can use qualitative or semiquantitative methods when you feel that purely quantitative methods are tiring or boring for the participants.
No las desecharia, sobre todo aquellas que tengan el 70% o más porciento del cuestionario respondido y haría las acotaciones pertinentes en el informe final.
Treating incomplete answers as voluntary withdrawal from the study, with the logic that this will maximize participant autonomy and privacy. has ethical decisional implications, which is a "good way" to approach this? You could add qualitative questions to elicit more complete information. A pilot study could show up potentially sensitive questions, and related issues, as well as provide guidelines as to ways to facilitate full disclosure.
I think you are already well anticipate your survey.
Try to focus more on limited open-ended questions
If individuals are being dropped due to lack of response, then isn't the study data technically becoming biased? Is IRB involved? If so, the real question is that the participants don't feel 100% comfortable that the study is confidential. Thus, this leads to other questions also being answered as "not honest" and undermines the entire data. So, what is missing from the study that the participants do not feel 100% comfortable, perhaps, that can be the question in the survey it self, why someone chose not to answer the question.
If there are a few incomplete responses, you can replace them with the mean of the nearest two responses or the mean of the total of that item. However, if the incomplete responses are more, better is to drop the item/question as it will impact your results.
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