Information sheet for participants in MSc/MA Dissertation research

Project title: What are the attitudes and motivations for engaging with digital activism for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the UK?

Researcher(s): Rachel Christie

Supervisor: Barry Maydom
You are invited to take part in this research. This information sheet tells you about the research and what participation will involve. Please take some time to read it carefully. The researcher(s) will be happy to discuss this with you and answer any questions before you decide whether to participate.

Who is carrying out the research?
Rachel Christie

What is the purpose of the research?
I am a student in the MSc Gender, Sexuality and Society programme. This research is for my dissertation. The purpose of the research is to explore the understanding and motivations of engaging with digital activism, specifically in relation to campaigns and movements around Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the UK. This study will be in the form of a quantitative survey and will take 20-30 minutes to complete.

Why have I been invited to take part?
You have been invited to take part in the study because you are at least 18 years old, living in the UK and have used social media.

Do I have to take part in the research?
No: participation is voluntary. If you don’t want to be involved, you don’t have to be. Declining will not cause you any disadvantage.

If you do agree to take part you can not complete a questionnaire or survey at any time without giving a reason.

What does taking part involve?
You will be completing an online survey, you will be asked a series of questions relating to your social media usage and activism, specifically around the social issue of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). As stated, your participation will take approximately 20-30 minutes.

What are the benefits of taking part? What might be difficult about taking part?
There are no material benefits to you of taking part. The costs of taking part in the study include up to 30 minutes of your time for the survey and your participation is voluntary. Some questions will be related to activism around VAWG, as such this may present varying feelings of sensitivity, however you will not be asked about personal experiences with this subject. Should you feel this way you can stop your response, you will also be signposted to helpful organisations at the end.

Will my participation in the research be confidential?
Your participation will be confidential, and I will take care so that what you tell me can’t be linked back to who you are.

Any information you provide is completely confidential, you will create a unique user tag (which will be used to identify your response in the event you wish to withdraw), therefore you are not personally identifiable and no one outside of the researchers will have access to this information. The data generated in the course of the research will be kept securely in paper or electronic form for a period of five years after the completion of the research project.

There are some circumstances in which we cannot promise you confidentiality. If something you said indicated that you or someone else was at an immediate risk of serious harm, then I would have to discuss this with my supervisor and I may then have to share your disclosure with an appropriate person or organisation.

What will be done with the information I provide?
It will be combined with other people’s accounts who have completed the survey for this research and analysed using MANOVA to answer my research aims and objectives.

What will happen to the results of the research?
The research will be written up for my dissertation and may also be written up for academic articles and similar publications. I may also share it at conferences and other talks.

What do I do if I have questions or concerns about my involvement in the research?
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact one or more of the following people:
Professor Karen Wells, Chair of the Faculty of HSS Ethics Committee at k.wells@bbk.ac.uk and/or my supervisor Barry Maydom b.maydom@bbk.ac.uk

Informed consent to participate in this research
If, after reading this information sheet you would like to participate in this research, by proceeding you are consenting to your participation. You have the right to stop your participation at any point up to submission, should you wish to withdraw your response after submission you will have until the 1st July 2024 to email the researcher with your unique tag to do so.