From the Open Data Handbook (https://opendatahandbook.org/glossary/en/terms/open-data/), open data “can be freely accessed, used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose - subject only, at most, to requirements to provide attribution and/or share-alike.” You are invited to take part in this study if you are, have been, or may become:
Your participation is voluntary. If you decide to participate, you will be asked to complete the survey. If you do decide to take part in this study, you will be given an opportunity to withdraw from the study, without giving any reasons for your decision, at the end of the survey before your responses are submitted. Please take time to read the following information carefully. If you have any questions, please contact one of the investigators listed at the top of this form.
You are invited to complete a 15-20 minute survey about open data, with both rating and textual response questions.
There are no known or anticipated risks to you by participating in this research. While there are no guaranteed direct benefits to you, our findings could potentially provide information to improve the use of open data and semantic metadata.
Your confidentiality will be respected. The survey responses collected will be published on the web as open data. The results of this study, including analyses of the survey response data may be presented in a scientific meeting or published in a conference proceedings, journal article, or thesis, but your identity will not be disclosed. The data collected in this study are strictly confidential. No identifying information will be collected at any time. We will treat your personal information as confidential although absolute privacy cannot be guaranteed. We collect data through the software Qualtrics, which uses servers with multiple layers of security to protect the privacy of the data (e.g., encrypted websites and password protected storage). Your data will be stored and protected by Qualtrics on servers based in Canada but may be disclosed via a court order or data breach.
Please do not put your name or other identifying information in the questionnaire. Survey response data will be maintained on the secure Qualtrics servers until the survey response period is over. At that time, the responses will be moved to the secure servers at the University of Regina. The downloaded responses will be reviewed for any responses that may inadvertently help to reveal the individual identity of the respondent. This potentially-redacted data will be published as open data on the web, available indefinitely. The original survey response data will be kept for not less than 5 years.
Your participation is voluntary. If you do decide to take part in this study, you are still free to withdraw by not submitting your survey responses. You will be asked explicitly if you would like to withdraw at the end of the survey before responses are submitted. Once your responses are submitted, it will not be possible to remove them because of the survey’s anonymity. If you choose not to participate, this will have no effect whatsoever on your involvement with the researchers.
A summary of the findings once the study has ended will be available at https://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~hepting/projects/open-data/community-survey-2025/. Should you choose to contact the researchers to ask questions, you will no longer be anonymous to the research team; however, we will not be able to link your study responses to you because the survey is anonymous. Study information you provide to us will be anonymous.
By completing and submitting the questionnaire, YOUR FREE AND INFORMED CONSENT IS IMPLIED and indicates that you understand the above conditions of participation in this study.