Hi Sanaz: generally, it is best if you can settle with your IRB or any other supervisionary person/office on a common pratice: simply use a submit button with the wording "I agree" or "I consent" at the end of the consent form. Only if this button is pressed a participant can advance to the next page of the study. Authenticication (if needed) can then be managed within the study. Another option is, of course, a PDF file of the consent form you ask potential participants to print, sign, and fax or mail back along with a copy of an ID. This procedure, however, is more burdensome for all parties and more susceptible to leaking participants' personal data during the communication. A variant of the second option above is that first you send individual codes to those you invite to your study. No personal information is transmitted, so it can not fall into the hands of third parties. Provided you use a safe way of communication the codes further ensure with a high probability that indeed only those you sent them to do participate, and you can identify each participant. Also, you will know who attempted to participate multiple times or passed the code to others as well. Of course, with this option - as with most others - you can not be absolutely sure that it is indeed the person you contacted who participates. There are more options, but the ones above suffice for most online studies. Best wishes --u At 22:18 Uhr +0100 2.5.2011, Sanaz Raji wrote:
Hi:
I'd appreciate any advice from AoIR members. Are there any programs that allow for participants to easily give an electronic signature for consent forms online? If not, I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to go about getting participants to submit a completed online consent form with a signature included?
Many thanks for your help.
Best wishes: Sanaz --- Sanaz Raji ICS PhD Scholar Institute of Communications Studies University of Leeds Mobile: +44 (0) 785 4706 374 ICS URL: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/details.cfm?id=185&susername=cssr Guardian URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sanaz-raji _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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