I'd feel more comfortable about this if (a) you were posting from a
University of Virginia email address, (b) your survey were hosted on a
University of Virginia server, and (c) your consent screen included an
HIC number and contact information from the committee that approved your
protocol.

As someone who has a degree in psychology and has been involved in
research I have a couple of concerns about this post:

1- the use of a free email address and not a UVa email address. I almost
went to UVa (a long time ago), and I don't imagine that this is standard
practice.

2- The survey being hosted offsite - UVa has the facilities to run this
survey from within the UVa domain, as other universities doing this type
of research do. This ensures the confidentiality of people responding to
the survey.

These are the reasons I'm not responding to this survey.

Regards,

Ari

Karen Schmidt wrote:

Then why are you using a yahoo address rather than UV.EDU?

This smells more rotten that weeks-old garbage....something that
an address reaper would use to verify their validity.

... Spam, spam, spam, spam and eggs.

I emailed the Karen Schmidt listed at the bottom of the post.  She is listed
as a faculty member at UVA in the Psyc dept on the virginia.edu site.  Being
an alum, I wanted to be sure that the whole thing was legit, and if not, she
can work on tracking down the spammers!

Mary Margaret Wilson
UVA Education 1982

Here is K. Schmidt's response to my inquiry about the legitimacy of this
posting.

Dear Ms. Wilson,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I have listed my replies to your
enumerated queries, for your convenience.

First, I will cut and past the second page of the introductory letter
(which spans 2 pages; your clip included only the first page) which
describes our support contact at the Institutional Review Board at The
University of Virginia.
The consent page includes this information in between the vertical "..." :
.
.
.
If you have questions about the study, contact:
Karen Schmidt, Rm. 126, 1023 Millmont Road, P.O. Box 400871,
Charlottesville, VA 22904.
Telephone: (434) 924-0694; kmm4f@virginia.edu.

Juliana Schroeder, Rm. 126, 1023 Millmont Road, P.O. Box 400871,
Charlottesville, VA 22904.
Telephone: (434) 924-0694; jrs7cm@virginia.edu

If you have questions about your rights in the study, contact:
Dr. Pryor Hale, Chair, Institutional Review Board for the Social and
Behavioral Sciences
One Morton Dr Suite 500
University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800392
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0392
Telephone: (434) 924-5999
Email: irbsbshelp@virginia.edu
Website: www.virginia.edu/vprgs/irb
.
.
.
In addition, our approved protocol number is #2005036200. My assistant is
in the process of adding this number to the introductory pages.

1. We use a "yahoo" account to keep my ITC storage quotas under control and
organized; I receive hundreds of emails each day, from various sources. My
research assistant and I both access this account. Any other account
created at UVa would be in my name, using my personal storage quota, which
is already at a maximum. Unless personal quotas are relaxed, I see no other
option for the email source. Hosting the survey on a UVa server was not an
option at this time; this would require hiring a costly programmer to
create, maintain, and modify the survey. Survey Monkey is a user-friendly
and cost-efficient service that allows the researcher to type in his/her
materials for the survey and modify them without having learned a complex
web-programming language. Several of my UVa Psychology colleagues use
Survey Monkey for the same purposes.
2. My answers to #1 cover the concerns raised in #2.
3. Same as #1.

We are sorry that our approach has made you uncomfortable, and raise doubts
about the legitimacy of our study. We appreciate your concerns, and will
add the protocol number to the introductory pages. We are happy to address
the questions that you and other group members may have about our study.

Thank you,
Karen Schmidt