PARTICIPANT/PRIVACY INFORMATION
TITLE OF PROJECT: ‘The Consent is Positive Project‘
AKA
A Digital, Interactionist, Praxis
Study of Perception and Communication of Positive Sexual Consent
INVITATION
The University of Worcester engages in a wide range of research which seeks to provide greater understanding of the world around us, to contribute to improved human health and well-being and to provide answers to social, economic and environmental problems.
We would like to invite you to take part in one of our research projects. Before you decide whether to take part, it is important that you understand why the research is being done, what it will involve for you, what information we will ask from you, and what we will do with that information.
We will in the course of this project be collecting personal information. The UK continues to be bound by the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016, which is now the “UK GDPR”. Under UK GDPR, we are required to provide a justification (what is called a “legal basis”) in order to collect such information. The legal basis for this project is “task carried out in the public interest”. Since the personal information we will be collecting in this project is defined under GDPR as “special category” data, that is more sensitive data requiring greater protection, we must identify an additional legal basis. This additional legal basis is “necessary for scientific research in accordance with safeguards”.
You can find out more about our approach to dealing with your personal information here.
Please take time to read this document carefully.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH?
This study is designed to find out, from people who are sexually intimate, how they go about establishing and maintaining consent in
their relationship. We aim to find out how we communicate our sexual consent to people and how we perceive it in others. The focus is that shared experience which is why we are asking people to talk about it together.
WHO IS UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH?
Holly Barnes-Bennetts– PhD Researcher, Sole Researcher
WHO HAS OVERSIGHT OF THE RESEARCH?
The research has been approved by the Research Ethics Panel for the College of Humanities in line with the University’s Research Ethics Policy. The University of Worcester acts as the “Data Controller” for personal data collected through its research projects and is subject to the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our Data Protection Officer is Helen Johnstone (infoassurance@worc.ac.uk). For more on our approach to Information Assurance and Security click here.
WHO CAN TAKE PART?
Participants must all be aged 18 or over. Other than that, this research is very open to participants, all you need is two (or more) of you who currently, or previously share/d sexual consent. Everyone involved must completely understand and consent to what is involved in the research.
No matter your age (as long as its 18 or above), your gender, your sexual orientation, your race, culture, religion, nationality, relationship status or sexual preferences you are invited to share your experience. You also do not have to share that kind of information with us -but it might help to offer context. It’s up to you!
At this point, we would ask though that all submissions are conducted in English as the research project does not have access to translation services.
We are hoping to recruit a minimum of 50 couples/groups for this study.
HOW DO I TAKE PART?
It is up to you to decide whether or not you want to take part in this study. Please take your time to decide and talk to others about it if you wish. Deciding to take part or not will not impact on you negatively and if someone you want to take part with does not wish to you must respect that and not try to persuade them in any way.
If you would like to go ahead and participate you can contact me using the comment section on the website or submit a consent form via the website and we’ll contact you within 10 working days to arrange your participation. If you make contact by e-mail we’ll send you a consent form and the link to the online consent form and you can submit that however you choose.
HOW CAN I WITHDRAW FROM THIS STUDY AFTER AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE?
Once you have agreed to participate you can withdraw from the study anytime until the cut-off date. The cut-off date will be 14 days after transcription and anonymisation has taken place. Anonymisation and transcription will be completed within 28 days of your participation and you will receive an e-mail reminder at this time to let you know that you have 14 days left to withdraw. If you wish to have your data withdrawn please contact me (my contact details are given below) with your interview number and your data will then not be used. You will be given this number when you book your meeting and it will be included in any e-mails you are sent afterwards.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I AGREE TO TAKE PART?
Step 1
Once you and your fellow participants have read through all of the information here you can complete a consent form online using the website or you can print it out and send it to us if you prefer.
Step 2
We’ll then contact all of you individually to confirm you want to go ahead and arrange a date and time that suits you all. From that we will set up a virtual meeting on Microsoft Teams.
Step 3
When you arrive in the meeting Holly Barnes-Bennetts, the researcher, will be there to greet you and to start recording the meeting. You can opt to have your camera on or just your microphone. Holly will check with you all that your happy with what you’re doing, that you’ve discussed and agreed boundaries beforehand (more about that below) and finally Holly will ask everyone to re-confirm their consent.
Step 4
After that Holly will leave the meeting by closing her microphone, camera and volume. This will leave you and your fellow participant/s to talk alone (whilst still recording the conversation). This arrangement is designed so that you and your partner/s can talk about the experience of consent that matters to you without a researcher influencing you.
Step 5
When you have finished your conversation (or if you don’t want to continue with it for any reason), you can just leave the meeting.
Step 6
Within two days, you will receive an e-mail thanking you for your participation, informing you of what happens next and what you can do if you change your mind about participating.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR ME IN TAKING PART?
There are no direct benefits, although people who have participated in similar research do sometimes say speaking about their positive consent experiences did help them to better understand them and benefited the consenting relationships they had. Most importantly though, you will be contributing to developing a better understanding of what positive sexual consent looks and feels like. What this research discovers will ultimately help in improving consent education.
ARE THERE ANY RISKS FOR ME IF I TAKE PART?
It is possible that things that you or your fellow participants say in the conversation might make you feel uncomfortable, distressed or triggered. For this reason, it is important that you think carefully about your participation. This is likely to be a greater risk for people who have had negative experiences relating to sexual consent (such as abuse, harassment, assault or rape). It is important that everybody’s voices get heard including survivors of sexual violence so we do not wish to discourage anyone from participating on those grounds we just ask that you consider this when thinking about participating.
We hope that allowing you to decide the content and direction of the conversation means you don’t find yourself talking about things that make you feel uncomfortable. That is why we will ask you to talk to your fellow participants beforehand to agree what it’s OK to talk about, anything you’d like to avoid and what you’ll do if one of you is feeling unhappy with where the conversation is going. If you decide to participate, we’ll send you some helpful guidance on how to plan and prepare for it to keep everyone safe and happy.
We will also provide everyone with information about relevant free to access support services on the website and in an e-mail in case you need them.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH MY INFORMATION?
Your personal data & information will be treated confidentially at all times; that is, it will not be shared with anyone other than the researcher (Holly Barnes-Bennetts) and the project supervisors (Dr. Simon Hardy and Dr. Barbara Mitra). It will also not be shared with any third parties specified in the consent form unless it has been fully anonymised. The exception to this is where you tell us something that indicates that you or someone else is at risk of harm. In this instance, we may need to share this information with others; however, we would inform you of this and discuss this with you before doing so.
During the project, all data / information will be kept securely in line with the University’s Policy for the Effective Management of Research Data and its Information Security Policy.
We will process your personal information for a range of purposes associated with the project primary of which are:
· To use your information along with information gathered from other participants in the research project to seek new knowledge and understanding that can be derived from the information we have gathered.
· To summarise this information in written form for the purposes of dissemination (through research reports, a thesis / dissertation, conference papers, journal articles or other publications). Any information disseminated / published will be at a summary level and will be fully anonymised and there will be no way of identifying your individual personal information within the published results.
· To use the summary and conclusions arising from the research project for teaching and further research purposes. Any information used in this way will be at a summary level and will be fully anonymised. There will be no way of identifying your individual personal information from the summary information used in this way.
If you wish to receive a summary of the research findings or to be given access to any of the publications arising from the research, please contact us.
Within 28 days of your participation the conversation recording will be transcribed. As part of that transcription process all names will be replaced with pseudonyms and all references to locations and organisations will be removed to make sure no one can be identified. Your contribution will be numbered and in a separate document there number of your contribution will be linked to your name so that if you wish to withdraw we can locate your submission. All documents will be securely stored, encrypted and password protected.
HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP MY DATA FOR?
Your personal data will be retained until the project (including the dissemination period) has been completed.
At the completion of the project, we will retain your data only in anonymised form. This anonymised data will be archived and shared in line with our Policy for the Effective Management of Research Data
HOW CAN I FIND OUT WHAT INFORMATION YOU HOLD ABOUT ME?
You have certain rights in respect of the personal information the University holds about you. For more information about Individual Rights under GDPR and how you exercise them please click here.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS INFORMATION
For College of Arts, Humanities & Education insert:
If you would like to speak to an independent person who is not a member of the research team, please contact Esther Dobson at the University of Worcester, using the following details:
Esther Dobson
Secretary to Research Ethics Panel for College of Arts, Humanities and Education
University of Worcester
Henwick Grove
Worcester WR2 6AJ