I'd like to sincerely thank everybody who has contributed their time to participate in the survey. There has been a great response rate, with (just!) over 800 participants.
My task now is to start analysing the data, and then writing up the results. I'll report some of the results on my research blog, as well as in conference and journal articles, and, of course, in my thesis!
Thank you again to all the participants - the romance genre community is a wonderful and supportive one, and your generosity in time in participating in this study, and in spreading word about it within your groups, lists and blogs, are examples of that.
I'll leave the official info for participants information below for a little while, for anyone who has questions about the survey.
Again, thank you all!
Bron
School of English, Communication and Theatre, University of New
England, Armidale, NSW 2351 Australia.This page contains key information for participants in this online survey, as required by the University of New England's Human Research Ethics policy.
As described in the About this research project page, this survey is part of my research for my PhD candidature in the School of English, Communication and Theatre at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. The project title is: Online communities of romance readers and writers and their perspectives on the genre. Through this project, I am exploring the nature and scope of romance readers' and writers' participation in online communities, and their perspectives on key issues and themes within the genre.
This project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New England. HREC approval number is: HE07/022.
The online survey asks questions about your participation in online activities, websites and blogs related to the romance genre; your romance reading and book buying; and some demographic questions (your age-group, education, country of residence etc).
The survey is anonymous; no identifying data is collected. The survey software does register the IP address of the computer from which you respond to the survey, however no attempt will be made to identify you from the IP address, and the IP addresses will be stripped from the data before it is analysed.
You may save a partially-completed survey to finish later. If you do this, the software will ask you to enter a username so that your saved answers can be retrieved later. You do not need to use your real name, and whatever name you use will not be stored with your responses, so your responses will not be linked to the username you enter.
The results of this research project may be presented at relevant conferences or published in academic journals and other genre-relevant publications. No identifying data from this survey will be collected or published. The data from the survey will be stored securely on a server, and a back-up server, both of which are password protected.
Please note that by clicking on and completing the survey, it is assumed that you:
- have read the information contained in this Information for Survey Participants page; and
- have agreed to participate in this research.
If you have any inquiries regarding the project or about your possible involvement in the project, you can contact me at any time using the contact details below.
If on the other hand you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, or should you have any complaints concerning the manner in which this research is conducted, please contact the Research Ethics Officer at the following address:
Research Services
University of New England
Armidale, NSW 2351.
Telephone: (02) 6773 3449 Facsimile (02) 6773 3543
Email: Ethics@pobox.une.edu.au
University of New England
Armidale, NSW 2351.
Telephone: (02) 6773 3449 Facsimile (02) 6773 3543
Email: Ethics@pobox.une.edu.au
Yours sincerely,
Ms Bronwyn Clarke
PhD Candidate
School of English, Communication and Theatre
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Telephone: 02-6773 3746
Facsimile: 02-6773 3269
Email: bronwyn.clarke@gmail.com
Dr Leonie Rutherford
Senior Lecturer
School of English, Communication and Theatre
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Telephone: 02-6773 2644
Facsimile: 02-6773 2623
Email: lrutherf@une.edu.au
Proceed to the survey.
Research blog