Recruitment Emails

Attachment F. Recruitment and Reminder Emails

Recruitment: Surveys

Dear _____________________,

I am writing to request your participation in a survey for our research project, “Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster Citizen Science to Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster Response.” The purpose of this research is to understand how citizen science activities and data can be used to increase community resilience, enhance participation in preparedness and response activities, and improve preparedness efforts. This work will ultimately generate publicly available toolkits tailored to health departments and community groups. This study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and conducted by the RAND Corporation.

Citizen science is a broad term that covers many different types of activities. It has also been called “public participation in scientific research,” “community science,” and “participatory research.” At its core, citizen science is the engagement of members of the public in research processes.

Our approach includes a national survey with representatives of local health departments to understand the extent to which departments are engaged with citizen science activities, identify uses of citizen science in public health, examine benefits and barriers to citizen science, and determine resources needed for local health departments to engage with citizen scientists.

We are searching for health officials who would be willing share their experiences in working (or not working) in the realm of citizen science with us. We expect the survey to take about 30 minutes of your time. In return, we are offering participants a $10 gift card as a “thank you” for participating. The survey is entirely voluntary, and you are able to stop taking the survey at any time. The deadline for survey completion is [INSERT DATE].

When you are ready to begin the survey, please proceed to this link: [INSERT LINK]

If you feel as though someone else in your organization may be better positioned to answer questions on this topic on behalf of your department, just reply to this email with their name and email address.

The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee (HSPC), the CDC, and the Office of Management and Budget have approved this study. If you would like to talk to someone about your rights as a research participant, you may contact RAND’s HSPC by emailing hspcinfo@rand.org and referencing study [INSERT NUMBER]. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [INSERT NUMBER].

Thank you,

____________________

Recruitment: Interviews

Dear _____________________,

I am writing to request your participation in an interview for our research project, “Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster Citizen Science to Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster Response.” We are reaching out to you as a potential citizen scientist, academic/ citizen science sponsoring organization, or end-user of citizen science data (e.g. health departments, policymakers) in the United States. The purpose of this research is to understand how citizen science activities and data can be used to increase community resilience, enhance participation in preparedness and response activities, and improve preparedness efforts. This work will ultimately generate publicly available toolkits tailored to health departments and community groups. This study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and conducted by the RAND Corporation.

Citizen science is a broad term that covers many different types of activities. It has also been called “public participation in scientific research,” “community science,” and “participatory research.” At its core, citizen science is the engagement of members of the public in research processes.

We are searching for health officials, policymakers, academics, and citizens who would be willing share their experiences in working (or not working) in the realm of citizen science with us. We expect to need about an hour of your time. In return, we are offering participants a $25 gift card as a “thank you” for participating. This interview is entirely voluntary, and you may decline to participate in an interview or stop the interview at any time. The deadline for scheduling interviews is [INSERT DATE]. Interviews will be conducted over the phone.

Please contact me to set up a time for your interview ([INSERT EMAIL]). I am also happy to answer any questions you may have about the project before setting up a time to conduct the interview.

Finally, if you feel as though someone else in your organization may be better positioned to answer questions on this topic on behalf of your department, just reply to this email with their name and email address. Referrals or recommendations to others working in or interested in this areas are welcomed and appreciated.

The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee (HSPC), the CDC, and the Office of Management and Budget have approved this study. If you would like to talk to someone about your rights as a research participant, you may contact RAND’s HSPC by emailing hspcinfo@rand.org and referencing study [INSERT NUMBER]. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [INSERT NUMBER].

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,

_____________________

Recruitment Follow-Up: Surveys

Dear _____________________,

I am writing to follow-up on our invitation to participate in a survey for our research project, “Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster Citizen Science to Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster Response.” The purpose of this research is to understand how citizen science activities and data can be used to increase community resilience, enhance participation in preparedness and response activities, and improve preparedness efforts. This work will ultimately generate publicly available toolkits tailored to health departments and community groups. This study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and conducted by the RAND Corporation.

We need local health officials who would be willing share their health department experiences in working (or not working) in the realm of citizen science with us. The survey should take no more than 30 minutes of your time. In return, we are offering participants a $10 gift card as a “thank you” for participating. The survey is entirely voluntary, and you are able to stop taking the survey at any time.

Surveys must be completed by [INSERT DATE], and we are nearing our deadline. In order to provide your opinion please proceed to this link: [INSERT LINK] to begin the survey.

As a reminder, if you feel as though someone else in your organization may be better positioned to answer questions on this topic on behalf of your department, just reply to this email with their name and email address. I will promptly follow-up with them to make sure we send them the survey before our deadline closes. If you have other questions or concerns you would like to discuss before beginning the survey, please contact me at your convenience: [INSERT EMAIL].

The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee (HSPC), the CDC, and the Office of Management and Budget have approved this study. If you would like to talk to someone about your rights as a research participant, you may contact RAND’s HSPC by emailing hspcinfo@rand.org and referencing study [INSERT NUMBER]. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [INSERT NUMBER].

Thank you for participating,

____________________

Recruitment Follow-Up: Interviews

Dear _____________________,

I am writing to follow-up on our invitation to participate in an interview for our research project, “Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster Citizen Science to Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster Response.” We are reaching out to you as a potential citizen scientist, academic/ citizen science sponsoring organization, or end-user of citizen science data (e.g. health departments, policymakers) in the United States. The purpose of this research is to understand how citizen science activities and data can be used to increase community resilience, enhance participation in preparedness and response activities, and improve preparedness efforts. This work will ultimately generate publicly available toolkits tailored to health departments and community groups. This study is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and conducted by the RAND Corporation.

We are searching for health officials, policymakers, academics, and citizens who would be willing to share their experiences in working (or not working) in the realm of citizen science with us. We expect to need about an hour of your time. In return, we are offering participants a $25 gift card as a “thank you” for participating. This interview is entirely voluntary, and you may decline to participate in an interview or stop the interview at any time. Interviews will be conducted over the phone.

The deadline for scheduling interviews is [INSERT DATE], and we are running out of time. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to set up a time for your interview ([INSERT EMAIL]) and to receive your gift card. If you have other questions or concerns you would like to discuss before scheduling an interview, please contact me so I can answer your questions: [INSERT EMAIL].

As a reminder, if you feel as though someone else in your organization may be better positioned to answer questions on this topic, just reply to this email with their name and email address. I will promptly follow-up with them to schedule an interview before our deadline closes. If you have other questions or concerns you would like to discuss before scheduling an interview, please contact me at your convenience: [INSERT EMAIL].

The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee (HSPC), the CDC, and the Office of Management and Budget have approved this study. If you would like to talk to someone about your rights as a research participant, you may contact RAND’s HSPC by emailing hspcinfo@rand.org and referencing study [INSERT NUMBER]. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [INSERT NUMBER].

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,

_____________________