AK Appendix B - Respondent Contact Materials/Script

Appendix B: Respondent Contact Materials

ON-SITE RECRUITMENT SCRIPT

Good morning [/afternoon]. My name is (first and last name), and I am conducting a study for the Alaska Federal Land Management Agencies to learn about users’ transportation experiences on Federal public lands. We are asking users to complete a brief survey now, and then we’d like to send you a follow-up survey to complete at your convenience. We will use this information to better understand the types of transportation improvements needed on Federal public lands.

Your participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw from the study at any time. Would you be willing to take 13 minutes to complete the survey now?

IF NO: Thank you. I understand.

IF YES: “Thank you! [IF MORE THAN ONE PERSON IN GROUP:] May I ask who in your travel group has most recently celebrated his or her birthday? Can you please complete the survey? You can take the survey using this tablet computer, or if you prefer, we also have a paper version of the survey.

[IF NECESSARY EXPLAIN: “We ask who has celebrated their birthday most recently because we are trying to randomly select who completes the survey from each group”]

First, is this trip for recreational or sightseeing purposes or for some other purpose?

IF RECREATION OR SIGHTSEEING: PROVIDE RECREATIONAL USER SURVEY

IF OTHER PURPOSE: PROVIDE NON-RECREATIONAL USER SURVEY

This survey is about your transportation experiences on Federal public lands in Alaska. Examples of Federal public lands include National Parks, National Forests, National Recreation Areas, and National Wildlife Refuges. When we use the term “public lands,” we are also referring to the roads, trails, rivers, and lakes on those lands. Since this is a statewide survey asked of people visiting different regions of Alaska, some questions may not apply to you.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0596-0236. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 10 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions.

If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can contact the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Office of Research Integrity at 474-7800 (Fairbanks area) or 1-866-876-7800 (toll-free outside the Fairbanks area) or uaf-irb@alaska.edu. 

INITIAL EMAIL FOR FOLLOW-UP SURVEY

Note: We anticipate that there may be a few respondents who prefer to complete a paper version of the follow-up survey. In such cases, the following email contact will be adjusted (e.g., references to the survey link will be removed), and it will be sent as a letter via the U.S. Postal service, with a paper version of the survey enclosed with the letter.

Dear [First Last],

We hope that you enjoyed your recent visit to Alaska's Federal public lands.  You may recall completing the first part of a survey in-person at [INSERT SURVEY INTERCEPT LOCATION], and you agreed to complete our follow-up survey.  This follow-up survey is about that same trip, and it should only take about 18 minutes of your time to complete.  

To complete the survey, please use the following link: [LINK TO SURVEY].

When you start the survey, you will be prompted to enter your user code. This allows us to link your follow-up responses to your onsite responses. Your user code is [INSERT USER CODE]. Your contact information will not be linked to your results and your responses will remain confidential.

Your feedback is very important to us! The results will be used to help us better manage your Federal public lands.

As participation is voluntary, you can withdraw at any time. Completing the survey implies your consent to participate. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Peter Fix at (907) 474-6926 or pjfix@alaska.edu. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can contact the UAF Office of Research Integrity at 474-7800 (Fairbanks area) or 1-866-876-7800 (toll-free outside the Fairbanks area) or uaf-irb@alaska.edu.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Sincerely,

Peter Fix

Principal Investigator

University of Alaska Fairbanks

SECOND FOLLOW-UP

Note: We anticipate that most, if not all, follow-up contact will be via email. For respondents who do not have email or prefer not to give us their email, we will correspond via mail. The second follow-up (below), will be revised as necessary (e.g., remove references to online survey).

Dear [first last],

A survey was recently [e-mailed/mailed] to you regarding your trip on Alaska public lands. As of today we have not received your response. Please complete the survey at your earliest convenience. Because the surveys were sent to only a limited number of visitors to Alaska Federal public lands, it is extremely important that we hear from you.

If you did not receive the [e-mail with the link to the survey/the survey], or if it was deleted from your email account, here is the link: [INSERT SURVEY LINK].

When you start the survey, you will be prompted to enter your user code; this allows us to link your follow-up responses to your onsite responses. The user code you will enter is: [INSERT CODE]. Your contact information will not be linked to your results and your responses will remain confidential.

As participation is voluntary, you can withdraw at any time. Completing the survey implies your consent to participate. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Peter Fix at (907) 474-6926 or pjfix@alaska.edu.. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can contact the UAF Office of Research Integrity at 474-7800 (Fairbanks area) or 1-866-876-7800 (toll-free outside the Fairbanks area) or uaf-irb@alaska.edu.

Sincerely,

Peter Fix

Principal Investigator

University of Alaska-Fairbanks

THIRD (FINAL) CONTACT

Note: We anticipate that most, if not all, follow-up contact will be via email. For respondents who do not have email or prefer not to give us their email, we will correspond via mail. If sent by mail, the final follow-up (below), will be revised as necessary (e.g., remove references to online survey), and a copy of the survey will be enclosed with the letter.

Dear [First Last],

We hope that you enjoyed your recent visit to Alaska's Federal public lands.  When you visited [INSERT SURVEY INTERCEPT LOCATION] several weeks ago, you completed the first part of a survey about your trip. We sent you a follow-up survey (by [e-mail/mail]) about the same trip. To the best of our knowledge, you have not yet completed the follow-up survey. Please use the following link to access the survey [LINK]/we have enclosed another copy of the survey]. When you access the survey, please enter the following user code [INSERT USER CODE]. This allows us to link your follow-up responses to your onsite responses.

We hope you will complete the survey at your earliest convenience. You have been randomly chosen from a sample of visitors to Alaska public lands, and your input is very valuable to us. As participation is voluntary, you can withdraw at any time, but we greatly appreciate your time in filling out this questionnaire. Your name and address will not be associated with any of your responses and will remain strictly confidential. After the survey is completed the list of names for the sample will be destroyed so that individual names can never be connected to the results.

Completing the survey implies your consent to participate. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Peter Fix at (907) 474-6926 or pjfix@alaska.edu.. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can contact the UAF Office of Research Integrity at 474-7800 (Fairbanks area) or 1-866-876-7800 (toll-free outside the Fairbanks area) or uaf-irb@alaska.edu.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact Peter Fix by phone at (907) 474-6926, or by email at pjfix@alaska.edu.

Sincerely,

Peter Fix

Principal Investigator

University of Alaska-Fairbanks