This survey is conducted by Dr. Semih Salihoglu and his research team at the University of Waterloo. You can reach out to the research team by emailing Dr. Arif Usta at arif.usta@uwaterloo.ca or Dr. Semih Salihoglu at semih.salihoglu@uwaterloo.ca.

This survey asks questions to better understand how open datasets that are published by various governments and other institutions are being used, what users do with these datasets, and what their major challenges are. Participation in this study may not provide any personal benefit to you, however, the study will benefit the academic community/society by helping researchers to understand the challenges of open datasets guiding them in building appropriate tools to make open datasets more accessible and easily available.

If you volunteer to participate in this survey, you may decide to withdraw at any point by not submitting the form. Participation is confirmed only upon submission of the form. If you wish to withdraw after this point, you may contact the investigator(s) to withdraw your submission. However, it is not possible to withdraw your data once papers and publications by the investigators have been submitted to publishers.

Who may participate in the study?

In order to participate in the study, you need to be familiar with open datasets.

Will my information be kept confidential?

The association between your identity and the research study data is completely confidential. All identifiable information will be deleted from the dataset collected to protect your identity. Individual participants will be referred to using generic labels (P1, P2, …) along with relevant demographic information: age, gender, and occupation. The data will be stored in the University of Waterloo (UW) server and will be accessed only from UW-provided machines (laptops and desktops). The data will be kept for 7 years post-publication of the results. We will only share the study findings publicly, and not the data. The collected data will not be shared with third parties.

Who is sponsoring/funding this study?

This study is funded/sponsored in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Province of Ontario, and the University of Waterloo.

What are the risks associated with the study?

There are no known or anticipated risks associated with participation in this study.

Has the study received ethics clearance?

This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee (ORE# 40863). If you have questions for the Committee contact the Office of Research Ethics at 1-519-888-4567 ext. 36005 or reb@uwaterloo.ca.

By providing your consent, you are not waiving your legal rights or releasing the investigator(s) or involved institution(s) from their legal and professional responsibilities.