11/03 - Fantastic Friday!

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Tandem In Time

Tandem In Time

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A.Lem said:
Are they actually allowed to use data if they reject you? Seems incredibly sleazy if that's the case, and if it's a study for school or something if I was the teacher I'd flunk their a@@ for that crap.
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At the University level, research studies are subject to something called an Institutional Review Board (IRB) which is an independent department/office that is responsible for reviewing, approving, and monitoring all research studies involving human subject. At a really superficial level, IRBs exist to prevent researchers from endangering human research subjects, so things such as the Stanford Prison Experiment would have never happened if IRBs had existed back then.

I work in a university chemistry lab where one study we conduct is aimed at evaluating the effect of cosmetics and personal care products on the composition of the resident bacteria that live on the surface of human skin, so we even need IRB approval to swab a person's hand with a cotton q-tip, to collect a tiny amount of bacterial from their skin to study with our chemical analyzers. We don't apply anything to the volunteer's skin, but we still need to assure the IRB that the volunteers are safe.

IRBs also cover things like MTurk surveys if the researcher is based at a University. Depending on its severity, a single complaint to a University IRB can shut down a research project and suspend all of the researcher's work while they investigate. Although it is unlikely that an IRB office will shut-down a researcher's work over $7, just getting an email from the IRB review committee about complaints is enough to spook most researchers into just paying to research subject to make the problem go away.

So if this particular study was conducted from a University, then you can contact the IRB office to file a complaint. However, if the research study is not at a University or is at one outside of the U.S. then you likely won't get the rejection reversed because they aren't likely to face any real consequences for being shady.

So from a researcher's perspective, I suggest that you never hesitate to complain to an IRB.

From a Turker's perspective, I say just move on and be more careful with shady requesters with no TO or avoid them completely. Completely bullshit rejections happen from time to time on MTurk.
 
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Jaded

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GRR said:
maybe the dude is just a smuck and knows turkers can get sucked in by that shiny seven dollars......give rejects knowing amazon would be hard pressed to do any thing to him. I have seen reports of him rejecting folks on all 4 major forums
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Sure, I know he's rejecting and it's not cool. I'm just saying it's more likely that he's doing it out of ignorance than being malicious. Let's try and not call him names though because we have to be respectful even if he's rejecting and I don't feel like mod editing right now.
 
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does anyone know an hourly rate for john doe's? with which script? thinking about jumping in.
 
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bxpretzel

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Sciency McScienceface said:
At the University level, research studies are subject to something called an Institutional Review Board (IRB) which is an independent department/office that is responsible for reviewing, approving, and monitoring all research studies involving human subject. At a really superficial level, IRBs exist to prevent researchers from endangering human research subjects, so things such as the Stanford Prison Experiment would have never happened if IRBs had existed back then.

I work in a university chemistry lab where one study we conduct is aimed at evaluating the effect of cosmetics and personal care products on the composition of the resident bacteria that live on the surface of human skin, so we even need IRB approval to swab a person's hand with a cotton q-tip, to collect a tiny amount of bacterial from their skin to study with our chemical analyzers.

IRBs also cover things like MTurk surveys if the researcher is based at a University. Depending on its severity, a single complaint to a University IRB can shut down a research project and suspend all of the researcher's work while they investigate. Although it is unlikely that an IRB office will shut-down a researcher's work over $7, just getting an email from the IRB review committee about complaints is enough to spook most researchers into just paying to research subject to make the problem go away.

So if this particular study was conducted from a University, then you can contact the IRB office to file a complaint. However, if the research study is not at a University or is at one outside of the U.S. then you likely won't get the rejection reversed because they aren't likely to face any real consequences for being shady.

So from a researcher's perspective, I suggest that you never hesitate to complain to an IRB.

From a Turker's perspective, I say just move on and be more careful with shady requesters or avoid them completely until. Complete bullshit rejections happen from time to time.
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on that note avoid requesters from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. i complained to their IRB last summer after a requester told me he rejected my HIT by mistake and said he would overturn it but never did. the IRB didn't do anything after repeated emails back and forth. they strongly defended their professor's unethical actions and chose to keep my data despite me requesting it be discarded several times
 
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Tandem In Time

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bxpretzel said:
on that note avoid requesters from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. i complained to their IRB last summer after a requester told me he rejected my HIT by mistake and said he would overturn it but never did. the IRB didn't do anything after repeated emails back and forth. they strongly defended their professor's unethical actions and chose to keep my data despite me requesting it be discarded several times
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Yeah... My first rejection was due to "Reason: Database error" from some survey being conducted by a graduating PhD student. There was no point in complaining, because it was a $2 study and she was graduating a week later, so the IRB wouldn't even be able to penalize her.

I think the key thing to keep in mind with any shady requester on MTurk is the risk vs the benefit...

If the survey is short and the reward is high, then it may be worth the risk. But if the survey pay sucks, and will take a long time, and there is no TO, then skip it.
 
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Title: Call Dry Cleaners to Get Prices | PANDA
Requester: ted [A1U9R81938J74Y] (TO)
TO Ratings: No TO (Submit a new TO rating for this requester)
Description: Call the phone number listed and collect the price for a shirt, pants, and a dress
Time: 5 minutes
Hits Available: 955
Reward: $0.05
Qualifications: Masters has been granted


DO NOT DO THIS! I just want to point this guy out. Not ANY of his hits have been done all week. For 3/5 cents he wants you to call a dry cleaner and get prices on cleaning three items. I made FIFTY CENTS A HIT monday or tuesday calling CVS stores (with pros on the phone) just to ask for the fax number....some folks just do not get it...... it cost's more than 5 cents to call from India...
 
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