PARTICIPATION NOTICE
How this notice is used
This is the full text behind the Take part button on the live page. Watching needs no agreement: the page only logs that a browser connected, for how long, whether the tab was visible, a random code it gives your browser, and a hashed form of its internet address. No name, no email. Taking part means agreeing to what follows.
Signing up for session alerts confirms that you have read this notice and are 18 or older. The link in each alert carries a code from your sign-up, and arriving from it stands as that consent, so the live page opens in take-part mode without showing the notice again and records that the visit came from the list. Because the sign-up holds your email address, that visit is identifiable to the researcher. Nothing is scored unless you press a button, and switching to watching is one click.
Taking part in a live Ionosphere session
What you will do. During the session there are two things you can do, both optional. You can press a button when you feel a focus window is about to start. And you can mark the beginning and end of any stretch where you notice something about your own state, then write a line about it. You stop by closing the page. Anything you sent before closing stays in the record.
What you will see. The light pattern, and whether the stream is connected. You will not see whether a focus window is currently open, and you will not see the running statistics from the random-number device. We hide those on purpose. A button press is only informative if you could not have known the answer.
What we record. The time our server received each press and each mark (your computer’s clock is logged too, but only to measure network delay), the text of your notes, whether your tab was open and visible, the random code stored in your browser, and a hashed form of your internet address. The hash uses a secret only our server holds. It lets us tell repeat visits from the same connection apart, and it is kept with the rest of the record, so it works as a persistent pseudonym for that connection. We do not ask for your name or email on this page. If you also joined the mailing list and came here from the link in an alert email, that link carries your sign-up code, so your sign-up and your browser code are linked on our server; since the sign-up holds your email address, that makes your records here identifiable to the researcher. If you typed the address yourself, they are not linked unless you ask us to link them.
What we do with it. After the session ends, never during it, we compare the timing of your presses and marks against the session’s hidden schedule and the device’s output. The analysis plan is written down and time-stamped before any session that counts; a link is at the bottom of this page. Results may be published as summaries, in a journal article, a conference talk, or on this site. We may quote a short note in a publication with no code or other identifier attached. We will leave out any note that could point to a person, but free text is never guaranteed anonymous, so please do not put names, places or other personal details in a note.
Who sees your notes. The researcher running the study, after the session has closed. Whoever administers the server can technically read the files; nobody else. Notes are never shown to other viewers.
What we cannot do. The research records are written once and never edited. That is how we show they were not tampered with, and it means we cannot delete an entry later. What we can do is leave everything tied to your browser code out of any analysis that has not yet been published, and note the exclusion in the published record. Published summaries cannot be recalled. To ask, email {contact_email} and include the code shown at the bottom of the live page. Write the code down now if you think you might want this later; it is the only key to your records, and we cannot look it up for you.
How long we keep it. Research records are kept as long as the study’s data are kept, which is indefinitely, since they are the raw data behind any publication.
After the session. Once a session has ended, the page may offer you three optional questions about what you noticed. Nothing is asked during a session. Answers are stored with your browser code like everything else above.
Who can take part. You must be 18 or older. By continuing you confirm that you are. We do not check.
Risks. You will watch a changing pattern of coloured lights, possibly for hours, and press buttons. The pattern changes several times a second. If flickering light bothers you or you have photosensitive epilepsy, do not take part. Eye strain, headache and boredom are the likely discomforts; stop if you feel unwell. There is no payment and no benefit to you beyond taking part.
Oversight. This study is run independently. It has not been reviewed by an institutional review board or ethics committee. The researcher’s written self-assessment against the US federal definitions of human-subjects research (45 CFR 46.102) is linked at the bottom of this page. If that is not good enough for you, do not take part; watching is still open to you.
Contact. {operator_name}, Ionosphere Laboratories, {contact_email}, {postal_contact}.