General research information for participants
Faculty of Psychology, University Hamburg
Study title: Variability in the analysis of an event-related potential dataset by many teams
Information: The goal of this study is to estimate the variability of neuroscientific results across analysts. In particular, we collected EEG data during a Flanker task to elicit an ERN response (Error-Related-Negativity) as well as a measure of trait anxiety. For the data analysis, individual analysts who have experience with EEG analysis will receive access to a subsample of this data set. Each analyst is asked to submit a complete preprocessing routine/analysis script up to the point where a correlation of interest between the ERN and anxiety variables can be computed. The routine will then be applied to the complete dataset by us. Additionally, all analysts are asked to fill out some questionnaires collecting information about expertise with the topic and EEG and their expectations about the outcome of analysis. The main outcomes of our analysis include the number of statistically significant associations between the ERN component and anxiety measures and the magnitude of these associations. In addition, we will investigate the role of analysts’ expertise and beliefs about the outcome in this process.
Time plan: According to a preliminary time plan, analysts will be invited to participate between July and December 2023, data will be available shortly after participation and providing of the consent form and non-discloser agreement. Every analyst will have 100 days to provide a complete data analysis routine, which will be applied on the complete dataset afterwards. The time spent by each participating analyst will depend on how this analysis routine is prepared (the way decisions are made, programming expertise, usage of existing pipelines).
Confidentiality: Importantly, we apply a multiple-blind procedure. This indicates that analysts and the investigators from this project are not allowed to disclose any information from their part to any other researcher until the end of the embargo period. This includes in particular the sharing of the data, the analysis scripts or (discussion of) the results. The embargo period for the analysis scripts or (discussion of) the results ends when all analysts have submitted their analyses and expertise & belief assessments. Notably, the data may not be shared with third parties at any time.
Coordination. The project will be run by a research team led by Katharina Paul at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The data was collected during winter and spring 2020/22 at different locations in Germany within a collaborative project (see www.coscience-personality.com).
Compensation: Analysts that will submit a functional analysis script (i.e., a script that runs without errors, produces both ERN and personality variables to be correlated) and complete a brief questionnaire concerning their expertise/experience and their beliefs (time required will be less than 30 min) by the deadline (preliminary October 31th 2023) will be offered co-authorship on the original paper.
Data protection, voluntariness, anonymity: Participation in this study is voluntary. Every analyst has the possibility to withdraw from participation at any time without mentioning any reasons. Each analyst will receive a unique key to be used as ID to answer relevant questionnaires of beliefs about the outcome, experience, and the analysis and decision process. This ID is also used for submitting the analysis scripts. Only the responsible researcher will have access to a non-digital paper list connecting the lab IDs with the corresponding labs. This list will be destroyed after completion of the study, at the latest 31.12.2026. Participants can ask to delete any of their submitted data as long as the list connecting the ID and labs is available. The anonymized data, i.e. the analysts’ analysis scripts and questionnaire data, will be made freely available to interested researchers (e.g. through the open science platform).
Rights: According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR, in German: Datenschutzgrundverordnung, DSGVO) you have the right of information (Art 15 DSGVO and §34 BDSG), deletion (Art 17 DSGVO and §35 BDSG), restriction of data processing (Art 18 DSGVO) and correction (Art. 16 DSGVO), data transferability (Art. 20 DSGVO) and objection (Art. 21 DSGVO 2018 and §36 BDSG).
If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact the person responsible for processing your data:
Dr. Katharina Paul
Katharina.Paul@uni-hamburg.de
Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg
+49 40-42838-5404
Additionally you have the right to file a complaint with the supervisory authorities. These include the authorities in Hamburg (https://datenschutz-hamburg.de/), as well as the local authorities at University Hamburg.
President of University Hamburg Data protection officer of University Hamburg
Mittelweg 177, 20148 Hamburg Mittelweg 177, 20148 Hamburg
praesident@uni-hamburg.de datenschutz@uni-hamburg.de
Consent Form
Faculty of Psychology, University Hamburg
The data are initially shared under a limited data use agreement; the principal restriction is that users of the data will not be allowed to release, publicize, or discuss the data or their results until the end of a specified embargo period (ends once the analysis scripts are applied on the complete dataset; predicted by autumn 2024). Due to the specifics of the participant agreement employed in the study, in which the data was collected, the data may not be shared with third parties and only be used for different purposes after obtaining approval for a data request for the project “A novel collaborative approach for EEG personality neuroscience research” via www.CoScience.net.
All analysis routines and results as well as the answered questionnaires submitted for this project will be shared openly via OSF upon completion of the project, with no restriction on reuse. The analysts generating these data will be labelled via a unique code (team ID) but will not be identified. Analysts can withdraw participation at any time and can demand a deletion of their data as long as the list connecting the unique team ID with the data is available. It should, however, be noted that because all analysis teams are listed as coauthors, we cannot completely exclude the possibility of identification (e.g. if some analysis approaches are quite specific to particular labs). Analysts in this project must therefore be willing to participate despite the possibility of identification.
For the primary paper(s) to be produced from this project, members of the primary project team will draft the manuscript(s). All analysts will be offered co-authorship on the paper(s). Authorship will be limited to analysts who submit their results and report by the deadline, preliminary date October 31st 2023. Co-authors from the analysts will be given four weeks to review any drafts of papers prior to submission.
Please note that each analyst must sign this form before obtaining access to the data. Sharing of data and/or results or discussing outcomes from the analyses with any other person during the embargo period is strictly forbidden! Data sharing without obtaining written permission is prohibited at all times.
Once sign this form, you will get instructions on how to obtain the data. Each analyst will also be provided with a unique key that will serve as their team ID to be used to report the results without identification.
Consent to this study is valid under the guarantee of the following rights according to the EU General Data Protection Regulation: The right of information (Art 15 DSGVO and §34 BDSG), deletion (Art 17 DSGVO and §35 BDSG), restriction of data processing (Art 18 DSGVO) and correction (Art. 16 DSGVO), data transferability (Art. 20 DSGVO) and objection (Art. 21 DSGVO 2018 and §36 BDSG). To exercise these rights, the person responsible researcher (Katharina.Paul@uni-hamburg.de), the president of University Hamburg (praesident@uni-hamburg.de) or the local data protection officer at University Hamburg (datenschutz@uni-hamburg.de) can be contacted.
I hereby acknowledge that I read and understood these terms, that Katharina Paul answered all open questions, and that I was informed about the study procedure and its goals. I also acknowledge that I will strictly follow the confidentiality arrangements.
