Terms and conditions:

We would like to invite you to participate in an online research survey. The survey is part of a research study whose purpose is to learn about how narratives function and how book publishers can improve how they evaluate which manuscripts to publish.

Key Information

· Your consent is being sought for participation in a research project, and your participation is voluntary.

· The purpose of the research is to learn about how narratives function and how book publishers can improve how they evaluate which manuscripts to publish.

· The anticipated amount of time that the survey will take will be roughly an hour, in addition to the reading time it takes to complete a fiction book (spaced out over 4-6 weeks).

· The study consists of an online survey that asks readers to describe the narratives of books in great detail.

· There are no foreseeable risks to the subject of participation.

· The potential benefits of participation are contributing to research that will be used to understand how narratives work, and reading fiction books at no cost to themselves.

We are asking you to participate in this study because we understand you to be a member of the U.S. general public. You must be at least 18 years old to take this survey.

The decision to participate in this research project is voluntary. You do not have to participate, and you can refuse to answer any question. Even if you begin the survey, you can stop at any time. There are no foreseeable risks or discomforts to you for taking part in this study. There are no direct benefits to you from participating in this study. However, your responses may help us learn more about how publishers can best evaluate narratives and may help in the development of more equitable and effective publishing practices.

Members of the general public who access the study through their survey panel will be paid according to their panel’s rewards guidelines for completing the survey.

Your contact information and related demographic information will be collected for recruitment and sample balance purposes, but afterwards your part in this study will be anonymous to the researcher(s) unless you choose to include information in the open-ended questions that makes you identifiable. Your data will be handled in a confidential manner. In addition, because of the nature of web-based surveys, it is possible that respondents could be identified by the IP address or other electronic record associated with the response. Neither the researchers nor anyone involved with this survey will be capturing those data. Any reports or publications based on this research will use only group data and will not identify you or any individual as being affiliated with this project.

Future Use of Data: Your de-identified information could be used for future research without additional informed consent. If you withdraw from the study at any point, your partial data of recorded responses up until the point of withdrawal may still be used in research analysis.

Privacy policy:

Except as otherwise specified above, we adopt Northeastern University’s standard privacy policy, available here: https://www.northeastern.edu/privacy-information/