Researchers pitch strategies to identify potential fraudulent participants in online qualitative research

Recruiting participants for injury and violence-related studies can be challenging. Online qualitative data collection can increase accessibility for some participants, expand a study’s reach to potential participants, offer convenience and extend a sense of safety.

But the data can be marred by fraudulent responses.

As online data collection has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, widely available online platforms and sophisticated bots can potentially expose studies to would-be fraudulent participants, that can jeopardize the research. Fraudulent participants are artificial bots or human participants who don’t meet study criteria and who attempt to, or do, participate in data collection.

A Rutgers Health–led study, published in BMJ Open Quality, examines potential challenges associated with online qualitative data collection and how to prevent possible fraudulent respondents.

Building on past studies examining the presence of fraudulent participants in online research studies, the researchers looked at the impact upon the field of injury and violence prevention.

Distinguishing fraudulent participants from real participants may present a challenge, and highlighting certain red flags can make these anomalies easier to recognize and remove, the researchers said. They reviewed past research on strategies that are used and highlighted a recent research project as a case study to outline ways to prevent and detect potential fraudulent participants.

“The presence of bots or humans attempting to engage in fraudulent research participation is a potential reality that researchers should be aware of, work to prevent where possible, and mitigate when detected to preserve research integrity and data quality,” said Devon Ziminski, a postdoctoral fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, and lead author of the study.

The paper outlines various strategies researchers can use to prevent potential fraudulent responses, including developing an outreach and recruitment plan, using a short screener survey and using community-engaged research methods for qualitative research.

Esprene Liddell-Quinty, a research consultant at the University of Washington Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program and a former postdoctoral researcher at the New Jersey Gun Violence research center  co-authored the study.