Consent to Participate in Research

 “Stats Geeks: The Production and Legitimization of Scientific Baseball Knowledge”

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Bob Ngo from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara who can be reached at (805) 284-3662 or bobngo@umail.ucsb.edu.

As a graduate student, I am conducting interviews as a part of my dissertation research. I am interested in studying people who spend their leisure time analyzing, creating, and writing about advanced baseball statistics. The purpose of this study is to examine the motivations of these people for participating in sports fandom in this specific way.

PROCEDURE

If you decide to participate, you will be interviewed about your participation in Sabermetrics. This interview will last from 30-90 minutes. With your permission, our conversation will be audio recorded and later transcribed. The data from this study will be used solely for research purposes. I am the only person who will have access to the original recordings, which will be kept in a secure location in my office and destroyed after they have been transcribed.

The entire study will be completed by June 2008 and there will be approximately 35 research participants involved. 

POTENTIAL RISKS AND/OR BENEFITS

There are neither direct risks nor direct benefits anticipated to you from your participation in this study.  However, despite the use of pseudonyms, there is the possibility that your colleagues may recognize you in a publication containing data from this research project.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can be associated with you will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission or as required by law. To protect your confidentiality, pseudonyms will be used and all identifying information will be removed from the recording and transcript. However, absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, since research documents are not protected from subpoena.

If you have been identified as a key informant, you will be notified by the investigator.  It may be necessary to use your name in the analysis to give special meaning to your responses.  If you are not comfortable with this, you may request that your name not be used in publication.

RIGHT TO REFUSE OR WITHDRAW

It is entirely within in your rights to refuse to participate, change your mind about participating, or quit after the interview has started without consequences of any kind. Further, you have the right to review the recording and transcript to decide whether or not they should be partially or completely destroyed.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions or concerns about this research project, please contact my dissertation advisor, Dr. Jon Cruz, who can be reached at 805-898-3118 or cruz@soc.ucsb.edu. His office is located at University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Sociology, 2724 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.                       

Additionally, if you have any questions regarding your rights and participation as a research subject, please contact the Human Subjects Committee at (805) 893-3807 or hsc@research.ucsb.edu. Or write to the University of California, Human Subjects Committee, Office of Research, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.

CONSENT

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH IS VOLUNTARY. YOUR SIGNATURE BELOW WILL INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE DECIDED TO PARTICIPATE AS A RESEARCH SUBJECT IN THE STUDY DESCRIBED ABOVE.  YOU WILL BE GIVEN A SIGNED AND DATED COPY OF THIS FORM TO KEEP. 

Name: _______________________________________________________Date_____________