Thank you for agreeing to take part in this short survey. We hope that this research, and your participation in it, will contribute to a deeper understanding of the medical profession.

Nature and purpose of this study The researchers involved in this study are interested in how practicing medical professionals read and interpret medical findings. In this short survey, you will read recent medical findings taken from the following general-interest medical journals: New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, BMJ (British Medical Journal), and The Lancet. You will then be asked questions about the passages; finally, you will be asked to complete a short demographic questionnaire.

This survey should take a maximum of 20 minutes to complete. More specific instructions will follow after information about data storage and your rights as a participant.

Data storage and disposal

Your data will remain anonymous throughout the entire survey; at no point throughout the survey will you be asked to identify yourself. The data obtained in this survey will be retained anonymously for 5 years.

As with any research conducted in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta, your data are stored on a password-protected database and server seen only by the investigator who constructed the survey. All researchers will treat your responses as strictly confidential.