JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

While the advantages of using the Internet and social media for research recruitment are well-documented, the evolving online environment also enhances motivations for misrepresentation to receive incentives or to “troll” research studies. Such fraudulent assaults can compromise data integrity, with substantial losses in project time, money, and, especially for vulnerable populations, research trust. With the rapid advent of new technology, and ever-evolving social media platforms, it has become easier for misrepresentation to occur within online data collection. This perpetuation can occur by bots or individuals with malintent, but careful planning can help aid in filtering out fraudulent data.

Objective:

Using an example with urban American Indian and Alaska Native young women, we describe PRIOR (Protocol for Increasing Data Integrity in Online Research), which is a 2-step integration protocol for combatting fraudulent participation in online survey research.

Methods:

From February 2019 to August 2020, we recruited participants for formative research preparatory to an online randomized control trial of a pre-conceptual health program. First, we describe our initial protocol for preventing fraudulent participation, which proved to be unsuccessful. Then, we describe modifications we made in May 2020 to improve the protocol performance and the creation of PRIOR. Changes included transferring data collection platforms, collecting embedded geospatial variables, enabling timing features within the screening survey, creating URL links for each method or platform of data collection, and manually confirming potentially eligible participants’ identifying information.

Results:

Before implementation of PRIOR, the project experienced substantial fraudulent attempts at study enrollment, with less than 1% of all screened participants being identified as truly eligible. With the modified protocol, of the 461individuals who completed a screening survey, 381 did not meet eligibility criteria assessed on the survey. Of the 80 that did, 25 (31%) were identified as ineligible via PRIOR. A total of 55 (69%) were identified as eligible and verified in the protocol and were enrolled in the formative study.

Conclusions:

Fraudulent surveys compromise study integrity, validity of the data, and trust among participant populations. They also deplete scarce research resources, including respondent compensation and personnel time. Our approach of PRIOR to prevent online misrepresentation in data was successful. This paper reviews key elements regarding fraudulent data participation in online research and demonstrates why enhanced protocols to prevent fraudulent data collection are crucial for building trust with vulnerable populations. Clinical Trial: Trial registration number: NCT04376346 (May 5, 2020)