My name is C. Webster and I am undertaking my Honours year at the University of Newcastle, Australia. My project for this year will be a study of the information seeking behaviour of illicit substance users, with the aim of assessing current drug education policy.
The way I will be exploring this is by examining existing drug and health information websites, both official and unofficial. This will include Erowid (http://www.erowid.org) and key governmental drug education websites, such as “The National Drugs Campaign/Where’s Your head At?” (http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/). This will be followed by a study of the archives of this forum. No emphasis or mention in my study will be placed on individuals in this forum; the only thing I am interested in is the type of information sought and given, and the attitudes towards available information. Where messages are quoted code names will be used, and actual screen names will not be used. No personal or identifying information will be recorded.
My study will be conducted in the two months spanning 4th of July to the 22nd of August.
If any member of this forum for any reason does not wish their postings to be part of the study, please let me know and I will completely ignore any submission that member has made to this forum.
I can be contacted at [email protected]. My supervisor, Dr Marjorie Kibby, can be contacted at [email protected]. Any queries regarding the ethics of this research can be directed to the Arts and Social Science Research Ethics Committee at The University of Newcastle.
Any other comments, suggestions or queries are welcomed. The results of the research will be published on the web, and made available to forum members in December 2005.
Thank you for your time.
C. Webster
NB: Should you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the Human Research Ethics Officer, Research Office, The Chancellery, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, telephone (02 49216333, email [email protected].
The way I will be exploring this is by examining existing drug and health information websites, both official and unofficial. This will include Erowid (http://www.erowid.org) and key governmental drug education websites, such as “The National Drugs Campaign/Where’s Your head At?” (http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/). This will be followed by a study of the archives of this forum. No emphasis or mention in my study will be placed on individuals in this forum; the only thing I am interested in is the type of information sought and given, and the attitudes towards available information. Where messages are quoted code names will be used, and actual screen names will not be used. No personal or identifying information will be recorded.
My study will be conducted in the two months spanning 4th of July to the 22nd of August.
If any member of this forum for any reason does not wish their postings to be part of the study, please let me know and I will completely ignore any submission that member has made to this forum.
I can be contacted at [email protected]. My supervisor, Dr Marjorie Kibby, can be contacted at [email protected]. Any queries regarding the ethics of this research can be directed to the Arts and Social Science Research Ethics Committee at The University of Newcastle.
Any other comments, suggestions or queries are welcomed. The results of the research will be published on the web, and made available to forum members in December 2005.
Thank you for your time.
C. Webster
NB: Should you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the Human Research Ethics Officer, Research Office, The Chancellery, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, telephone (02 49216333, email [email protected].
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