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Scout Experience Standards

At dscout, we strive to create a safe and inclusive environment where all users are treated with respect. The following guidelines serve as central pillars in our ongoing efforts to meet the needs of scouts and researchers. To support these commitments, we may ask you to change research designs or communications approaches. dscout strives to act both ethically and legally, and asks our community members to act likewise.

dscout is Safe

  • Treat scouts with respect. Discrimination or harassment of any kind is not acceptable. Discriminatory harassment is verbal, written or physical conduct that denigrates or shows hostility toward an individual on the basis of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, age, veteran status, family status, pregnancy, genetic information, political affiliation or disability.
  • Do not ask for scout contact information. If a research project may require contact information or other personally identifying information from scouts, e.g. email address, phone number, full name, home address, username, or any other personally identifying information, get in touch with your dscout research advisor.
  • Coordinate with dscout before placing any Scout data broadly in the public domain, so that dscout can first give notice to the Scout.

dscout is Inclusive

  • Follow best practices for inclusive research. dscout’s Inclusive Research Guidelines can be found here.
  • Use special care to avoid microaggressions or microinvalidations, especially when researching anything that relates to sensitive matters of identity. Microaggressions are brief indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative insults to a target person or group. Microinvalidations exclude, negate, or nullify the experiential reality of certain groups. dscout Research Advisors will help to revise questions or communications that could trigger harmful experiences for Scouts.

dscout is Fair

  • Communicate mission requirements accurately. Scouts rely on the mission details communicated in your screener and mission overview to self-select based on their availability for and interest in your mission. Changing the scope of the project, including deadlines or incentive amounts, could unfairly prohibit Scouts from completing and promote distrust in research.
  • Recruit must be utilized for screening purposes only. Pay participants for their time and data. All launched screeners must be followed by a paying Diary or Live mission, and screeners should be closed promptly once the recruit has been filled. Questions should be limited to those which are required for quantitative and qualitative participant screening only. Research questions should be included in paid studies (Diary, Express, Live).
  • All screeners and Express Missions ask all knock-out questions before the video prompt. Because Scouts are not paid for applications to screeners or incomplete Express Mission entries, it’s important to respect their time and privacy by placing all termination logic, and response quotas, before media prompts.
  • Use knockout questions with a purpose. Knockout questions keep scouts from wasting time on opportunities they’ll never qualify for; at the same time, an overly-restrictive screener could leave you with only a handful of Scouts to choose from. dscout screeners cannot be edited after launch. Be respectful of Scouts’ time by using knockout questions thoughtfully.
  • Honor mission invites. Scouts who meet the deadlines and expectations provided for a mission should be allowed to fully participate and earn the stated incentive. Individual Scouts or entire missions should not be closed prematurely to limit participation. For Live missions, provide enough interview slots to accommodate all Scouts with active invitations.
  • Manage fieldwork and respond to questions in a timely manner. When acting as mission leader, it’s important to answer Scout questions in a timely manner, and provide any corrective feedback on entries while your mission is still running. In keeping with dscout terms, Scouts will receive full payment for missions in which they complete all parts, unless they fail to follow corrective feedback given during fieldwork. Your research advisor may also use support hours to respond to Scout questions if they are not answered within two business days.
  • Scouts are paid promptly. After the stated mission deadline, researchers should confirm completion and promptly initiate incentive processing by contacting a Research Advisor.