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Using Mechanical Turk to recruit participants for internet intervention research: experience from recruitment for four trials targeting hazardous alcohol consumption

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, December 2017
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Title
Using Mechanical Turk to recruit participants for internet intervention research: experience from recruitment for four trials targeting hazardous alcohol consumption
Published in
BMC Medical Research Methodology, December 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12874-017-0440-3
Pubmed ID
Authors

John A. Cunningham, Alexandra Godinho, Vladyslav Kushnir

Abstract

Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online portal operated by Amazon where 'requesters' (individuals or businesses) can submit jobs for 'workers.' MTurk is used extensively by academics as a quick and cheap means of collecting questionnaire data, including information on alcohol consumption, from a diverse sample of participants. We tested the feasibility of recruiting for alcohol Internet intervention trials through MTurk. Participants, 18 years or older, who drank at least weekly were recruited for four intervention trials (combined sample size, N = 11,107). The same basic recruitment strategy was employed for each trial - invite participants to complete a survey about alcohol consumption (less than 15 min in length, US$1.50 payment), identify eligible participants who drank in a hazardous fashion, invite those eligible to complete a follow-up survey ($10 payment), randomize participants to be sent or not sent information to access an online intervention for hazardous alcohol use. Procedures where put in place to optimize the chances that participants could only complete the baseline survey once. There was a substantially slower rate of recruitment by the fourth trial compared to the earlier trials. Demographic characteristics also varied across trials (age, sex, employment and marital status). Patterns of alcohol consumption, while displaying some differences, did not appear to vary in a linear fashion between trials. It is possible to recruit large (but not inexhaustible) numbers of people who drink in a hazardous fashion. Issues for online intervention research when employing this sample are discussed.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 59 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 59 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 20%
Researcher 9 15%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 7%
Student > Master 4 7%
Student > Bachelor 3 5%
Other 7 12%
Unknown 20 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 15 25%
Social Sciences 7 12%
Medicine and Dentistry 5 8%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 3%
Computer Science 2 3%
Other 7 12%
Unknown 21 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 July 2018.
All research outputs
#14,960,072
of 23,009,818 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Research Methodology
#1,456
of 2,029 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#251,477
of 437,935 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Research Methodology
#26
of 42 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,009,818 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,029 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.2. This one is in the 25th percentile – i.e., 25% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 437,935 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 42 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.