A message from Dr. Kaitlyn Neuman, McMaster University:

We would like to invite you to take part in a study on pressure you experience while publishing in academia.
The purpose of this survey is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had on publication
pressure experienced by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and principal investigators across
Canada. Information gathered during this survey will be written up as a scholarly journal article and
potentially presented at conferences.

What we learn from this survey will help us identify how publication pressure differs across groups of
researchers. By understanding these subtle differences, our aim is that more targeted supports can be put
in place to support researchers.

You may participate in the survey by following this link.

You are eligible to take part in this study if:

1. Your current position is one of the following:
   a. A thesis-based Master’s or PhD Student
   b. A postdoctoral fellow
   c. A principal investigator (early career, mid-career, or senior)

2. You are based at a Canadian institution

Procedures involved in the Research:

You will be asked to complete one online survey. This survey is voluntary, you do not need to participate
should you choose not to. You will be provided with a link to complete the survey on LimeSurvey. It should
take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. This survey will be open from April 5, 2021 to April 30, 2021.
If you wish to participate, please complete the consent module at the beginning of the survey and then fill
out the following questions.

Potential Benefits

This research will not benefit you directly. You may receive indirect benefit if the findings of this study are
used to develop supports for researchers that are implemented at your institution.
By participating in this study, you have the option of entering a draw for one of 10 of $25 gift certificates
using GiftCertificates.ca. Draw winners will be able to select from over 70 Canadian brands to redeem their
gift certificate. A potential benefit of completing this survey is being entered into this draw.

Potential Harms, Risks or Discomforts:

The risks involved in participating in this study are minimal. You may feel uneasy answering certain
demographic questions related to the province you live in, gender, race, disability, or citizenship status. You
do not need to answer these questions if you are uncomfortable, there will be an option to decline to answer
these questions. You may also feel uneasy or embarrassed answering questions about pressure
experienced while publishing research. If you do not want to answer these questions, you can exit from the
survey.

Confidentiality

You are participating in this research anonymously. No one, including those handling the data, will know
that you participated. Key demographic information will be anonymized during analysis, with only cohort
data being featured in the final manuscript.

All identifiable data (such as provided emails to receive the results of the study) will be kept on a computer
protected by an encryption, firewall, and password, where only the research team will have access to it.
Anonymized data, which in part or in combination are not able to identify specific individuals, will be stored
on a private McMaster University SharePoint account to allow for remote analysis in compliance with
COVID-19 work policies. Collected email information will be kept separate from other survey data to ensure
the anonymity of respondents. An archive of the data, without identifying information, will be maintained
until publication. This will be deleted following publication of findings (within five years). The electronic
cohort description data will be kept indefinitely as the data will be published.

Participation and Withdrawal

Your participation in this study is voluntary. It is your choice to be part of the study or not. If you decide to
be part of the study, you can stop (withdraw) from the study at any point before submitting your survey
responses. Once you have submitted your responses for this survey, your answers will be put into a
database and will not be identifiable to you. This means that once you have submitted your survey, your
responses cannot be withdrawn from the study because we will not be able to identify which responses are
yours.

Information about the Study Results

We expect to have initial analysis completed by early June 2021. A pre-print publication will be uploaded
to bioRxiv in by late June 2021. When our research article is published in a peer-reviewed journal, we will
make a summary of the publication available on the Truant Laboratory Website (https://raytruantlab.ca/).

Questions about the Study

If you have questions or need more information about the study itself, please contact us
at: truantr@mcmaster.ca, suartce@mcmaster.ca, or neumak4@mcmaster.ca.

Ethics

This survey is part of a study that has been reviewed by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board
(HiREB). The HiREB protocol number associated with this survey is 13184. You are free to complete this
survey or not. If you have any concerns or questions about your rights as a participant or about the way the
study is being conducted, please contact HiREB. The HiREB is responsible for ensuring that participants
are informed of the risks associated with the research, and that participants are free to decide if participation
is right for them. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, please call the Office
of the Chair, Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board at 905.521.2100 x 42013.