Who can enroll?
All M.Div., M.T.S., and M.A.C.P. students entering Duke Divinity School in 2020 are eligible to enroll.
What will participation involve?
If you enroll in the SEM Study, we will invite you this fall to:
- Complete two 35 – 60-minute online surveys
- Possibly participate in a 60 – 90-minute interview
- Possibly have your sleep and physical activity tracked
About every year for the next 10 years, you will be invited to participate in additional surveys, interviews, and other data collection opportunities.
What do I receive for participating?
In this first round, you will receive the following amounts of gift cards:
- Survey 1 – $30
- Survey 2 – $40
- In-depth interview (if selected) – $50
- Sleep and exercise tracking (if selected) – $75
What kinds of questions will you ask?
Our surveys will assess your current physical and mental health; demographic and background factors; and details about your friendships, social connections, finances, career path, beliefs, and attitudes. Your participation is voluntary. You may choose to skip any question you do not want to answer or to stop participating at any time.
How will the information I provide be used?
We take the confidentiality of your responses seriously. Your identity will not be knowingly disclosed to anyone outside of approved study staff members.
We will never report results that will identify individual participants in the data. We will take care to remove anything that might identify you, directly or indirectly.
The information you provide will be used to publish academic research articles and reports for denominational officials, divinity school leaders, and other relevant parties. Results may also be reported online, at conferences, in magazines, or in newspaper articles.
All of your answers to these questions will be stored on secured network drives managed by Duke’s IT Security Office or by our cloud service provider, Box.com. These drives are encrypted and protected by passwords and multi-factor authentication. Only approved study staff may view these data. Researchers from other universities may be granted access to the study data, but never any information that links your name or identity to the responses you provide. In the unlikely event of a data breach, you will be immediately notified.
All of your contact information is stored separately from your responses to survey and interview questions. These data are also encrypted and stored in a secured environment, separate from your other information. Your contact information is only linked to your responses through a unique study identification number that we will assign. Only a limited number of approved study staff who need to access this information to schedule follow-up interviews will be granted access to this information.