Table 1.

Examples of items personalized in our survey questionnaire showing extent of personalization required to generate n = 285 unique questionnaires

Type of information	Generic wording	Personalized wording (based on target study publication)	Total number of unique fields
Study title, journal, and year of publication	Your study was randomly selected for this survey	Your study (A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effect of a Handwashing-Promotion Program in Chinese Primary Schools,) published in [Am J Trop Med Hyg (2007)] was randomly selected for this survey	285
Research ethics approval	Did you seek ethics approval to conduct the study?	[Our review of your paper indicates that research ethics approval was (sought) (not sought) to conduct the study. Is this correct?]	2
Type of committee	How many ethics committees did you approach?	How many [institutional review boards (IRBs)] [Research Ethics Boards (REBs)] [Research Ethics Committees (RECs)…] did you approach?	13
Study permission	Did one or more gatekeepers provide agreement or consent to the clusters’ involvement in your study?	Did any (school principals or school district administrators) provide agreement or consent to the involvement of (schools) in your study?	93
Any other permission	Did you seek approval from anyone else to conduct the study?	Did you seek approval from anyone else, such as: (Ministry of Education, Department of Public Health, or school advisory board,) to conduct the study?	16
Unit of randomization	Was consent sought before randomization of clusters?	Was consent sought before randomization of (schools)?	138
Cluster level participants	Did cluster-level participants in the intervention arm provide consent?	Did (the teachers) in your intervention arm consent to receiving the study interventions?	98
Individual level participants	Did individual level participants provide consent?	Did (parents or guardians of students) consent to the collection of data in your study?	113