Table 1.

Operational Definitions and Scoring Protocol

Respect for persons
Consent	Informed consent is the process by which researchers working with human participants describe their research project and obtain the subjects’ consent to participate in the research based on the subjects’ understanding of the project’s methods and goals. Scored as “yes” (consent reported), “no” (consent reported as not obtained), or “no information” (no information regarding consent reported).
Voluntary	Voluntary case selection is a form of case selection that is purposive rather than based on the principles of random or probability sampling. It usually involves individuals who agree to participate in research, sometimes for payment. Scored as “yes” (voluntary participation reported), “no” (involuntary participation reported), or “no information” (no information regarding voluntary participation reported).
Assent	The assent process is an ongoing, interactive conversation between the research team and the child, young adult, typically developing adult, or adult lacking the capacity to give informed consent. This provides them with the opportunity to leave or terminate the research study. This does not include guardians who give or withdraw consent. This does not include participants who miss, reschedule, or postpone a session due to illness, vacation, schedule conflicts, and so on. This does not include taking a break, pausing, or any other delays allowed during the research study. Scored as “yes” (assent reported), “no” (assent reported as not honored), or “no information” (no information regarding assent reported).
Beneficence
Quality of life	Any impact the experiment had that improved the participants’ quality of life. Scored as “yes” (increased quality of life reported), “no” (decreased quality of life reported), or “no information” (no information regarding quality of life reported).
Social validity	Social validity or significance includes systems and measures for asking for participant feedback about how the research goals, procedures, or outcomes related to their values and reinforcers. Scored as “yes” (social validity reported), “no” (social validity reported as not obtained), or “no information” (no information regarding social validity reported).
Dependent variables	A dependent variable is the behavior(s) being measured in the experiment. Scored as “behaviors to increase” (e.g., learning janitorial skills), “behaviors to decrease” (e.g., reduction in physical aggression), or “proxy behaviors” (e.g., button pressing).
Justice
Age	Chronological age—the number of years a person has lived (typically reported in years and/or months). Scored as “yes” (age reported) or “no information” (age not reported).
Race	A social construct that divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance (e.g., bone structure and skin color). Scored as “yes” (race reported) or “no information” (race not reported).
Ethnicity	A social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as a shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interest, history, and ancestral geographical base. Scored as “yes” (ethnicity reported) or “no information” (ethnicity not reported).
Religion	A personal or institutionalized system of beliefs and practices concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, often grounded in belief in and reverence for some supernatural power or powers, and often involving devotional and ritual observances and a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. Scored as “yes” (religion reported) or “no information” (religion not reported).
Sex	A medically constructed categorization. Sex is often assigned based on the appearance of the genitalia, either in ultrasound or at birth. Scored as “yes” (sex reported) or “no information” (sex not reported).
Gender	A social construct used to classify a person as a man, woman, or some other identity. Fundamentally different from the sex one is assigned at birth. Scored as “yes” (gender reported) or “no information” (gender not reported).
Household income	An economic measure used to measure the income of every resident in a household. Scored as “yes” (income reported) or “no information” (income not reported).
Education level	Level of schooling or credential. Scored as “yes” (education level reported) or “no information” (education level not reported).
Diagnosis	Nature of disability or illness. Scored as “yes” (diagnosis reported) or “no information” (diagnosis not reported).
Language/communication	System of communication, including augmentative communication systems, languages spoken, or modes of communication used within a particular community. Scored as “yes” (language/communication reported) or “no information” (language/communication not reported).
Marital status	The personal status of each individual in relation to the marriage laws or customs of a country. Scored as “yes” (marital status reported) or “no information” (marital status not reported).
Occupation	Type of work a person does (e.g., job title or industry) to earn money. Scored as “yes” (occupation reported) or “no information” (occupation not reported).
Collaboration
Identity	A community is a group of people that is interconnected by demographics or other social variables (economic, social, race, ethnicity, level of education, etc.). Scored as “yes” (identity variables shared) or “no information” (no information about shared identity variables reported).
Stakeholders	A stakeholder is a representative of the identity population or is explicitly stated as an advocate or ally on behalf of the participant of the research. Scored as “yes” (researchers are community stakeholders), “no” (researchers are not community stakeholders), or “no information” (no information about researchers as community stakeholders).
Research goal	A research goal is the purpose of the research study or experiment. Scored as “yes” (research goal developed in collaboration with participant), “no” (research goal developed by researcher alone), or “no information” (no information about who developed research goals reported).
Intervention	Interventions or treatments can be behavioral procedures, intervention programs, or independent variables being applied. The person implementing the intervention describes who set up the procedural arrangement in the environment (e.g., materials, setting, observation room) where the research is conducted. Scored as “yes” (intervention goal developed in collaboration with participant), “no” (intervention goal developed by researcher alone), or “no information” (no information about who developed intervention goals reported).
Generalization	Generalization is behavior change that has not been explicitly trained and occurs outside of the training conditions. This includes stimulus/setting generalization and response generalization; it is also called “generalized outcome.” Scored as “yes” (generalization reported), “no” (generalization not achieved), or “no information” (no generalization information reported).
Setting	The research setting is the place(s) where the research took place. Scored as “yes” (research occurred in the natural setting; e.g., living room of group home) or “no” (research occurred in analogue setting; e.g., observation room).
Funding source	Research funding covers any funding of scientific research (e.g., grants, scholarships, donations). Scored as “yes” (funding source sustainable; e.g., funds from local taxpayer), “no” (funding source not sustainable; e.g., National Science Foundation grant), or “no information” (no information reported about source of funding).
Maintenance	Maintenance is the extent to which the learner continues to perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention has been terminated (i.e., response maintenance); it is a dependent variable or characteristic of behavior. Scored as “yes” (maintenance reported), “no” (maintenance not achieved), or “no information” (no maintained information reported).
Empowerment	Empowerment  refers to acting volitionally, based on one’s own mind or will, without external compulsion. For example, having a variety of available options and to be free from coercion when choosing between options. Scored as “yes” (skills to increase empowerment reported), “no” (skills reported did not improve empowerment), or “no information” (no information regarding whether researchers taught empowerment reported).

Note. All “yes” responses are scored as 1; all “no” and “no information” responses are scored as 0.