Identifying and Managing Fraudulent Participants in Online Qualitative Research

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Data Integrity

Background:

• Online data collection is increasing, posing challenges for healthcare researchers regarding fraudulent participants.
• Limited nursing literature addresses fraudulent participation in online qualitative studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• Highlight researchers' experiences with fraudulent participants in an online qualitative study.
• Increase awareness of imposter participants in research.
• Propose strategies to identify and mitigate fraudulent participation that threatens study validity.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative, descriptive study explored nursing professional development (NPD) specialists' use of practice judgment.
• Participants were recruited via email for online focus groups.
• Suspected fraudulent responses led to focus group cancellation and a review of recruitment data, resulting in a framework for detecting fraudulent responses.

Main Results:

• A high volume of applications, rapid submission, similar email addresses, and non-US IP addresses indicated fraudulent responses.
• Suspicious participant behavior in focus groups (e.g., no cameras, lack of meaningful responses) further confirmed fraud.
• A framework was developed to detect fraudulent responses in qualitative research recruitment.

Conclusions:

• Recruitment data analysis suggests potential bot usage for volunteer survey completion.
• Qualitative researchers must implement robust measures to prevent fraudulent participants.
• Enhancing data scanning protocols and excluding fraudulent data are essential for maintaining research integrity.