Discussion
RECRUITMENT
Online studies offer the potential for efficient and practical recruitment of large numbers of participants within a relatively brief period. However, our experience illustrates that this is not always necessarily a good thing. Without appropriate monitoring and safeguards, online studies are potentially vulnerable to abuse and ‘careless’ responses, each of which undermines study validity [Three study design features contributed to the exploitation of our study and consequent wastage of research data. First, financial incentives may improve response rates [We offer some suggestions for other researchers planning online studies based on our experience and that of others (Table Suggestions to protect the integrity of online research