Conclusions
Conducting research remotely has many advantages, but it is vulnerable to manual participant deception and automated bots posing as genuine participants, which can disrupt research and lead to low-quality data. At the outset of planning a remote study, we recommend using CAPTCHAs, using at least one attention check question in a screening or baseline survey, writing a rigorous data management plan, including dynamic protocols that can adapt in response to changes in deceit [This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR; Public Health Research Program, #127651). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the members of the iDEAS research team and coapplicants of NIHR127651: Dr Colin Angus, Dr Emma Beard, Dr Robyn Burton, Prof Matthew Hickman, Prof Eileen Kaner, Prof Marcus Munafo, and Dr Elena Pizzo.Conflicts of Interest: GL, LD, MF, and SM declare no conflicts of interest. JB received unrestricted funding related to smoking cessation research and sits on the scientific advisory board for the SmokeFree app. CG and MO are paid scientific consultants for the behavior change and lifestyle organization “One Year No Beer” and provide fact checking for blog posts. MO and CG are also partially funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/W026430/1). FG is employed by both NICE and Imperial; he has no other conflicts of interest.S1: Social media advert on Facebook and Twitter (1) (September-November 2020).
S2: Social media advert on Facebook and Twitter (2) (financial compensation not mentioned) (December 2020 – March 2021).
S3: Social media advert on Facebook and Twitter (3), financial compensation mentioned, amount unspecified (March-June 2021, and during other advertising periods).Advert placed on NHS webpage.Primary Care Poster advert.Radio advert transcript.Email to suspected bots.Textbox S1. Email to suspected false participants, sent between October 7 and November 10, 2020
Textbox S2. Email to suspected false participants from November 11, 2020
Textbox S3. Email following spot checks where phone number was invalid or participant was not known.CONSORT checklist.