RYERSON UNIVERSITYConsent to Participate in ResearchDefining Complex Female Protagonists in FilmINTRODUCTION AND PURPOSEOur names are Thomas Davies, Emma Macklin, Janice Lau and Taylor Banitsiotis. We are undergraduate students at Ryerson University working with our faculty supervisor, Professor Lorena Escandon in the School/Department of Creative Industries. We would like to invite you to take part in our research study, which aims to develop a clear definition of what a complex female protagonist is in film.WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DOYou are being asked to voluntarily complete this on-line survey. It involves questions about female protagonists in film and the accuracy of the Bechdel Test and should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. In order for all of your answers to be collected you must go to the end of the survey and click ‘submit survey’. This will demonstrate your full consent to participation.POTENTIAL BENEFITSThere is no direct benefit to you for taking part in this study. It is hoped that the research will play a role in helping the film industry identify and create complex female characters.WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL RISKS TO YOUSome of the survey questions may make you uncomfortable or upset or you may simply wish not to answer some questions. You are free to decline to answer any questions you do not wish to answer, or stop participating at any time by closing your browser. If you close your browser before getting to the end of the survey and do not confirm your consent to participate at the end of the survey by clicking the ‘submit’ button your information collected up to that point will not be used.YOUR IDENTITY WILL BE ANONYMOUSThe survey is anonymous and as such will not be collecting information that will easily identify you, like your name or other unique identifiers. Although your Internet Protocol (IP) address can be tracked through the survey platform, the researcher/s will not be collecting this information. Your IP address may be observed only to ensure that one individual is not completing the survey multiple times.HOW YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE PROTECTED AND STOREDThis survey uses Google Forms which is a United States of American (USA) company.Consequently, the USA authorities under the provisions of the Patriot Act may access the survey data. If you would rather participate with an email or paper-based survey please contact the researchers. Please note email or paper-based surveys may allow your identity to be known to the researcher/s but if you select this option your information will be kept confidential.To further protect your information, data stored by the researcher will be password protected and/or encrypted. Only the researcher/s named in this study will have access to the data as collected. Any future publications will include collective information (i.e., aggregate data). Your individual responses (i.e. raw data) will not be shared with anyone outside of the research team.When the research is completed, the researcher/s will keep the data for up to 3 months after the study is over.INCENTIVE FOR PARTICIPATIONYou will not be paid for taking part in this study.YOUR RIGHTS AS A RESEARCH PARTICIPANTParticipation in research is completely voluntary and you can withdraw your consent at any point up to clicking the submit button at the end of the survey. However, because the survey is anonymous, once you click the submit button at the end of the survey the researchers will not be able to determine which survey answers belong to you so your information cannot be withdrawn after that point.Please note, that by clicking submit at the end of the study you are providing your consent for participation. By consenting to participate you are not waiving any of your legal rights as a research participant.QUESTIONSIf you have any questions about this research, please feel free to contact the researcher/s.Supervisor:Lorena Escandon ( Lorena.Escandon@ryerson.ca Researchers:Janice Lau ( janice.lau@ryerson.ca Thomas Davies ( t1davies@ryerson.ca Emma Macklin ( emacklin@ryerson.ca Taylor Banitsiotis ( tbanitsiotis@ryerson.ca If you would like to receive a copy of the final report, please email emacklin@ryerson.ca . Note that if you email Emma, your identity will no longer be anonymous.If you have any questions about your rights or treatment as a research participant in this study, please contact the Lorena Escandon at lorena.escandon@ryerson.ca Please print a copy of this page for your future reference.