Explanatory Statement - Ghana

This research is being conducted to assess the effectiveness of a game that teaches critical thinking. The game covers the topic of vaccination. The study is being conducted by Emmanuel Awuni Kolog at the University of Ghana in collaboration with John Cook at the University of Melbourne. The game and survey will take up to 60 minutes to complete. You are invited to take part in this study. Please read this Explanatory Statement in full before deciding whether or not to participate in this research. If you would like further information regarding any aspect of this project, you are encouraged to contact the researchers via the phone numbers or email addresses listed. You were chosen for this research because you have indicated that you are an adult living in Ghana.

Benefits/Risks of the Study This game aims to help individual participants become more accurately informed about vaccination and better able to identify vaccine misinformation. There are no risks to participants and all information that is recorded will be completely confidential.

Confidentiality The data recorded through this survey is completely anonymous at the point of collection, and the research team will not have access to participant’s identifying information. Once collected, the already anonymous individual responses may be summarised for use in reports, journal articles, and conference papers. The fully anonymous data may also be provided to other researchers through an open science platform. The anonymous survey data will be stored on a password-protected University of Melbourne computer and destroyed after 5 years.

Withdrawal from Study You may decide not to participate in the research after reading this explanatory statement and have the right to withdraw from the research at any time. To withdraw, follow the Settings link on the About screen within the game – then uncheck “Allow collection of anonymous game data.” This will automatically withdraw you from the research study.

Contact for Additional Information This research is being conducted by Emmanuel Awuni Kolog at the University of Ghana in collaboration with John Cook at the University of Melbourne. If you have any questions about this study, you may contact Emmanuel Awuni Kolog at the University of Ghana via email at eakolog@ug.edu.gh or by phone (0248271443) for questions or to report a research-related problem.

You may contact John Cook at the University of Melbourne via email at jocook@unimelb.edu.au during the study and in the future.

If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant in this study you may contact the Administrator of the Ethics Committee for Humanities, ISSER, University of Ghana at ech@isser.edu.gh / ech@ug.edu.gh or 00233- 303-933-866.