Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who was invited to participate in the survey?
A: Eligible study participants had to either (i) hold a physics degree and be working/residing in Canada; or
(ii) be pursuing a physics degree at a Canadian institution.
Q: How was the survey conducted?
A: The survey was conducted using the "snowball" method. An invitation to participate was sent out to members of the Canadian Association of Physicists, sister scientific societies, and every physics department in the country. All survey participants were encouraged to share the link with any other physicists and physics students they know.
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Q: How many responses did you receive?
A: We received over 3000 responses. While not all of them will be admissible, the large majority of them are fully completed and will be included in the final dataset.
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Q: Are my responses confidential?
A: The survey is fully confidential, the raw data will be stored at CAP/Dalhousie servers and not shared with any outside groups. Only those directly involved with analysis of the data will have access.
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Q: Are my responses anonymous?
A: The survey is fully anonymous. All questions are voluntary, and responses will be reported in aggregate when there are fewer than 5 within any category in order to preserve anonymity. Emails provided at the end of the survey for entering a gift card draw and/or joining a mailing list for updates were stored in a separate database, and can not be traced back to survey responses.
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Q: When will we know the results?
A: We hope to publish the results of the study in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal by the end of the year.
Q: Will this survey continue in future years?
A: We hope to be able to make this an annual survey, and run it in partnership with the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Laurier Centre for Women in Science. However, in order to do this, we need to raise funds in order to obtain professional survey software and publish in an open-access journal, alongside other costs. Please see the 'Sponsorship' tab above if you are interested in learning more, or want to help out!
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Q: Did this survey go through formal ethics approval?
A: Yes, the survey design and questions were approved by the Dalhousie Research Ethics Board (File #2020-5261).
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Q: Why aren't I receiving your emails?
A: Sometimes our emails are flagged as spam, most commonly if you submitted a university email, since they are coming from a non-institutional address - canphyscounts@outlook.com. Please either add this email address to your "safe sender" list, or enter a personal non-institutional email to the mailing list below.
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Do you have a question that wasn't answered here? Please email us, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!