Information on the aim and purpose of the test:
Question 4 asks whether longitudinal data were analyzed as part of the study and, if so, whether all waves of the study were reported in the research papers. Respondents who answered “no” to Question 4 were then asked Question 5 about the reasons why not all waves were included.
The pretest was designed to determine whether the list of response options in Question 5 was complete or whether additional reasons should be included.
Findings:
When answering Question 4, two test persons (TP02, TP03) initially selected the “No” response option but changed their answer to “not applicable” when they noticed this additional option.
“At first, I clicked ‘No’ too quickly because I hadn't read the part about the ‘cross-sectional study design’ yet. It's already highlighted a bit here in italics, but it might help if it were visually set apart again.” (TP03)
During the cognitive interview, five participants stated that they had previously analyzed longitudinal data as part of a research project but had not taken all waves into account. The reasons for this are listed in Table 5 (frequency distribution for Question 5).
All of these participants stated that the list of response options in Question 5 was complete; however, this was due in part to the inclusion of an open-ended “Other” category, which four of the five participants utilized.
