I am willing to help with research!

Please access a brief questionnaire to make yourself eligible to participate in future survey research opportunities.

Opt OUT of this research

Enter your phone number to add it to the HELPS Lab's internal do-not-contact registry for this project.

Additional information

Is this a legitimate communication?

The Human Ecology Learning & Problem Solving (HELPS) Lab at Montana State University-Bozeman has been conducting research surveys in the state of Montana since 2015. Many of these projects have provided benefits directly to the people of Montana. The present survey research represents a continuation of these efforts. Funding for this effort comes from the College of Letters and Science at Montana State University-Bozeman and from Montana INBRE.

Why did you send me a text?

Your cell phone number was acquired as part of a list of potentially eligible Montanans. While we appreciate that some people might see receiving a text message as intrusive, we viewed this as the least intrusive of our feasible options. We have always tried to minimize contact by phone call as much as possible. Further, text messaging is much cheaper than other potential methods, and we want to be good stewards of resources. This method also allows us to reduce our use of paper, ink, etc., in significant ways. As people’s communication habits have changed, some individuals have become harder to reach through traditional methods. Our primary goal is to collect accurate, representative samples of views in Montana. Doing that requires some changes to our methods.

Can you do that?

We have made every effort to comply with relevant laws and regulations. Survey research is explicitly exempted from the National Do Not Call Registry, as it can serve a vital role in the policymaking process. Further, our specific contact process is compliant with the requirements of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as amended and as implemented via regulation.

How do I decline participation?

If you take no action, you should not receive any additional text messages for this specific project. However, we also wanted to provide individuals with another method of opting out formally from this project. If you wish to pursue this route, click on the link under the “Opt OUT of this research” heading at the top of this page. The opt out procedure is quicker and easier than the process of opting in.

What happens if I participate?

If you decide to participate, you will click on the link under the “I am willing to help with research!” heading at the top of this page. This link will provide some additional information and send you to a brief research survey that will collect some basic contact and demographic information from you. The collection of this information is necessary so that we can ensure that additional research surveys are reaching representative samples.

There will never be any financial cost to you for participating, and you will never be asked to buy anything. Your name will not be linked to your survey responses, and we will store your information on secure servers and in ways that respect your privacy. We expect that providing answers to the questions in the survey presents no greater risk than everyday use of the internet. The database information will not be sold to outside parties and will remain under our control.

Your completion of the survey constitutes your permission to contact you via text and/or email about future opportunities. We anticipate that the next survey research project will be the 2022 Treasure State Poll in November 2022, though other opportunities could be sent to you before then. We do not expect to contact any individual frequently about opportunities. You will never have any obligation to participate in a given research project, and you will always be presented with an opportunity to opt out from the list.