ACMS Survey Submission Guidelines

Sending a survey to ACMS members

Those who wish to send a survey to the ACMS membership related to Mohs surgery, pathology, reconstruction, dermatologic oncology, or other similar topic may submit it for review and approval by the Executive Committee of the ACMS Board of Directors.

Qualifications
Only ACMS members in good standing or residents/fellows-in-training collaborating with and approved by a member surgeon will have their surveys reviewed. Surveys submitted by non-members will not be considered.

Submission Criteria
The following are required in order for a survey to be considered for dissemination to membership:

1. Final survey questions (in Word or PDF format) and response options
2. Survey link (SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, REDCap, or other similar tool)
3. Introductory message (no more than 2 paragraphs) that will accompany the survey link, to include the following:
   1. Survey topic
   2. Description of the purpose of the survey, what data is being collected, etc.
   3. Survey author’s name and institution, accompanied by collaborating member’s name and institution (if different)
   4. What you plan to do with the results/findings
   5. Response deadline (not required if open-ended, but is recommended)
4. Estimated length of time to complete survey
5. Documentation of IRB approval or exemption (see section below)

All materials above must be sent to info@mohscollege.org.

Documentation of IRB approval or exemption
The goal of the ACMS in facilitating the distribution of surveys to members is to aid in the collection of data that will advance the knowledge base of the practice of Mohs Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology. Publication of the results of these inquiries provides optimal dissemination of new knowledge. Almost all medical journals require documentation of IRB review of studies involving human subjects (the respondents). Depending on the survey content and target audience, individual IRBs may consider a survey to be exempt, give it expedited status or require a full review. The publishing journal will want documentation that the survey was presented to an IRB and its status, even if it was deemed to be exempt from IRB review. The determination of exempt status must be made by the IRB, not the individual researcher. Most IRBs will not act upon a request for review after the data has been collected. To assure a better probability of publication and to conform to accepted ethical standards, the ACMS requires that all requests for survey distribution be accompanied by documentation of IRB status.

Approval
The criteria listed above are shared with the Executive Committee one week in advance of its conference calls, which take place every 4-6 weeks. Staff are notified of survey review status and will in turn notify survey authors within three (3) business days. All criteria must be met for consideration. The Executive Committee reserves the right to deny approval for any reason.

Distribution
If approved, the survey/description will be shared with ACMS members in three ways:

1. Inclusion in a monthly survey distribution email sent to all ACMS members, associate applicants and fellows-in-training (about 1,600+ recipients); this will include any surveys approved since the previous month's message (usually not more than two surveys in a given month). Surveys will appear in the order they are received for review.
2. Inclusion of one follow-up reminder in the biweekly ACMS news brief, The Cutting Edge.
3. Placement on the Member Surveys page of the ACMS website.

The following message will accompany the survey(s): NOTE: This survey is being distributed at the request of an ACMS member in good standing for the purposes of research/data collection, and has been reviewed and approved for distribution by the Executive Committee of the ACMS Board of Directors.

No standalone reminders or follow-up messages will be sent.

Publishing follow-up
Authors of surveys sent to membership are asked to send the ACMS a link to or copy of any article/study published using survey findings, so that the results can be shared with the membership.