Making questionnaires easier to reuse: a call for standardized reporting of copyright and permission information.

Abstract

Published studies reporting newly developed questionnaires often provide detailed information on development and validation but do not clearly report how the questionnaire can be reused. Basic information such as copyright ownership, licensing, permission requirements, fees, and conditions for translation, modification, reproduction, or distribution may be missing or difficult to locate. Existing guidance, including COSMIN, focuses on methodological quality and measurement properties rather than reuse conditions. We propose that every study reporting the development of a questionnaire, scale, or structured measurement instrument include a standardized instrument reuse and licensing information table. This table should clearly report the copyright holder, applicable licence, permission and payment requirements, permitted uses, modification and translation conditions, reproduction and distribution requirements, and contact details. Such a simple reporting practice would reduce uncertainty, save researchers time, and promote transparent, reproducible, and responsible reuse of validated measurement instruments. A questionnaire should not only be validated for use; its conditions for reuse should also be clearly reported.