Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this survey.

The survey is part of a project carried out by the International Communication Association (ICA) in collaboration with LMU Munich’s Department of Media and Communication. The purpose of the survey is to assess academic freedom and various forms of occupational intimidation as experienced by communication scholars.

Your participation in this research is voluntary. You can stop answering questions and have your data deleted at any time during the survey, and you are not required to answer any questions you do not want to answer. Refusal to take part in or withdrawal from this study will involve no penalty.

The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Data will be collected using SoSci Survey, hosted at LMU Munich, in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We will keep your responses strictly confidential. We will collect no personal identifying information or IP addresses.

Data collected through this survey will be used for ICA reports and academic publications. Results will be reported in aggregated form.

Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich (reference 2026-06).

If you have any questions about the survey or your privacy rights, please contact Dr. Thomas Hanitzsch at LMU Munich.