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Article History

Received: 16 December 2024

Accepted: 2 September 2025

First Online: 30 October 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage On April 30, 2025, August 2, 2025, and August 14, 2025, the corresponding author used Grammarly and Word to check for and correct grammar errors.

: All experimental procedures were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards for studies involving human subjects, as outlined in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its subsequent amendments, or with comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Duke University Campus Institutional Review Board (protocol ID# 2024-0149) on 01-23-2024. The study followed all relevant ethical policies for the recruitment and participation of human subjects.

: We sent each participant a copy of the consent form in advance of the interview. Once in the interview, consent to participate in the study was obtained via Zoom before the interview began. We obtained oral consent because participants were in different locations from the research team. Consent was obtained before the interviews, which were conducted in January and March 2024. To obtain consent, a study team member turned on the audio recording (video was disabled) and read the consent script aloud to the participant. The study team member answered any questions about the study. During the consent process, the study team member emphasized the portion of the consent script stating that participants have the right to choose not to participate and that if they choose to participate, they have the right to stop at any time. The consent included a statement that the study was to learn about the participant’s thoughts on convergence research. The interviewer informed the participant that the conversation would be recorded, and the recording could be paused if the conversation veered off topic or broached confidential issues for the participant’s protection. The interviewer informed the participant that the content of the conversation may be used in publications or presentations. Furthermore, the interviewer stated that we would not use the participant’s name or include identifying information, but we may directly quote them without attribution. The team member informed the participant that the research team would do everything possible to protect the participant’s privacy, for example, by storing their data on a secure server vetted by Duke University. The researcher also informed the participant that there is always a slight chance that someone could find out about the conversation. The interviewer answered all questions about the study in a neutral manner, maintaining a neutral tone of voice, regardless of the participant’s decision, to avoid influencing their final decision. Informed consent was taken by asking the three questions on the consent script: Now I would like to ask you if you agree to participate in this study and to talk to me about convergent research. I’ll turn on the recorder now to make a record of your answers. Do you agree to participate? Do you agree to let me to tape record our conversation? Do you agree to be quoted directly? If quoted, we may include your broad discipline and status. If the participant responded with a “no,” the recording was stopped and erased, and the interviewer did not proceed with the interview. The study team sent participants the Study Information Sheet with contact information for the PI and the Campus IRB by email after the interview.