Is Data collection methods: description of the data collection methods is clear and appropriate? The researcher and author of this study, Paytan Mann, is a masters student at the University at Albany and pursuing a degree in Information Sciences for School Libraries. Her undergraduate degrees are an Associates of Arts in Liberal Arts from Finger Lakes Community College and a Bachelor of Science in English from The State University at Cortland. They are currently a full time student. This study was conducted for a course in the Information Sciences and Technologies department, IST 608: Research Methods. The training the researcher conducted prior to this study concerning qualitative methods was dominantly in literature reviews of qualitative data and also completed the CITI training on ethics in research. Interest in workplace ageism and psychosocial safety is important to the author as they have faced it, witnessed it, and heard accounts of many others combating it. The positionality of the author is as a caucasian woman in a middle class socioeconomic status and able bodied who is about to enter the professional workplace, but has worked many part time and often blue collar jobs previously to this. The author's partner and parents belong to blue collar jobs. The researcher is not currently working a blue collar job so they have past insider experience, but are currently an outsider as all participants of the study's work environment. Ethical considerations regarding her role as research were that she may be predisposed to believing workplace ageism is a real concern, however she does not have bias toward one age group or another experiencing it more often or more severely there is no anticipation of that being an issue. As the researcher she is removed, and does not know any of these people personally. Mitigating bias was conducted by performing a pretest with selected pilot participants. Non interference occurred with the questions being asked in not allowing leading questions into the interview or questionnaire, and only asking for clarification in a professional manner. Conversing with participants on a casual basis did not occur as it was kept strictly professional. Reflexivity, or critical reflection, on the data was continuous after each interview and as each questionnaire came and each individual experience was considered before compounding it with the group data. The author acknowledges their role as the researcher and aims to retell and present the data without personal feeling.

Is Data collection methods: description of the data collection methods is clear and appropriate?

The researcher and author of this study, Paytan Mann, is a masters student at the University at Albany and pursuing a degree in Information Sciences for School Libraries. Her undergraduate degrees are an Associates of Arts in Liberal Arts from Finger Lakes Community College and a Bachelor of Science in English from The State University at Cortland. They are currently a full time student. This study was conducted for a course in the Information Sciences and Technologies department, IST 608: Research Methods. The training the researcher conducted prior to this study concerning qualitative methods was dominantly in literature reviews of qualitative data and also completed the CITI training on ethics in research. Interest in workplace ageism and psychosocial safety is important to the author as they have faced it, witnessed it, and heard accounts of many others combating it. The positionality of the author is as a caucasian woman in a middle class socioeconomic status and able bodied who is about to enter the professional workplace, but has worked many part time and often blue collar jobs previously to this. The author's partner and parents belong to blue collar jobs. The researcher is not currently working a blue collar job so they have past insider experience, but are currently an outsider as all participants of the study's work environment. Ethical considerations regarding her role as research were that she may be predisposed to believing workplace ageism is a real concern, however she does not have bias toward one age group or another experiencing it more often or more severely there is no anticipation of that being an issue. As the researcher she is removed, and does not know any of these people personally. Mitigating bias was conducted by performing a pretest with selected pilot participants. Non interference occurred with the questions being asked in not allowing leading questions into the interview or questionnaire, and only asking for clarification in a professional manner. Conversing with participants on a casual basis did not occur as it was kept strictly professional. Reflexivity, or critical reflection, on the data was continuous after each interview and as each questionnaire came and each individual experience was considered before compounding it with the group data. The author acknowledges their role as the researcher and aims to retell and present the data without personal feeling.