The AUGS Research Committee and the Website Sub-Committee of the Public Relations Committee have jointly designed this section as a resource for clinical researchers and investigators. It is meant to serve as a repository of tools that can be utilized for researchers in the field of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.

Both AUGS committees are dedicated to keeping the resources updated to the best of our ability. If there is a specific tool that you feel would be a good resource for other researchers that is not currently available, please inform us at: info@augs.org.

Disclaimer: Inclusion of a research tool does not imply the AUGS Research Committee’s approval, and it is up to the individual researcher to determine the appropriateness of the tool for their project. Additionally, many of the resources for use of tools require permission for use, and/or a fee for their use for research. It is also important to understand that a survey tool is only as good as its validation. The scoring system and validation of survey tools needs to be understood before it is applied to a desired population to be sure that the population is similar. Otherwise, it may need to be re- validated. (As an example, the survey on sexual impact for women with prolapse and urinary incontinence was recently validated in a Spanish-speaking population.)

Responsibilities: The individual(s) using these tools (and NOT AUGS, the AUGS Research committee or the AUGS Public Relations Committee) are responsible for the following:

• Assuring that you are using the tool(s) for its proper intended use.
• Checking to see if the tool is validated in the population you are using it for.
• Checking for accuracy of the references that are provided prior to publication.
• Checking to see if there are copyright infringement issues with utilization of any tool or survey.
• Checking to see if the instrument tool you want to use requires permission and/or a fee for its use.