About the Authors

Robert W. Aldridge

r.aldridge@ucl.ac.uk

Affiliations Institute of Health Informatics, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom, The Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom

Andrew C. Hayward

Affiliations Institute of Health Informatics, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom, The Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom

Nigel Field

Affiliation Research Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Charlotte Warren-Gash

Affiliations Institute of Health Informatics, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom, The Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, 222 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, United Kingdom

Colette Smith

Affiliation Research Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Richard Pebody

Affiliation Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom

Declan Fleming

Affiliation Pate’s Grammar School, Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Shane McCracken

Affiliation Gallomanor Communications Ltd, Bath, United Kingdom

Decipher my Data project and schools

Membership of the Decipher my Data project and schools is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. SM is a Director of Gallomanor Communications Ltd, a science engagement agency. DF reports personal fees from Gallomanor Communications during the conduct of the study; and was also a participating teacher whose school provided data that was used in the study. DF and SM took no part in study design and analysis, decision to publish. DF and SM created the data collection website (based upon the specification written by RWA) and were involved in preparation of the manuscript. CS has attended an advisory board for Gilead Sciences, prepared educational materials for Gilead Sciences, ViiV, Janssen and received sponsorship to attend a conference from Gilead. RP is acting head of the respiratory section at Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control, Public Health England. DF reports personal fees from Gallomanor Communications, during the conduct of the study; and was also a participating teacher whose school provided data that was used in the study. He took no part in the presented analysis of the data. SM is director of Gallomanor Communications Ltd that conducts scientific engagement work with schools. RWA, NF, CWG, and ACH have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RWA AH NF CWG CS. Performed the experiments: RWA AH NF CWG. Analyzed the data: RWA AH NF CWG CS RP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RWA AH NF CWG CS RP DF SM. Wrote the paper: RWA AH NF CWG CS RP DF SM.