Researcher Resources
Researcher Resources
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| The Department administers a Study Pool (an online pool of current research studies from which potential subjects can select) in Introductory Psychology Classes (Psych 1) and Tier 2 (foundation) classes (Psych 13, 15, 16, and other selected courses/seminars) . Students in these courses may either participate in up to five study hours for course credit or complete alternate assignments determined by their course instructor. Members of the community are also encouraged to participate in these studies for pay. The Pool serves to introduce students to the process of psychological research and to provide members of the department with participants for their studies.
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Graduate students, undergraduate thesis writers, post-doctoral students, faculty and Board of Honors Tutors (on behalf of a student project) who have a direct connection to a Professor or Supervisor in the Psychology Department may apply to use this Pool for their research. As the Study Pool has been developed for the use of the Psychology Department, we do not make access available to researchers not directly connected to the Psychology Department at this time. If a non-departmental researcher is able to collaborate with a Psychology Department faculty member and garner their sponsorship, it may be possible for the researcher to apply to use the Study Pool. These rare cases will be taken up and reviewed by the Study Pool Committee on an individual basis. Only if the non-departmental researcher approaches the Psychology Department faculty member with a proposal that is directly related to research the faculty member is already conducting (and the relationship is therefore mutually beneficial) is a project of this nature considered eligible for review. |
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| The
Department's Study Pool Committee provides two principles to guide the
Study Pool in its functioning: If you wish to include
a study of yours in the Psychology Study Pool, you should complete a Study
Pool Application and submit it with your Debriefing Statement and CUHS
Approval Letter to the Study
Administrator via email. |
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| The
Psychology Department expects that all studies included in the Study Pool
will meet both the ethical standards of the field and the rules of the
University, particularly the following: |
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| When applying to the Study Pool, please submit: 1. your completed Application 2. your Debriefing Statement to the Study Administrator via email and submit: 3. your current CUHS Approval Letter. If you have a PDF version of this approval, you can forward it to the Study Administrator via email. Otherwise, please provide a hard copy of your CUHS Approval Letter to the Study Pool Office (234 William James Hall). Study Descriptions: When writing your study description to be posted to the Sona site, include the amount of time your study will take, what amount of payment or credit a participant will receive, whether there are any restrictions (e.g. right-handed college students only), and briefly what subjects will be asked to do (survey, computer task, etc.). Please be sure your study advertisement is equitable compared to the other studies listed. Do NOT say, “Participate in a 20-minute study for a half-hour of credit” or “Earn $6 for a half-hour study.” Please refer to the Compensation Chart for standard payment amounts. It is unfair to other researchers to advertise this way as these studies will obviously appear more attractive to potential subjects. Descriptions such as these will be edited by the Study Administrator. When your study is approved for inclusion in the Study Pool, information about your study will be made active on the Sona website. After you apply: Please allow a couple of days for your application to be processed. Your application will be read by two members of the Study Pool Committee before being approved. Once your study is approved, you will be given an identification number and a password to use in Sona in addition to a Sona User Manual. |
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Consent: Participants must sign an informed Consent Form before participating in any study included in the Study Pool. While you do not need to include your Consent Form in the Study Pool Application, you must submit it to the CUHS and receive approval on it before applying to the Study Pool. |
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Debriefing: Inclusion of a study in the Pool will be contingent upon certification by the Study Pool Committee (SPC) that participation would be educationally valuable. To determine this, the SPC must receive a Debriefing statement that you will provide students after their participation in your study. This Debriefing must include the following: 1. The questions, hypotheses, and issues that motivate the research. 2. The background leading to the research question being studied. 3. The logic that underlies the study, including identification of experimental conditions and how they relate to the hypotheses. 4. An explanation of how the data gathered from that participant will be used to address the hypotheses. 5. Definitions of any technical terms when they must be used. The Debriefing statement should be written in non-technical language, taking care to make it clear enough to be understood by participants operating at a 10th grade reading level. 6. A promise to keep participants informed of the results of the experiment. You can say, “If you would like to receive a report of this research when it is completed (or a summary of the findings), please contact (name) at (email).” Always provide your own contact information as well as your Principal Investigator’s. 7. An accessible reference for further reading. This reference must be found easily by students. We recommend including something that can be found via HOLLIS. If the reference is not available in HOLLIS, you must be able to provide this reference to the participant upon request. In the case of the latter, always have copies of this reference on hand to provide to participants quickly should they need it to complete requirements for their Psychology course. 8. Contact information for Jane Calhoun and the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects exactly as it is written here: “If you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this experiment, please contact Jane Calhoun (617-495-5459, jcalhoun@fas.harvard.edu), Research Officer for the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects.” 9. Disclosure Disclaimer. Add "Please do not disclose research procedures and hypotheses to anyone who might participate in this study between now and the end of the data collection (insert month, year) as this could affect the results of the study. Thanks for participating!" to the bottom of your Debriefing statement. Please see this Sample Debriefing Form (doc) (PDF) for a template. |
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Compensation: The Study Pool and the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects adhere to a standardized scale of payment for study participation. Please follow these standards when advertising your study in Sona and when paying your participants. Please round up to the nearest 15 minutes when determining the length of your study. The minimum amount of study participation for Study Pool studies is 0.5 hours. Participant Compensation Chart
Exceptions to this compensation chart include studies involving EEG, fMRI, psychophysiological measures, etc. that are pre-approved by the CUHS to offer more compensation. If you feel that your study may qualify for a special compensation, please contact the Study Administrator . Credit and Compensation: Researchers may offer either pay or credit for study participation but not both in the same award. Studies involving nominal prizes (e.g., earn $2 extra dollars or a small prize as a result of performance on a task) may be run for credit if (a) the prize is an inherent part of the phenomena being studied and not an inducement to participate and (b) the prize is not advertised ahead of time in the study description posted in Sona. Administrative Details for Studies Involving Nominal Prizes:
Reminders from the Business Office regarding compensation amounts:
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| Special Payment Instructions with respect to participants who are Foreign Nationals: U.S Immigration law dictates that we comply with rules regarding payment of participants in our studies who are not U.S. citizens. Failure to comply with these rules may result in the loss of funds for the Principal Investigators of the studies involved. In light of these federal regulations, we must run all participants in Psychology studies following this Protocol. Non-Resident Aliens who are affiliated with Harvard University (university affiliation is required) must fill out Part 1 of the Subject Payment Form and then the PI/Researcher (or designee) should direct them to the Study Pool Office at 234 William James Hall to complete a Foreign National Information Form (FNIF). Prior to participating in any studies, these individuals must submit a completed and signed FNIF with applicable supporting documents to the Study Administrator, so their eligibility can be determined.. No prior approval = no payment. Non-Resident Aliens who are not affiliated with Harvard University are not eligible to receive payment from Harvard for study participation at this time. Do not run any participant
who does not have this paperwork completed as this would be a violation
of federal law and may result in a loss of funds to your Supervisor. Please
have any nonresident aliens visit the Study Administrator in 234 WJH or
contact studypool@wjh.harvard.edu for instructions. Information regarding
this is also posted in the "Sign-Up"
section of the Study Pool website. You may refer participants to this
site for more details. Please print out these documents and post them in your lab for instructions on running all study participants: Payment Procedures for Human Subject Participants (doc) Quick-Reference Guide for Paying Human Subjects (Excel) |
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| Researchers must follow these steps with every study participant before beginning any study: Step 1. Ask the participant: Are you participating for compensation (Do not say “cash” or “gift card/certificate” as we cannot offer Foreign Nationals the option of payment via cash or cash equivalents. They must be paid by check.) or are you participating for credit? If participating for
credit, there is no further action necessary. If participating for
compensation, then proceed to Step 2. Step 2. Hand them the Subject Payment Form and ask them to complete only Part 1 of the form, explaining that this form is necessary in studies involving compensation. When they have finished filling out Part 1, check the form to see whether they are a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident. If they are a U.S. citizen (with Social Security Number - required only if study payment amount is $25.01 or above) or Permanent Resident (with a Social Security Number - required only if study payment amount is $25.01 or above) and a Green Card number), you can proceed with the study. If they are not a U.S Citizen or Permanent Resident, ask them to present their signed/approved Subject Payment Form received from the Study Pool Office. PIs/Researchers should check the bottom right corner of the form for the participant’s study eligibility dates to make sure the time period of the study falls within these dates. If they do not have this approved form or the date of their eligibility has expired, please send them to the Study Administrator in 234 WJH to get more information on how to become approved for study participation or for a copy of their approved Subject Payment Form. Non-Resident Aliens/Foreign Nationals cannot participate in studies until they have received prior approval for participation from the Study Administrator. Note: A Social Security number alone does not necessarily mean that the participant is eligible for payment. Many Non-Resident Aliens/Foreign Nationals have Social Security numbers. Participants who are approved Non-Resident Aliens/Foreign Nationals can only be paid via check for study participation and PIs/Researchers should make sure that this section of Part 2 of the Subject Payment Form is filled out accordingly. Non-Resident Aliens cannot be paid cash from a Subject Advance check or receive gift cards/certificates or from online payment methods (with the exception of the case listed below for participation in a study while physically located outside the United States). United States citizens and Permanent Residents can be compensated via check, cash or gift card/certificates. Do not promise anyone compensation until they have received the appropriate clearance. For payments $25.01 and above, you must indicate “CHECK” as the method of payment on the Subject Payment Form. The Business Office will process this payment when you submit the Subject Payment Form to them. The subject will receive payment within a few weeks. The completed Subject
Payment Form (Part 1 and 2) should be submitted to the Business Office
for processing as soon after the study appointment as possible. If payment
by check is indicated, the participant will receive his/her check via
mail. Payment Procedures for Human Study Participants (doc) Quick-Reference Guide for Paying Human Subjects (Excel) Template for Online Study Compensation (doc) |
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Study Pool Prescreening FAQ for Researchers1. What is the purpose of prescreening? The purpose of the online prescreening survey is to allow researchers to choose participants with particular characteristics from the Study Pool. The survey is not intended to supply mass data collection to test hypotheses, norm, or pretest materials, and so serve as a pilot or study within itself. The Sona Systems software we use to schedule participants has the capacity to allow you to contact prescreened participants through their identity codes (not by their names, to protect their identities) and invite them to participate in your study at a later date. Sona will also provide prescreening data output to you in an Excel format. Researchers will be able to view the prescreening questions and responses for only those participants who have signed up for their studies during the current semester. Some facility with Excel on the part of the researcher is necessary to analyze these responses, such as when individual items must be combined into a total scale score. Researchers are encouraged to share their prescreening data with one another if requested. 2. Who can submit materials for prescreening? Only faculty members from the Psychology Department are eligible to submit prescreening materials. All visiting faculty, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates must submit their materials under a faculty member’s name. 3. What types of measures can be submitted? Each faculty member is limited to 60 prescreening items per semester. All open-ended questions submitted must be answered in three words or fewer. The faculty member must describe the rationale for prescreening with these questions. All studies utilizing the measures submitted must have been previously approved by the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects (CUHS; see the CUHS website for information regarding approval of research). Both the title of the approved CUHS application and the CUHS Application number in which your prescreening questions were approved (found in the upper right hand corner of your Approval Letter, beginning with the letter “F”) must be included in your application. Disqualified questions
for prescreening include: To ensure that the prescreening survey is appropriate for all respondents, the Study Pool Committee reserves the right to edit or delete any items that are offensive. Questions tapping sensitive or private topics should only be submitted if there is clear justification for their inclusion.
A. Student participants: Students enrolled in courses offering credit for research participation will have the opportunity to complete prescreening questionnaires on-line once they register in the Study Pool website. The completion of the prescreening survey will award research credit (amount of credit may vary each semester). In addition, completion of the prescreening survey will provide participants access to studies for which they would not otherwise be eligible. Participants who have completed prescreening will be able to view and sign up for studies through Sona that those who have not completed prescreening will not. Student participants must complete the prescreening survey within the first three weeks of class each semester to be eligible for the extra research credit. B. Non-student participants: Paid participants may complete prescreening at any time during the semester. Completion of the survey will provide interested participants eligibility for more study participation. There is no direct compensation for completing the on-line prescreening survey. 5. How do I submit measures for prescreening? You can submit questions for inclusion in prescreening by following these steps: • Complete the Study Pool Prescreening Application Form. • Get prior approval for the use of the measure from The Committee on the Use of Human Subjects by submitting the prescreening items with your application to CUHS. CUHS must approve the use of the measure for that semester. • Submit your prescreening application on time. Deadlines for prescreening applications occur many weeks before the first day of instruction for each semester, with the exception of the summer session. Reminders of these deadlines will be e-mailed to department researchers each semester. The current deadlines are posted here: Fall 2008 Prescreening Application Deadline: Monday, August 18th, 2008 Spring 2009 Prescreening Application Deadline: Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 Prescreening
questionnaires will be presented with the items submitted by each faculty
member in a group, with the groups presented in random order. If there
are specific questionnaires that must appear either in a specific order,
or yoked with each other, please indicate this on your application. Submit
this form and any necessary accompanying materials to the Study Administrator
at studypool@wjh.harvard.edu. Prescreening Survey FAQ for Researchers (doc) |
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| The Study Pool operates
under the condition and assumption that both the participant and the experimenter
can engage in a cooperative interaction that contributes to the research
goals.
See Study Pool Operation Policy for Participants Although the Psychology Department and the IRB take every precaution to protect Human Subjects from harm, researchers may encounter a subject who appears emotionally distressed or at risk of self harm. In these cases, it is the researcher's responsibility to provide assistance to this subject, if possible. Note: If the subject appears unstable to the extent that you are concerned for your own safety or for the safety of those around you, remove yourself from the situation and call 911 immediately. If it seems that the subject is an imminent danger to himself or others, call 911. Suicidal persons should not be left alone. If a subject is expressing suicidal thoughts, either escort the person to UHS (if they are a student) or call 911 OR call a friend or family member to escort the participant off the premises. If the danger is not immediate, you can offer a handout of resources to the participant and/or offer to contact a local Referral Clinic (below). In all of these cases, inform your Supervisor of the actions you took. Referral Resources From time to time people
contact us seeking help for psychological problems or trauma, or because
they are concerned about the well-being of a loved one. We are not clinical
psychologists, and cannot provide counseling or treatment. However, we
have compiled a list of local, national, and international health and
social service organizations that some people have found helpful. You'll
find that many of these organizations have links to other information
and resources on their websites. (Disclaimer: Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and is provided for general information purposes only; it is not intended to take the place of specific medical advice. Reference in this website to any specific organization or product does not constitute endorsement by the Psychology Department or Harvard University. Once you follow a link to another website, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.) Click HERE for a Printable Handout Version (doc) of the referral information provided below. HARVARD RESOURCES Services available to Harvard students Harvard
University Health Services (HUHS) (617)495-2042 or (617)495-5711 LOCAL (Boston Metro Area) HOSPITALS Bournewood
Hospital 1-800-468-4358 or 1-888-WIL-HELP [945-4357] Brighton-Allston
Mental Health Association 1-617-787-1901 Brookline
Mental Health Center 1-617-277-8107 (ask for the Intake Coordinator) Cambridge Health Alliance Dept of Psychiatry 1-617-665-1560 (emergency); 1-617-591-6033 (outpatient/non-emergency) Cambridge
Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Social Service Dept 1-617-726-2000 (main hospital number); 1-617-726-2640 (Social Service Dept) Mass
General Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 1-617-726-2725 McLean Hospital 1-800-333-0338 (crisis) Mt. Auburn Hospital Psychiatry Dept 1-617-499-5054 North
Shore Medical Center Psychiatry Dept 1-978-741-1215 x2700 (weekly
outpatient); 1-978-354-4550 (psychiatric triage) St.
Elizabeth's Medical Center 1-617-789-3000, ask for Psychiatry HOTLINES Boston
Area Battered Women's Shelter 1-617-288-1054 Disability
Resources (compiled by the Pioneer Library System) Additional Resources: Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, by David D. Burns, M.D., (ISBN 0-380-81033-6, [c] 1980 and 1999, published by Avon Books, New York, NY) is a self-help book. |
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| As Presented to Participants If You Are Late In order to participate in a study, you must must arrive at an appointment on time. If you arrive more than 10 minutes after an appointment is scheduled to begin, the researcher is under no obligation to run the study or to award credit or payment to you. It is at the researcher's discretion whether they choose to reschedule the appointment. If You Are a “No Show” You may cancel an appointment in Sona Systems up to 24 hours before your scheduled appointment time. If you know that you cannot make the study appointment and you have not cancelled within Sona, you must call or email the researcher to inform them of this change (contact info is usually found in the appointment confirmation email subjects receive or is posted within Sona). If you miss a study appointment entirely and fail to contact the researcher by phone or email regarding the missed appointment (constituting a “No Show”), Sona Systems will automatically inform the Study Administrator and the infraction will be kept on file. Once you have missed an appointment, the researcher is under no obligation to reschedule the subject. Important: If you are Late or a No Show for TWO study appointments during the semester, regardless of whether or not these appointments are with the same researcher, you will be barred from participating in future studies for credit or for pay and will consequently be withdrawn from participation in the Study Pool for the remainder of the academic semester. If Your Researcher is Late or is a “No Show” In the event that a researcher is more than 10 minutes late or does not show up for a scheduled appointment, you are entitled to payment or credit (for the amount of time the study is supposed to allot) plus a Debriefing Form from that particular study. If the researcher is late, you can receive this payment or credit from the experimenter when they arrive or from another authorized lab member. If the researcher does not show up (constituting a “No Show”), you should call or email the researcher directly (contact info is found next to the study descriptions in Sona) to make arrangements to receive payment or credit and the Debriefing form. All Late and No Show Researchers are to be reported by subjects to: review@wjh.harvard.edu. For questions concerning this policy, please contact the Study Administrator. Late / No-Show Policy (doc) Special Note to Researchers: If you are a No Show for one appointment with a participant, you will be reported by the Study Administrator to your graduate student supervisor/Principal Investigator. If you are a No Show for two appointments, you will be reported to your supervisor and a recommendation will be made to revoke certain research privileges. If you need to cancel a scheduled appointment with a subject, you need to give the subject at least 24 hours notice. Subjects may check their email only once a day, so cancellations should be made as much in advance as possible. In case of emergency, you should notify someone working in your lab to be at the designated meeting place at the scheduled time to award credit or payment to that subject in your absence. If you are a cell phone carrier, it is a good idea to program lab members' numbers into your phone so you have these on hand in the event of an emergency. If you fail to keep an appointment with a participant and have to cancel within less than 24 hours of the scheduled appointment time, you must: 1) Inform the Study Administrator by email immediately. 2) If the subject was participating for credit, you should award that participant full credit within Sona as if they had participated in the study. 3) If the subject was participating for compensation, you should make every effort to reschedule them or find another appointment (within your lab or with another Study Pool researcher) during that scheduled time for that participant to do instead of your study. Regardless, all researcher cancellations under 24 hours must be reported to the Study Administrator. |
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| Capping
Policy for Study Participants |
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| 1. How are we getting subjects for the Study Pool? Where do they come from? 2. What
happens if I need to cancel my appointment with a subject? 5. How do I pay subjects using Sona? 6. Is there anything special I need to add to my CUHS application because I'm using the Study Pool? 7. My CUHS approval is under my sponsoring professor. What do I need to do? 8. When and how will I be notified about my study application after I submit it? 9. How do I get more exposure for my study? 10. How do subjects contact researchers?11. What happens if a participant cancels? 12. What do I do with records of subjects who are late or who are “no shows? ” 13. What should I do if I think my subject is not fit to participate in this or future studies? 14. How much pay or credit should I offer for participation in my study? 15. If I have a question about the Study Pool whom can I ask? 16. If I have Research Assistants, can they use the Study Pool, too? 18. I have a question about Sona. Whom do I contact? 19. I have finished running my study. What do I do to remove it from the Sona site?
1. How are we getting subjects for the Study Pool? Where do they come from? Recruitment for the Study Pool happens in a variety of ways. Currently, the students in all participating Psychology Courses are handed information in class about Study Pool participation and given the link to the website. As we also encourage members of the community to become participants, we are recruiting through various newspapers and internet sites in and around Harvard University and the Greater Boston Area. If you have an idea for recruitment, please let the Study Administrator know as we are always looking for more ways to advertise research participation opportunities. 2. What happens if I need to cancel my appointment with a subject? If you fail to keep an appointment with a participant and have to cancel within less than 24 hours of the scheduled appointment time, you must: 1) Inform the Study Administrator by email immediately. 2) If the subject was participating for credit, you should award that participant full credit within Sona as if they had participated in the study. 3) If the subject was participating for compensation, you should make every effort to reschedule them or find another appointment (within your lab or with another Study Pool researcher) during that scheduled time for that participant to do instead of your study. For the full details on cancellations, click here. 3. What happens if I am late to an appointment with a subject? If a researcher is more than 10 minutes late to an appointment, they are required to award payment or credit to the subject as if they had participated in the study. They are also required to provide a Debriefing Statement to the subject, if asked. It is expected that researchers will always be prompt to study appointments. See the Late/No Show Policy for details. 4. Can I run “Walk-ins” using Sona? Yes, you can. Walk-ins for Pay or Credit can be done easily using Sona. If a Walk-in comes up without having used Sona to schedule an appointment, you can still keep track of payment and give credit by: 1. Asking if they have an Sona account. If they do, you can log in to your study and add them to your schedule and then give direct credit or denote payment. 2. If they do not have an Sona account, please give them the opportunity to sign up for one on a nearby computer either before or after their session with you. After they log in as a new user with their new password, they can then receive credit or be checked off as paid in Sona. 5. How do I pay subjects using Sona? Payment is not done
automatically through Sona. You must pay your subjects once they have
completed the study. After you have paid them, you then log back in to
your study account and denote "0" in the "Credit"
field and then write the amount you paid them in the "Comment"
field. This lets us know how many people were paid versus how many were
run for credit in each study. It is also important to track the subject's
participation as participation in your study may or may not make them
eligible to participate in others. The participant's status will be "pending"
until you award them either pay or credit within Sona. If you do not do
this within 72 hours of the time you run the participant, they may contact
you directly to ask you to update their status. 6. Is there anything I need to add to my CUHS application because I'm using the Study Pool? Yes, if you already received your CUHS Approval Letter and it does not say “Approved for use in the Study Pool” in the Notes section, email Jane Calhoun and letting her know that you would like to use the Study Pool to recruit subjects. If you then receive an approval email in response, you may forward this directly to the Study Administrator. 7. My CUHS approval is under my sponsoring professor. What do I need to do? Email Jane Calhoun (jcalhoun@fas.harvard.edu ) and ask whether your Professor's CUHS application qualifies for use in the Study Pool. You may then forward the CUHS email response to the Study Administrator.
You will be notified within a few days after you have turned in a complete and thorough application if your study has already been approved by the CUHS for use in the Study Pool. If your application is waiting on CUHS approval when you apply to the Study Pool, then you will be notified after the Study Administrator has received confirmation from the CUHS that it is approved. 9. How do I get more exposure for my study? The Sona study listings are reshuffled approximately once a week. You may also post fliers in William James Hall (near the side door in the lobby to the left of the elevators and also in the basement). Fliers may also be posted around campus – on the kiosks (these are removed twice a week) and in the Science Center . It is important that you follow the guidelines of the Study Pool on these fliers. Please be sure to include the name of your supervising professor somewhere on the poster. You should not (1) promise anything in addition to Study Pool credit (this includes money, candy or other incentives) nor (2) promise that participants will get more credit than the time they spend (e.g., "an hour's credit for half an hour's work"). Advertising or announcing such unfair incentives may result in the loss of Study Pool access for your research. 10. How do subjects contact researchers? Students may email you or call you from your study description in Sona. If they try to contact you, please acknowledge their emails quickly even if you are waiting until a later date to schedule them. At the very least, send an email stating that you have received it and give an approximate time that you will be contacting them with scheduling information. 11. What happens if a participant cancels? Subjects may cancel an appointment in Sona up to 24 hours before their scheduled appointment time. If a subject knows he/she cannot make the study appointment and has not cancelled within Sona, he/she must call or email the researcher to inform them of this change (contact info is usually found in the appointment confirmation email subjects receive or within Sona, next to the study number). See the Late/No Show Policy for more details. 12. What do I do with records of subjects who are late or who are “no shows? ” If a subject misses
a study appointment entirely and fails to contact the researcher by phone
or email regarding the missed appointment (constituting a “No Show”),
denote the participant was a "No Show" within Sona. The Study
Administrator will be informed through Sona when that participant has
missed 2 appointments during the semester and the infraction will be kept
on file. It is important to track these within Sona. Once a subject has
missed an appointment, the researcher is under no obligation to reschedule
the subject. If a subject is late, please note this in the "comment"
section within their appointment record in Sona. Always keep emails that
transpire between you and subjects. See the Late/No Show Policy on the
Study Pool web site for more details.
If, in the course of running your study, you become concerned that your subject is not fit to participate, it is advisable to stay calm, finish the study to the extent possible, and thank them for their time. Even if you finish the study early because you determine the subject cannot complete the tasks, you must pay or award credit to the subject and give them a debriefing form before they leave. Write down everything you can about your interaction with your subject and send these details to: review@wjh.harvard.edu . The cases of these subjects will be taken up for individual review by the Study Pool Committee. Subjects should be reported if they a) have provided false information in their pre-screening survey responses, b) appear mentally unfit to perform the duties required by the study, or c) appear emotionally unstable to the extent that the researcher is concerned. Also see the Protocol for Interacting with Participants. 14. How much pay or credit should I offer for participation in my study? You should offer credit for the time the study takes, up to the nearest half hour. So, a study that takes 35 minutes, for example, should give credit for 30 minutes (0.5 hour). Offering more credit than the time participants actually spend (say, an hour of credit for a study that only occupies 15 minutes of participant time) is unfair to other researchers and deprives the participant of the educational benefits of full participation. Please make sure that this is not the case with your study, as such unfair us of participation credit could result in loss of Study Pool privileges. Please refer to the Compensation Chart for details on payment or credit standards. 15. If I have a question about the Study Pool whom can I ask? Please forward all questions about the Study Pool to the Study Administrator at studypool@wjh.harvard.edu . You may also visit the office in 234 William James Hall with your questions from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. Sona office hours are generally held from 2-3pm daily, or by appointment. 16. If I have Research Assistants, can they use the Study Pool, too? It is up to your discretion
whether you share your Sona access with your Research Assistants. If you
choose to allow your Research Assistant to engage in scheduling and credit/payment
assignments, please send the Study Administrator an email, requesting
that your RA be added to your study account. Please provide the RA's email
address in your request, as this is required to set up a researcher account
within Sona. Assistants must abide by the same rules as researchers. They
are the researcher's direct responsibility. Research assistants can make
appointments with participants, give credit, and so on—as long as
they are working under the supervision of a researcher on a study approved
by the Study Pool Committee for Study Pool access. If an RA violates the
rules of use of the Study Pool, the researcher and sponsoring professor
will be notified. Research assistants who use the pool should become familiar
with its rules and procedures. Please teach your Research Assistants how
to use Sona or have them visit the Study Administrator from 2-3pm (or
by appointment) for a tutorial. 17. I'm a Teaching Fellow in a Psych class that offers Study Pool Credit. How does the Study Pool affect me? The Study Administrator will generate the credit reports for students in your particular class and email it to you before final grades are due. You do not need to do anything other than to encourage your students to participate in their credit hours early, to avoid the end-of-semester rush. If students ask you questions about the Study Pool or approach you with problems they encountered with Sona, please direct them to the Study Administrator . 18. I have a question about Sona. Whom do I contact? Please contact the Study Administrator with questions about Sona. Sona office hours are held daily from 2-3pm (or by appointment) in 234 William James Hall. 19. I have finished running my study. What do I do to remove it from the Sona site? When you have completed your study, please notify the Study Administrator by email. You can also remove your study from visibility within Sona. Also, by not adding any more available appointment times, your study will no longer be visible to subjects. |
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