Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Requesting an Account
  3. Project Setup
  4. Running Participants
  5. Project Closeout

Overview

The NDCLab uses the FIU SONA platform to collect data from members of the FIU community. In exchange for their time, participants are granted credits on the platform, which they can apply to some of their FIU courses. SONA can be used as the sole form of participant compensation for a study or used in conjunction with payment via cash equivalent or gift card.

Requesting an Account

To request a SONA “Researcher” account, e-mail the current SONA administrator (fiu.psych.sona@gmail.com).

Project Setup

To create a new study on SONA, you will set it up on the SONA platform, then request approval from the SONA administrator to make it visible to potential participants. The administrator will need a copy of the IRB approval letter.

  1. Inform the lab manager that you are setting up a new study on SONA, and request the associated IRB approval letter and eligibility requirements.
  2. Go to the SONA site and log in to your Researcher account.
  3. At the top of the page, on the blue bar, click “Add New Study.”
  4. First, select the Study Type that pertains to your project. This should have been part of the IRB submission, so talk to the lab manager if you are not sure what to select.
  5. Complete all the fields. See the table below for some helpful details on the main elements.
  6. Review all the advanced settings to ensure that the selections are appropriate for your study.
  7. Once your project is all set up on SONA, send an Approval Request (accessed via the “Change Study Information” link) to make the study visible to potential participants.
  8. E-mail the SONA administrator (see address above under “Requesting an Account”) and attach a copy of the IRB approval letter, which you can request from the lab manager.
Section Text Example Explanation
Study Name Individual differences in speech, reading, and mental health Participant-facing name of the study. Should be true, relevant, short, and not too boring. Must get George’s approval for any name to be used.
Brief Abstract This study aims to clarify relations between cognitive abilities and mental health. There are two parts to this study, each of which takes ~90 minutes and you will receive 1.5 credits for participating in each part (3 credits total). A short abstract of up to 255 characters, optional but recommended. This should be wholly consistent with the IRB-approved recruitment documentation.
Detailed Description This two-part study aims to clarify relations between particular cognitive abilities, personality and social factors, and mental health outcomes such as social anxiety. For Part 1 of the study, you will be completing a set of questionnaires and a set of behavioral tasks/programs online; the completion of all parts takes approximately 90 minutes. The questionnaires will be on RedCap, and the behavioral tasks/programs will be on PsychoPy. For Part 2 of the study, you will be asked to schedule and participate in a Zoom call with one of the researchers in order to complete a behavioral task and complete a few short questionnaires. For this portion of the study, you must be willing and able to turn on your webcam and audio, and be willing to record yourself by webcam. The completion of all parts takes approximately 90 minutes. A short description of up to 15,000 characters, optional but recommended. The description should not delve deep into the theory and should remain straightforward, without revealing too much about the study. This should be wholly consistent with the IRB-approved recruitment documentation.
Eligibility Requirements Must be between ages 18-24, fluent in English, have normal or corrected vision, no prior head injury, have a webcam to be willing to use for Part 2, must be willing to record self via webcam for part of study, must complete Part 1 for Part 2. The requirements for being able to participate. Cannot be greater than 255 characters. This should be wholly consistent with the IRB-approved recruitment documentation.
Duration/Credits Part 1: 90 minutes, 1.5 credits; Part 2: 90 minutes, 1.5 credits The length of time per study and how many credits may be granted, which must be evenly divisible by 0.25. (Note that the option for variable credit within SONA exists, however it is not contained within the study settings.)
Preparation For Part 1, you should be prepared to have a stable internet connection to complete a series of questionnaires and behavioral tasks remotely. For Part 2, additionally you need a working microphone and webcam. Any preparation a participant needs before starting each part of the study. This should be wholly consistent with the IRB-approved recruitment documentation.
Researcher (names) Your name will auto-populate. Always include the lab manager and the PI as additional researchers.
IRB Approval Code/Expiration (code, date) All studies must be IRB-approved. These details appear on the IRB approval letter.
Active Study? No For the initial stages of planning, keep the study inactive. You can switch it to active once you have approval and are ready to start running participants.
Study URL (link to REDCap screener) Potential participants will be able to access this link, so it can be used to direct them to the eligibility screener directly, which would be an instrument in your study’s REDCap project.
Researchers at Timeslot-Level Yes This enables you to assign a specific researcher e-mail to a given timeslot, which prevents all researchers (especially George) from receiving auto-notification e-mails about sign-ups on all lab studies.

Running Participants

Creating Time Slots

Once your study is set up and approved, you can create time slots for participant sign-ups. If you are running a synchronous study, you will want specific timeslots for each participant; if you are running an asynchronous study, you can create a mega timeslot for the entire semester and use a high “max number of participants” to run all your participants for the semester under the same timeslot.

You should set up all timeslots so that participants must sign up at least 24 hours in advance.

  1. Within your study on SONA, scroll down and click “View/Administer Time Slots.”
  2. Click “Add a Timeslot.”
  3. Establish the Final Participation Date and Final Participation Time. Though the start date of the study is variable (ideally close to the beginning of the semester), the end date of a SONA study should generally be the Friday one week before the academic semester at FIU ends. To find out when the semester ends (i.e, the last week of class before finals week), visit this link. Note that participants see this deadline when they sign up, so it cannot be changed after the time slot is created. (Technically it can be changed, but this leads to participant confusion for asynchronous studies. The extra week buffer is also to give asynchronous studies adequate time to crosscheck participation data and assign credits.)
  4. Ensure that the “Max Number of Participants” you have input is logical for your data collection plan and study team resources.
  5. Specify the location.
  6. Select the main researcher e-mail from the dropdown, which, in conjunction with the “Researchers at Timeslot-Level” choice you made in the study settings, ensures that only this e-mail receives notifications about signups and cancellations.
  7. Click the “Add This Timeslot” button.
  8. Navigate back out to the main study page, then to “Change Study Information.” Check to ensure that the “Active Study?” section is marked as “Yes.” If not, change it to “Yes,” and save your changes to make the study visible to participants.

Participant Cancellation

For synchronous studies, manage participant cancellation based on your dialogue with the potential participant. For asynchronous studies:

  • cancel when a participant completes the interest form but is NOT eligible for the study.
  • do not cancel when a participant signs up on SONA, even if they do not complete the interest form.

To cancel a participant:

  1. Under the “Study menu”, click on “View/Administer Time Slots.”
  2. On the timeslot listed, click “Modify.”
  3. Go to “Uncredited Sign-Ups” and scroll down to the participant you wish to remove.
  4. Click “Cancel” below the participant’s name.
  5. On the confirmation page, include a message to the participant, For example, for asynchronous studies, you might use: We are canceling your SONA sign-up as you did not meet our eligibility requirements. Thank you again for your interest in our research!

Granting Credit

Credit is managed within a given timeslot.

  1. Under the “Study menu”, click on “View/Administer Time Slots.”
  2. On the timeslot listed, click “Modify.”
  3. Go to the “Uncredited Sign-Ups”, and scroll down to the participant you wish to give credit to.
  4. Click the “Credit Granted” radiobutton for that participant, and click “Update Sign-ups”. They have now received credit, and will automatically receive an e-mail from SONA.
  5. If you need to assign partial credit, you can adjust the number of credits manually during this process.

End of Data Collection Period

When data collection ends for a particular term, mark all remaining participants who did not cancel but also did not receive partial or full credit as “Excused Absence.” This allows the SONA administrator to clean up things on their side but removes the risk that you cancel a participant who should be receiving credit. (This is primarily relevant for asynchronous studies.)

Project Closeout

When you will no longer collect data for a given study, make sure there are no active timeslots and no outstanding credits to be granted. Under “Change Study Information,” change “Active Study?” to “No” and “Save Changes.” The study will no longer appear on the list of active studies that are made visible to potential participants.