How to request a Researcher/PI user account:
To request an account please email psyrsch@auburn.edu. Please state which type of account you need. The PI account is the faculty supervisor. PI and researcher accounts have identical functions.
New IRBs
**If you plan to use this system for scheduling and recruitment, prior to obtaining IRB approval, you will need to set up a study (see below for information), print out a screen shot of the study information, and submit screen shot as Appendix B with your IRB protocol.
Department of Psychological Sciences Extra Credit Policy
Time value assignments should be determined in 30 min increments for up to 10 hours. Thus, a study which requires a participation time of 30 min or less should award ½ extra credit hour, participation times of 31-60 min should result in 1 extra credit hour, participation times of 61-90 min should result in 1 ½ extra credit hour etc. No single study should award more than 10 extra credit hours for participation, regardless of number of sessions.
Some studies require students to return for multiple sessions. Extra credit hour incentives are appropriate for these studies. Participants can receive an additional ½ extra credit hour per each two sessions of repeat participation. These sessions must be at least 1 hour apart and they must be part of the same study. Asking students to come back to participate in another study conducted by the same research group does not qualify for extra-credit incentives.
How to set-up a study:
Login to system: https://auburn.sona-systems.com using your research user account. Select "Add New Study" option from the top toolbar, and then select study type.
Add basic information (required)
- Study name: Short name of study
- Brief Description (e.g., take survey about online dating, make judgments about gambles, etc.
- Detailed Description of study
- Eligibility Requirements: Indicate of there are any restrictions
- Duration: The maximum amount of time (in 30 minute intervals) that your study will take to complete
- Credit Hours/Pay: indicate type and amount
- Researcher: Select your name from the researcher list; can select multiple researchers
- PI: Select PI for study (every study needs a Researcher and PI); it is the faculty supervisor
- IRB Approval code and expiration date: New protocols: enter 00-000 for IRB code and estimate date for expiration (usually a year). The correct information after IRB approval is granted.
- Approved? Note your study will not be visible to participants until you make a request to the administrator after you receive IRB approval. To make study visible, send email request (options on bottom of page after study is added to system). Additionally, submit a copy of your IRB stamped consent letter/form to committee (place in Malissa Clark's mailbox) along with Appendix B. Approval will be granted in a timely manner.
- Active Study: when you are ready to post timeslots, select your study and then select “change study information”. Scroll down to “Active Study?” section and select YES. This will make your approved study visible to participants.
Note: The following distinction: “Approved?” actually refers to the Admin approving the study for potential participants to view AND the “Active study?” part refers to RESEARCHERS allowing participants to see the study information and timeslots.
Creating a screen shot of your study
After you have added your study by clicking the add study button at the bottom of the page, you will see a screen with your study information. If all information is correct, press the “Print Screen” key on your keyboard. Open a word processing document, and paste the screen shot into the document. You can adjust the size of the print screen in your document. Save and print a copy.
Some FAQs for Researchers/PIs
After adding a study, select "My Studies" from the top toolbar. Click on the study and then choose the Timeslots option. Click on the ADD A TIMESLOT option at the bottom of the page. You can also add MULTIPLE TIMESLOTS for consecutive times in one day.
The Department of Psychological Sciences has a policy that participants receive 0.5 hours of extra credit for every 30 minutes of participation. The maximum allowed is 10 hours. NOTE: You cannot assign 1 credit hour for a 15 minute study (see policy outlined above).
You can select the two-part study option when you add a new study. You may specify the day and range for the second part of the study which ensures that participants sign-up for both sessions at the same time. Each part can have a different number of hours for credit.
After the participant has completed your study/experiment, select "My Studies" from the top toolbar and select the appropriate study. Next to the participant’s name, you can grant hours for participation or indicate if they did not show up (no-show).
Please refer to our detailed instructions.
- Select View/administer slots for your study.
- Select modify for any past timeslot; edit the number of participants to reflect the number of batch credit participants you will add for that timeslot
- Under the manual-signup section (last portion of the page); select BATCH CREDIT GRANT; type in student user ids (auburn 7 letter id used in email) and provide omment (optional); you can copy user IDs from a excel or word document; NOTE: you can only batch credit 20 participants at one time; Click “go to confirmation page”; the default credit amount will be the one you selected for your study.
Contact the administrator (psyrsch@auburn.edu) to request an account. Please specify the type of account (e.g., Researcher, Principal Investigator, or Instructor). Note: You can have more than one type of account, but you will have a unique user ID per account type.
You can setup a web-based questionnaire in the system or provide a link to an external URL. Please contact the administrator for documentation on setting up a questionnaire in the system. You should setup the questionnaire with one timeslot containing the maximum number of participants as well as the last date and time that they can participate. NOTE: you will need IRB approval to post questionnaires online.
PIs and Researchers can perform the same functions in the system. All studies must have a designated PI and researcher, however, the PI setup allows the PI to monitor their studies while allowing researchers the ability to run the studies.
Alabama State Law requires students less than 19 years old to obtain parental consent prior to participating in research studies. Each study has its own parental consent form for minors. Therefore, students will need to contact researchers prior to participating in the study to obtain a parental consent form. Students under 19 years of should get their parent/guardian’s s signature prior to participating in the study.