DR@W Umbrella Criteria
Types of studies: The platform will cover laboratory and online studies in the following three
categories.
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

1.
Individual decision making
Group decision making
Strategic interactions
Please summarise the methodology to be used.
Methodology: Proposed research employs interdisciplinary methodology from economics,
psychology, statistics and other disciplines. The majority of studies covered by the platform will be
organized according to the following procedure:
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

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Formulating theoretical hypotheses
Data collection
Data analysis
Reporting/divulgating results
Tasks: The platform will cover a variety of specific and general research tasks.
Examples of specific research tasks include:
 Revealed preference tasks – asking study participants about their preferences among
several alternatives.
 Strength of preference tasks – asking study participants to indicate how sure they are
about their replies in a question.
 Memory tasks – asking study participants to reconstruct information from the memory.
 Sampling tasks – asking study participants to sample from each of the available alternatives
before choosing a preferred one.
 Reasoning tasks – asking study participants to provide reasons for their decisions.
 Judgment, cognition, and confidence tasks – asking study participants to make judgements
or state their level of confidence.
 Discounting and time delay tasks – asking study participants to choose between an option
at present time versus an option in the future.
 Coordination tasks – asking study participants to play a game where their task is to
coordinate/ not to coordinate with other people.
 Debriefing tasks – explaining to study participants what will be happening/ has happened
in the study
 Distraction tasks – activities designed to distract the attention of study participants from
the main task of the study
 Forecasting tasks – asking study participants to forecast what will happen in the future
 Structured and free-form communication – asking study participants to communicate with
each other or the researcher
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
Experimental markets – asking study participants to make decisions as if they are
competitors on the same market
Games and strategic interactions – asking study participants to play a game or to interact
with other participants in the study.
Examples of general tasks include:
 Demographic questionnaires – questions about participants’ personal characteristics
 Ability measurements – questions about participants’ ability
 Measures of understanding – tasks which measure whether and to what extent
participants have understood instructions
 Measures of attentiveness – tasks which measure whether and to what extent participants
are attentive
 Wellbeing and life satisfaction measurements – tasks measuring participants level of
happiness or satisfaction
 Personality scales – tasks measuring personality traits of each individual
 Explicit and implicit attitude measures – asking for participants
 Knowledge elicitation tasks - for example, causal cognitive mapping, repertory grid,
pairwise comparisons and card sorts for similarity scaling and clustering.
 Watching video or listening to audio
 Behavioural tasks and questionnaires - tasks and questionnaires designed to measure
peculiarities of human behaviour
Additional non-invasive tasks:
 Eye-tracking – tracing participants’ eye-movements during the study
 Measurements of decision-making time and reaction time
 Tracking the positioning of the computer cursor/mouse
 Non-invasive measurements of the physical/emotional state (e.g., electro-dermal skin
activity, blood pressure, heart rate tests)
 Video and audio recording
Consultations with concerned communities: DR@W researchers will follow the ethical rules of
conduct customary to all decision making experiments. They will be encouraged to present
experimental design and solicit comments from the DR@W group at weekly DR@W Forum
research meetings. They will also be encouraged to conduct a pilot prior to the full-scale study in
order to address possible participants’ comments and concerns about the design.
Participants’ involvement: The majority of studies will ask participants to answer questions
and/or make decisions using
2.

the computer interface

paper-and-pencil questionnaires

oral conversation with experimenter and/or other study participants (which may be
recorded)
Please describe briefly any ethical issues and / or sensitive topics that will be covered
during the course of the project.
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There are no physical risks of any kind involved in studies covered by this platform and the
participation is voluntary. In some cases a specific disability might prevent a potential participant
to take part in the study. For example, if the computer interface relies on people being able to
distinguish different colours, colour-blind people will not be able to take part. In this sense, there
is a minor risk of potential exclusion of participants due to their inability to complete the task.
Prevention mechanisms for potential risks related to participants’ confidentiality are described in
Section D below.
How do you intend to handle these areas?
Participants will be protected in the following ways:
3.
•
Participation in all studies is voluntary. If at any point a participant wishes to leave the
study, they will be able to do so.
•
If a certain disability might prevent the participant from taking part, such potential obstacle
will be explicitly stated by the researcher in the invitation letter/study advertisement.
What possible risks are there for the researcher?
We do not foresee any risks for the researchers in the studies covered by the platform.
4.
Will you or any of the research team coming into contact with participants be required to
obtain criminal record clearance?
NO
If Yes, please confirm that such clearance will be obtained.
N/A
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Section C: PARTICIPANTS
Population
Participants in the experiments will be people who have reached 18 years of age. Participants in
the experimental studies will be recruited
 from student population of the University of Warwick
 from adult general population
1.
How will participants be recruited?
Students will be recruited using Warwick University’s SONA System:
http://warwick.sona-systems.com
or via on-campus announcements and advertisements
Members of the general public will be recruited via the recruitment websites
(http://www.maximiles.co.uk/), newspaper or other kind of online and offline advertisements.
2.
How will informed consent be obtained from the participants? (Please provide a copy of
any consent forms and participant information sheets to be used). If no consent will be
obtained, please explain why.
All participants are recruited for the studies by DR@W researchers via Warwick University’s SONA
Recruitment System. They are all informed of the potential risks of all studies, remuneration
mechanisms as well as informed about the confidentiality procedures followed by the DR@W
researchers. All DR@W participants are therefore required to electronically sign/acknowledge the
DR@W rules provided by email upon sign up and again upon initial sign in to the system. A copy of
these rules is readily available for participants to read through in the FAQs of the system and also
here:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/draw/experiments/participant_informat
ion/.
These rules play the role of the informed consent in the majority of studies. However, in cases
where in addition to the specific and general tasks researchers are using additional non-invasive
research tasks (such as eye-tracking or video and audio recording) or mild deception, researchers
should obtain written informed consent from all participants. Informed consent should also be
obtained in all studies where the granting institution requires obtaining consent. Draft DR@W
consent form is attached to this protocol.
3.
Will deception be used during the course of the research?
If yes why is it deemed necessary?
YES
Several studies will involve mild deception meaning that in these studies the incentive mechanism
will not be fully revealed to the participants.
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Several studies will involve mild deception of the following kind:
 Telling participants that they play against each other while in fact they are playing against a
computer, or vice versa
 Choice deception – people think they are choosing among one set of options when in fact
they are choosing among another set.
 Role deception – telling participants that they play one role when they are making
decisions while in fact they are playing a different role.
Should a study involve deception, it should be clearly stated on the online form for each specific
study and submitted to HSSREC along with the consent form and the debriefing form. All studies
with mild deception should be followed by the debriefing. At each particular case HSSREC will
decide whether specified deception falls within the scope of this protocol or requires a separate
application for the ethical approval using the standard procedure.
4.
Will the participant group include any children or vulnerable adults?
If yes, please explain the necessity of including these individuals.
N/A
NO
DR@W researchers wishing to recruit children or vulnerable groups of adults will need to
apply for a separate HSSREC approval using the standard procedure.
5.
Will participants be given payment and/or incentives for participating in the research?
Y/N
If yes, please specify level of compensation, and source of the funds or incentives.
The specific mechanism of compensation is determined by each researcher and will be stated in
the invitation email (with the only possible exception of some studies involving mild deception in
which case participants may not be fully informed about the mechanism at the beginning of the
study). Experimental incentives may be hypothetical, monetary or take a form of academic
credits. In cases where the compensation is monetary, the following rules will be observed by
researchers:
1. Every participant who has registered for the experiment, and shows up on the appropriate
day and time, must receive the advertised “show‐up” fee (if such a fee was advertised).
This does not apply to Participants who are late for the experimental session (for which
they have signed up).
2. All monetary compensations must be paid, in cash, immediately following the conclusion
of the experimental session. The only exception to this rule are studies which assume
delayed payments (e.g., studies on discounting) in which case the participants and the
researcher agree that payments will be made a specific date in the future either prior or
during the experimental session.
3. Cash will be paid to Participants in private, ensuring that other Participants cannot observe
their payoff.
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4. Researchers will make sure that participants will not make losses, i.e., earn negative
payments.1 Researchers will have a procedure in place to deal with the possibility of
participant bankruptcy (such as providing a higher flat fee or a “show‐up” fee).
5. Participants will sign a receipt for the payment they receive. Researchers will ensure
secure storage of receipts for a period of no less than 10 years, as per University guidelines.
Draft DR@W receipts are enclosed.
If yes, please explain the necessity of such compensation.
(a)
Conducting experiments under real monetary incentives is essential in several fields
because this is a conventional methodological requirement in these fields (particularly, in
Economics). Conducting an experiment in these fields without incentives will seriously
jeopardize the publication of results.
(b)
If a study is based on the previous literature where experiments were conducted with
monetary incentives, it is necessary to use the same incentive mechanism as in the existing
literature. Therefore, if a researcher conducts an experiment without incentives and
observes different results he/she will not be able to tell whether the difference in results
was caused by his/her treatment variations or by the incentive mechanism.
6.
What possible benefits and/or risks to participants are there to this research?
We do not foresee any significant risks to the participants. We also do not expect that the
platform studies will have immediate benefits to the participants (apart from the studies where
participants receive monetary payments for their participation). However, studies within the
scope of this platform have the potential to contribute to important literature on experimental
and behavioural science.
7.
What arrangements have been made for reporting the results of the research to and/or
debriefing the participants?
Studies which do not involve the use of deception will not require debriefing of participants.
Studies with deceptions should necessarily contain a debriefing stage. Furthermore, in the
majority of studies covered by this research platform there is no “right” or “wrong” ways to
answer experimental questions. Therefore, participants typically will not receive feedback about
their performance after experiment. However, interested participants will be able to request the
working paper(s) from the DR@W researchers.
8.
What qualified personnel will be available to deal with possible adverse
consequences/reactions to participating in this research?
We do not foresee any negative consequences/adverse reactions, the principle investigator of
each study will deal with participants’ complaints during the experimental sessions and, if
necessary, after the experiment.
1
In some experiments, participants may voluntarily spend their own money to pay for an item that they are given as
an option to purchase if and only if this possibility is made explicit in the invitation, participant makes this purchase
voluntarily and the informed consent is obtained from each participant prior to the beginning of the study.
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Section D: DATA
1.
2.
How will you ensure confidentiality? (Please give details of how and at what stage in the
project you will anonymise data)
•
Only the authorized DR@W researchers will conduct experimental sessions and have
access to the personal information (such as name, student number and e-mail address) of
participants.
•
Participants will not receive any information about payoffs and identities of other
participants in the experiment. Likewise, their own payoffs will be kept confidential from
the others.
•
Information about participants (names and other identifying information) will be kept
separate from the study data in a locked cabinet in a locked office at the relevant
participating Department both with keys that only authorized DR@W researchers will have
access to.
•
During the experiment each participant will be assigned a secure identification number at
random. The study data will include only this number for each participant. No private
information will be stored in the experimental software and participants’ answers will
never be associated with their names.
•
At the end of each experiment, participants will be asked to verify the receipt of their
payoff by signing the payment form. This form will be used only for accounting purposes
and will never be associated with the study data. Payment forms will be locked in a secure
cabinet in a secure office at the relevant participating Department and only authorized
DR@W researchers will have an access to them should they be required for the auditor’s
check.
Who will have access to the data?
Only authorized DR@W researchers will have an access to the confidential data where
each participant will be identified by a number ID.
3.
Where will consent forms, information sheets and project data be stored?
All documents containing personal information about participants (names and other identifying
information) will be kept separate from the study data in a locked cabinet in a locked office at the
relevant participating department both with keys that only an authorized DR@W researcher will
have access to. Study data, stripped off the sensitive information, will be electronically stored on
the relevant participating Department server. In compliance with the University of Warwick
guidelines, this server is equipped with 3 layers of security measures designed to protect the
security and confidentiality of the data. After deletion of all sensitive information, study data may
be used by individual researchers on their laptop or home computers. Yet, only authorized DR@W
researchers will have an access to this information.
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4.
For how long will the above data be kept and how and when will data then be destroyed?
The confidential data from each project will be kept on the server of the relevant participating
department for 10 years and will be destroyed thereafter.
5.
Is it anticipated that there will be any future use of the data and have the participants been
informed of this use.
We do not anticipate any future use of the confidential data from any of the studies. However,
such necessity may arise in which case each researcher should inform the HSSREC.
6.
Will any interviews be audio or video-taped?
YES
If yes, please attach a copy of the consent/authorisation form.
N/A
Some of the studies may be audio or videotaped. In this case, researchers should make this
fact known to the participants in the invitation letter (advertisement of the study) and obtain
consent of participants before the study begins.
Section E: PUBLICATION
1.
How will publications of research findings recognise the contributions of all researchers
engaged in the study?
Authorship of papers which result from experimental studies will be determined by the mutual
agreement between all researchers involved in each particular study.
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