SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
LAB USAGE GUIDELINES
NOTE: ALL EXPERIMENTS MUST BE CONDUCTED WITH ETHICAL APPROVAL OF THE SCHOOL OF
ECONOMICS
Lab booking and subject recruitment
1. Lab booking. Researchers should coordinate with the lab manager to book dates for using
the laboratory. This should be done as soon as possible.
2. Time between sessions. Sessions must be scheduled with enough time between them. It is
imperative that subjects of one experimental session not encounter subjects from a previous
or subsequent session in the vicinity of the laboratory premises.
3. Recruitment e-mails: When recruiting subjects, details of the experiment or the
experimental procedure should not be mentioned. For most experiments the following
information is sufficient: date, time, location, and expected duration of experiment. Unless
only a flat fee is paid, subjects should not be provided with details of how much they will or
can earn.
Programming and softwares
Experimenters are responsible for the programming of their experiments and for pre-testing of the
experimental software. The lab manager will install the programmes. It is the responsibility of
experimenters to pre-test their experimental programmes.
Test and pilot experiments
Only experiments that have been previously tested at the lab can be actually run. A pilot experiment
has to be run at least 2 weeks before the actual experiment.
Conducting the experiment
1. Early arrival. Experimenters must be at the CESS lab at least thirty minutes before start time.
Subjects often come early and the door must be opened for them so they can wait inside.
2. Professional atmosphere. Experiments should be run in a relaxed but professional
atmosphere. It is particularly important that subjects should not perceive experiments like
games or examinations.
3. If a subject causes troubles and is sent away, his/her name should be noted to exclude
him/her from further experiments.
4. Presence of investigators. Although experiments can be run by assistants, the principal
investigators must be present or easily accessible in order to solve questions related to the
implementation of the experiment.
5. Subject payment. Every subject who has registered for the experiment and shows up on the
appropriate day and time should get a show-up (or flat) fee of £3. In no circumstances
should the subjects earn negative payments. Researchers must have a procedure in place to
deal with the possibility of subject bankruptcy (such as providing a higher flat fee).
Participants should sign a receipt for the payment they receive after the experiment. We will
provide receipt forms and keep a copy of all signed receipts.
6. Cleanup. We expect all researchers to leave the laboratory in the state it was in upon arrival.
No experiment-related papers should be left on any desk, and all experiment-specific
software and files should be removed from the computers.
7. Cancellations. If a session has to be cancelled or rescheduled, all the participants present
should at least receive the show-up fee and £5 per additional half an hour spent in the lab.
8. Unexpected termination of experiments. In the case of a pre-mature termination of an
experiment that cannot be restarted, the experimenter will be obligated to pay the
participants the turn-up fee and dismiss the subjects. Regardless of the cause of a premature termination of an experiment, CEREP will not reimburse these or any other costs
incurred by the experimenter.