GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCHERS:
PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT RESEARCH PARTICIPANT POOL
1. All faculty planning to use the participant pool in a given semester must request hours, no later than one
week prior to the semester’s start.
--Hour requests apply to personal research as well as the time utilized by a faculty member’s 300-level
students, but these should be requested separately.
2. All studies must receive IRB approval prior to being advertised to students.
3. All student researchers who will have contact with participants must complete the departmental Research
Assistant training in the semester that they collect data (regardless of past training).
4. All researchers must receive approval from the Participant Pool Committee to have the study posted.
-The project description and IRB approval notification must be submitted to the Participant Pool Manager.
5. Procedures for research session
6. Procedures for awarding credit
7. Contacting students
8. A summary of all research findings should be submitted to the Participant Pool Committee
9. Missed appointments by researchers and technical difficulties.
10. No research study may use more hours than it was allocated. All allocated hours should be provided.
11. Withdrawal of Ability to Use the Pool
GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCHERS:
PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT RESEARCH PARTICIPANT POOL
Overview
The psychology department participant pool allows for the collection of data from undergraduate participants
in return for partial fulfillment of course requirements. All 100-level psychology courses require students to
participate in a set number of research credits either by participating in research studies or a reading-andwriting alternative. If students do not complete this requirement, their grade in the 100-level course will be
lowered by two levels (e.g., from a B to a C+). Thus, researchers play a role in participants’ grades.
In addition, researchers play an educational role for the students in 100-level courses. For many of these
students, this is their first exposure to the research process; through their participation they are learning how
psychologists conduct research. The presentation of informed consent, the research itself, and a thorough
debriefing is an essential part of participants’ education.
To familiarize researchers with how to use the participant pool, we have prepared this document explaining
the rules and regulations of using the participant pool, including procedures for gaining approval for a study,
the steps required in order to solicit participation in your research projects, and steps to give participants
proper credit for their participation. Please read this thoroughly, and if you have any questions about these
procedures, contact the Participant Pool Manager, Katherine Cotter (Kaufman 100, 717- 245-1446,
cotterk@dickinson.edu).
This document will specify tasks generally completed by faculty and those possibly completed by student
researchers.
1. All faculty planning to use the participant pool in a given semester must request hours.
At least 1 week prior to the semester starting, the faculty member in charge of the research project must
submit a request to the Participant Pool Committee. This request should encompass participants for the
faculty member’s own research, independent studies/honors projects, and 300-level courses. The request
should include the name of the project (or name of 300-level course), the length of the study (in half hour
increments), any specific questions to be used for prescreening, and the number of participants requested. In
a given semester the number of available hours (at the most around 800) is divided equally among all entities
requesting hours. 300-level courses receive their own allocation; if a faculty member teaching a 300-level
course would like students to use the pool, she or he should submit a separate request for the course. If a
request is not received before the due date, the pool cannot be used until the last 2 weeks that the pool is in
session (the last 2 weeks of classes).
The faculty member will receive notification of the number of hours allocated to her/him 2 business days
after the due date of the PP hour request. The faculty member may distribute the given hours among her or
his research projects in any way.
2. All studies must receive IRB approval prior to being advertised to students.
Generally, the faculty supervisor will complete the IRB application, although students may do so as well,
with the faculty supervisor’s approval. In the IRB application, researchers must specify that the participant
pool will be used for recruitment as well as stating the amount of credit the study is worth. The IRB is
familiarized with the mechanisms of the participant pool, so researchers need only indicate that this is their
chosen method of recruitment. All studies will be worth a minimum 30 minutes of credit. Longer studies can
be worth 1 hour, 1 ½ hours, etc., in 30 minute increments.
3. All student researchers who will have contact with participants must complete the departmental
Research Assistant training.
Student researchers are required to attend the open session of the Research Assistant training that will be held
prior to the start of any data collection (faculty researchers will be asked about their start-date plans around
the 3rd week of the semester, and then the Participant Pool Committee will plan the session for all RAs to
attend). During this ½ hour-long training, RAs will learn procedures on how to use the participant pool, as
well as the ethical obligations associated with conducting research with human participants, and the
educational role researchers play in teaching 100-level psychology students about the research process.
Faculty may not provide their own training in lieu of the required training. The Participant pool committee
will schedule training sessions and RAs must attend one of these sessions..
Student researchers must complete this training for every semester that they collect data. Our policies are
regularly updated, and thus student researchers must have the most recent information. Additionally, minute
details about running studies are difficult to remember, and the training within each semester will help
student researchers remember all aspects of their responsibilities.
4. All researchers must receive approval from the Participant Pool Committee to have the study
posted. These steps are required for each study using the participant pool:
a. Obtain and submit the IRB proposal and IRB approval (that includes your intended use of the participant
pool) for your research project to the Participant Pool Manager.
b. Within two business days of submitting the above, researchers will receive an email from the Sona
system providing a username and password. Once you have logged in, you may change your password if
you wish.
Once you have successfully logged in to SONA, click on “Add a study.” Select the type of study you are
conducting (i.e. standard, longitudinal, online). You will then be asked to fill in some general
information regarding the research, such as the title, a brief description to be displayed to participants,
and the amount of credit the study will be worth.
There are a number of options you may select at this point, such as a deadline prior to the beginning of a
session for participants to sign up. Please consider carefully which options will be appropriate for your
study.
After all information has been filled out, the Participant Pool Manager will review the information you
have posted and inform you (within two business days) that you have been approved to commence
offering time slots for student participation.
No researcher should post study time slots until they are completely ready to commence their study.
Thus, the faculty researcher and RAs should consult carefully with one another to determine that (a) the
IRB project has full approval, and (b) the procedures for the research study are fully complete prior to
allowing sign-ups. In the case of a study using computers or other technical equipment, researchers
should test this equipment prior to posting time slots to fully ensure that their procedure can progress as
planned.
c. To use rooms in the psychology research suite, schedule using Sona systems. Note that if rooms in the
research suite are being used, researchers must reserve a specific room within SONA (e.g., K157D)
but it must be stated in the study description that students will go to the waiting area in K157. The
researcher will then meet the student in the waiting area and escort him or her to the specific research
room. To use other rooms in the department (such as a lecture room for the administration of
questionnaires in a group) contact the College Conference Services (245-1900). Please be aware that
before Conference Services will accept a reservation from a student, a faculty member must first provide
Conference Services with the names of students who are eligible to schedule rooms on their own.
5. Researchers should follow the steps below when conducting the research session:
a. For in-person studies, the researcher must assign credit to those students who have showed up at the start
of the research session. This can be done in one of two ways:
1) If there is a computer in the space you are using for research, the researcher can log in to Sona
and as students arrive, apply credit by asking for their Sona ID numbers.
OR
2) If there is no computer in the space used to collect data or there will be so many participants at
one time that doing the manual entry would become cumbersome, a list of participants who
had signed up for the session should be printed ahead of time. As participants arrive, have
them provide their Sona ID number to the RA, who will then check off their Sona ID number.
Then, after the session, log in to Sona and assign credit or no-shows as necessary.
The faculty researcher and student researchers should discuss in advance how to handle the situation if a
student, who had already signed up for the study, shows up late for a session. It is a good idea to make clear
in the study description the importance of being on time. Here are the options for handling late participants:
(a) If the study can still be run in the allotted time, the researcher may mark the participant as ‘present’ and
allow him/her to complete the study. (b) If the participant would not have time to complete the study, or if
admitting the participant into the room may be distracting to other participants, the participant may be
marked as a ‘no-show’ Again, it is imperative that all researchers working on a given study choose, in
advance, which method will be followed so that all participants are treated the same. Additionally, if a
participant displays a pattern of not showing up to a particular study, they may be barred from participating
in that particular study, limiting their options for completing the requirement.
Additional note: If a student shows up to a study who has not signed up and the researcher wishes to allow
the student to participate, the researcher may log in and sign the student up for the current timeslot if it is
prior to the start time for the study. If the start time for the current timeslot is passed, and the researcher
wishes to allow the student to participate, the researcher should create an additional timeslot, slated to occur
within the hour, and sign the student up for that timeslot. This prevents researchers from accidentally
utilizing more than their allotted hours.
b. For online studies, RAs will receive a list, in an Excel spreadsheet, of the Sona ID numbers of the students
who participated in the survey in the last 24 hours. It is expected that these students will receive credit
(or penalty, if the student missed the completion deadline) within 48 hours of receiving the list of
participant ID numbers.
c. Proceed through informed consent. A faculty name should be associated with all research projects; during
informed consent, the faculty supervisor should be clearly identified so that participants can contact him
or her with questions or comments.
d. Proceed through the research session itself, according to the researcher’s procedure.
e. Provide a clear debriefing (verbally or in writing). The debriefing is an integral educational tool, during
which researchers are educating students about the research process, topic, question, and methodology.
Again, the faculty supervisor should be clearly identified.
*Note: If a researcher is unable to run a scheduled study session due to exceptional and unavoidable
circumstances (e.g. weather, health, crisis, etc.), s/he must notify participants through the experiment
management system. If a researcher is unable to provide adequate notification to participants about the
cancellation, s/he must provide credit to those individuals who were scheduled to participate in the cancelled
study session.
6. Procedures for awarding credit:
a. Log in to dickinson.sona-systems.com:
Beneath each student participant’s identification number, check either “Credit” or “No-Show”..
b. All students should be awarded a credit or no-show within 48 hours of the study being conducted. After
two days without credit or penalty being given to participants who signed up, the system automatically
notifies the Participant Pool Manager. At this time, your ability to continue utilizing the Participant Pool
will be formally questioned. (See #11 for details.)
7. Contacting students
Student participants will be notified via email (sent from the Participant Pool account) each time a new study
is made available. Researchers who wish to notify only student participants who meet certain eligibility
criteria (for example, as indicated via the pre-screening) may do so through the Sona system after receiving
approval from the committee to do so. Researchers may send one reminder email about study availability,
upon approval of the Participant Pool Manager. All other contact between a researcher and potential or
actual participants is prohibited.
8. A summary of all research findings should be submitted at the end of the semester
It is recommended that researchers submit the study abstract to the participant pool committee when this is
available, to facilitate communication of research findings to students. The abstract should include: (a)
minimal background information, (b) research questions/hypotheses, (c) method (including a description of
the participants), (d) main findings, (e) implications, (f) potential future directions, if applicable, (g) contact
information for the professor supervising the project. Each study should have its own abstract. Researchers
should plan to send their abstract to the Participant Pool Manager for dissemination to the participants in the
study.
9. Missed appointments by researchers and technical difficulties.
In the unlikely event that an emergency arises and the researcher is unable to hold a scheduled research
session, research participants who show up for the study will still receive full credit. If the researcher has
missed a session, inform Ms. Cotter as soon as possible so that she can award credit to participants who
attended. Only Ms. Cotter can assign credit to participants who showed up for sessions in which the
researcher was not present. Note that the hours that are given to participants in this situation still count
toward the researcher’s allocation.
Similarly, in the unlikely event that a research session cannot be held due to an unforeseeable problem (the
building or room is locked, a computer or other testing apparatus malfunctions), and the participant did
everything possible to attempt to complete the research session, that participant will still receive full credit.
Participants who did not show up to a session in which a problem occurs will remain marked “no-show” and
will not get credit. Note that the hours that are given to participants in this situation still count toward the
researcher’s allocation.
Note that only web-based studies (in which the student receives a URL and takes an online study on their
own time) can be unsupervised. All studies conducted in the psychology department must have a researcher
present who is there to greet the participant and handle all aspects of the research project (including verifying
the student’s Sona ID, marking the student as present, going over the informed consent, providing debriefing,
handling any equipment or technical difficulties, answering questions, etc.).
10. No research study may use more hours than it was allocated. All allocated hours should be
provided.
The faculty member should make every effort to use allocated hours by posting sufficient sign-up hours for
students. However, if due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances the faculty member will not be able
to use the allocated number of hours, the faculty member should notify the Participant Pool Committee who
will redistribute the hours equally to the remaining users of the pool, or, if absolutely necessary, will notify
psych 100 students that their requirement has been reduced. The Participant Pool Committee will email
faculty during the week of Roll Call to assess research hour usage, anticipated need for research hours, and to
determine if an adjustment will be necessary. If the Committee finds that there are hours that could be
distributed in lieu of reducing students' requirement, faculty who had missed the initial call for hours in
August can, at this time, request and be granted the ability to use the pool. This decision will be made no
later than the final day to withdraw with a W in a course; faculty who are newly-receiving hours will be able
to begin data collection by that date.
Sona systems will prevent researchers from using more hours than were allocated by limiting the number of
time slots that can be advertised.
During the last 2 weeks of the semester (the final two weeks of pool operations), the participant pool will
operate as a “free for all.” During these final 2 weeks, researchers are free to advertise for as many hours as
they can use. Also, during this time, faculty (or student/faculty) projects that were not given any hours
because they did not meet the deadline for inclusion in that semester’s pool may advertise for as many
participants as is needed.
11. Withdrawal of Ability to Use the Pool
Use of the participant pool to collect data is a privilege, not a right. Researchers must treat participants with
respect. An example of not using the pool responsibly would be an RA failing to allocate credit or no-show
within 48 hours of the study, or missing scheduled research sessions. To encourage students in 300-level
classes to use this resource responsibly, faculty should consider offering or deducting points from a student’s
research project for misuse of the pool. A researcher may have her or his right to use the participant pool
revoked if several violations occur (whether committed by the faculty or his/her RAs). The participant pool
committee will inform the student researcher and associated faculty mentor of problems and request that the
faculty address these issues with the RA. Consequences will be determined based on the nature of the
violation and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For example, a researcher who violates IRB
protocol by dispensing with informed consent will immediately be reported to the IRB, and her or his rights
to use the pool will be suspended immediately. The decision to revoke the right of an RA or a faculty
member to use the participant can be appealed to the Provost of the College. Furthermore, students
furnishing false information to any College official or faculty member at any time violates the Student Code
of Conduct, which may result in suspension from the College.
This document is subject to change. All changes will be e-mailed to faculty supervisors and posted on our
website.
All forms and documents will be available on our Department Website:
http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/participantpool.html