Department of Psychology
SONA System Researcher Policies
Approved 11/24/14 by the Psychology Department Human Subjects Committee
1. Use of the SONA system in the Psychology Department at WSU is reserved for Psychology
Department faculty members and their collaborators. That is, only WSU Psychology
department faculty, students, and external researchers collaborating with faculty or
students can collect participants via SONA.
2. Researchers must be respectful when communicating with students through SONA.
3. Researchers must have formal IRB approval for projects prior to participating in SONA.
Details for Participant Pool recruitment must be included in the IRB application.
4. Researchers must contact the SONA Administrator (gary.burns@wright.edu) to secure a
log-in and password.
5. Researchers must request approval for all studies. Studies must contain an IRB approval
code and expiration data prior to approval.
6. When creating a study, researchers must select whether the study is a “credit” study or a
paid study. Studies cannot be both. Paid studies do not count towards class credit and
studies for credit are never paid.
7. All studies will be approved for 500 credit hours initially. If IRB has approved a study for
more credit hours, please contact the SONA Administrator to adjust this value.
8. Unless approved by IRB, researchers should not use “Is English your native language?” to
screen out participants. Ideally, studies should be open to all students and the researchers
should rely on screening data for this question.
9. Researchers must assign “timeslots” in the system. If the study is on-line, one timeslot
ending on the last day that participants can access the study can be entered.
10. Students should receive 1-credit for each 30 minutes, or any part there-of, participating in
a study. This is true of both online and laboratory studies. Time required to participate in a
study should be approved by IRB.
11. Researchers must appear at the time(s) arranged with participants. If this is not possible,
the researcher must make arrangements for those students who show up to participate to
be awarded full credit. This credit will count against the study’s credit hour limit.
12. If a participant arrives after an appointment is scheduled to begin, the researcher is under
no obligation to run the study or to award credit. It is at the researcher’s discretion
whether they choose to reschedule the appointment with the participant.
13. Cancellation of timeslots should only take place under unforeseen/special circumstances.
Researchers must make arrangements for students who have received cancellation notices
within 48-hours of a study’s beginning time to receive full credit. This credit will count
against the study’s credit hour limit.
14. Researchers are expected to grant credit to students who participate in their research in a
timely manner. Credit will be granted automatically 72-hours after a session. This credit
will count against the study’s credit hour limit.
15. SONA participation closes the Friday of the week before Finals. Instructors should be able
to access their course reports showing credits granted by researchers by the Monday of
finals week.