- When creating a study, the "Participant Cancellation Deadline" is set for 9 pm the night before the scheduled time slot. This allows participants to cancel but still provide the Researcher plenty of time to reschedule another participant.
- Time slots must be posted before students can see the study. This will allow participants to sign up. Participants will not be able to view the study if there are no posted time slots, even if the study has been made "visible" by Research Experiences Group (REG) administrators.
- When a participant has signed up for a time slot, the researcher must meet him or her at the agreed-upon location within 10 minutes of the study begin time. If the researcher is more than 10 minutes late, the participant is free to leave, and must be granted full credit for the study. Also, be sure to check the "Researcher no-show" envelope in the waiting area to see if there are any notes for you from participants.
Group studies
It is difficult to consistently schedule group studies using the traditional "time slot" method. Group studies or other studies that would prefer to contact participants to personally schedule time slots may create a single large time slot, which usually ends at the end of term. Participants sign up for this time slot to indicate that they would like to participate, and you may contact them using the "contact" link next to their ID code to arrange a convenient appointment. However, this information must be clearly stated in the study description. Furthermore, after scheduling each participant, the researcher must create a time slot at the appropriate time and manually sign each participant up for it. This allows participants to check their appointment time on SONA and to easily cancel their appointments if necessary, and will consequently reduce the number of no-shows.
However, please note that researchers must not allow more students to sign up for their study than they can schedule for the term. This is especially important during the last several weeks of the term - researchers must be conscientious about not allowing themselves to be placed in a situation where they have more students signed up than time slots available. If this does occur, any students who could not participate must be granted full credit for the study. This is necessary as many students would have taken their sign-up for this study into consideration when planning their participation in other studies, and should consequently not be penalized for researcher error. One suggestion to help with this is to create the time slot for one week before the end of the term so that you can contact and schedule participants for the last week of term while avoiding confusion among students who fail to read the study description and think that they have signed up for a time slot that occurs on the last day of term.
Updating credits
- All studies (both online and in-lab) must ensure that participants receive credit for participating within 48 hours of doing so. While we understand the extra work this may cause researchers with multiple online studies, the Office of Research Ethics (ORE) is of the opinion that all students are entitled to receive their credits in a timely fashion, regardless of the nature of the study they participated in. Furthermore, if a student shows up for a study, he or she is entitled to full credit for participating in that study, regardless of length or nature of his or her participation. This means that if a student chooses to withdraw from a study, he or she is entitled to full credit for that study. The only exception is that if a student signs up for an online study, and then withdraws without answering any questions, in which case their time slot may be cancelled (rather than marking them as a "no-show" or giving them full credit). If a student does choose to withdraw from an online or in-lab study, the onus is on the researcher to ensure that the participant receives a copy of that study's feedback form, and is debriefed if necessary.
- If a student does not cancel an appointment before the beginning of a time slot, or fails to show up at the scheduled location within 10 minutes of the scheduled time, he or she may be marked as an "unexcused no-show" in SONA. If a student signs up for an online study, but does not complete it by the deadline, he or she may also be marked as an "unexcused no-show." However, under no other circumstances may a participant be marked as a "no-show" without first contacting the REG administrator.
Canceling time slots
If you need to cancel a participant's time slot, you may use the "cancel" option for that time slot in SONA no less than 24 hours before the appointment time. If you must cancel an appointment less than 24 hours in advance (e.g. due to an emergency, illness, etc), or are otherwise unavailable to appear for the scheduled appointment time, the participant must be granted full credit. If possible, the participant should also be phoned (if they included a telephone number in their pre-test information) so they can be alerted of the cancellation. ALWAYS INCLUDE AN EXPLANATION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED FOR ALL CANCELLATIONS.
However, if a student contacts the researcher to cancel anytime before the time slot appointment (i.e., if their cancellation deadline in the system has passed), then the time slot should be cancelled and the participant rescheduled. Do not mark the participant as a "no-show" if they have contacted you before the time slot begins.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about any REG policy, or are in doubt about the proper action to take in a certain situation, please contact the REG Coordinator.