Using SONA

SONA is an online experiment management system that automates all aspects of scheduling and managing studies. As a researcher, you can use the system to set up online and in-lab studies, schedule participants, grant credits, etc. 

In the system, you create your study, and when approved by the Research Experiences Group Coordinator (REG), you can also create time slots for participants to sign up. Participants see your study listing online when they sign into the site, and can sign up for time slots. You grant credit after the session occurs (within 24 hours).

This system also handles online studies. If your online study has needs not supported by SONA, then you can host it on an external server (most common platform is Qualtrics), but register it with SONA. SONA will link to your external site and, depending on the external host server, can be set up to provide automatic crediting. SONA also handles multi-session studies, and those granting a variety of credit amounts. SONA hosts paid and credit studies.

This system will allow you complete control over the management of your study. Instead of having to make changes to your study information through REG, you can now do it yourself. However, the REG Coordinator will review all new studies and, depending on the nature of your revisions, study revisions.

Please review the Sona Researchers/PI support manual for an in-depth guide to using SONA. You can also see our page on setting up and using a scale for mass or validation testing. If you cannot find the answer you are looking for there, please refer to our SONA FAQ or contact us.