Recruitment materials

Recruitment materials are used to invite people to participate in your study. 

Tips

• Use appropriate logos and branding (e.g., Waterloo letterhead, partner logo).
• Obtain permissions before putting up posters or posting on social media sites. For example, permissions may be needed to put up posters on bulletin boards or from social media site administrators. 
• Email recruitment
  • Indicate how you obtained the individual's contact information (e.g., from a webpage, person indicated in a previous survey that they would be interested in being contacted for a future study).
  • If someone is sending an email on your behalf include: "This email is being sent on behalf of the researchers" at the top of the email to let people know that their contact information was not shared. 
  • Use blind carbon copy (BCC) or send individual emails to avoid sharing contact email addresses of other potential participants. 

Samples

Resources

Creating a SONA description for recruiting in psychology studies 

Using plain language in participant materials 

Use of crowdsourcing services and other online panels 

Guidelines for conducting researchers within structures and gatekeepers 

Recruiting by email? See Mass email and anti-spam law and guidelines (Waterloo IST)