Guidelines for Researchers and Principal Investigators

Roles in Sona

• Participant: Role for participants
• Researcher: Role for creating and conducting studies, including appointment management, credit granting, etc.
• PI (Principal Investigator): Same functionality as the reseacher role but thought of as the person responsible for the study. This person does not need to work with Sona herself/himself (usually a staff member/post-doc/professor)

Creating a study

1. Select Create a new study.
   There is also a study-copy function with which you can duplicate existing studies. When using this function you are able to change some of the options from Point 2 below (this is useful when converting a credit into a paid study or an online into a lab study or vice versa).
2. Decide first what kind of study you would like to create and if reimbursement is provided with credits (VP-Stunden) or money.
   Attention! This selection cannot be changed later. (But you are able to copy the study and change the setting in this process, cf. Point 1)
   IMPORTANT: If both reward options (credits or money) need to be available in your study you need to select "Credits" here (otherwise you will not be able to grant credits)!
   The following study types are selectable:
   • Standard Study: Study in the lab with an appointment
   • Multi-Part Standard Study: Study in the lab with 2, 3 or 4 appointments
     • With multi-part studies it is often easier to create a Standard Study (with one appointment) and to fix the other appointments outside Sona when the participant is present at the first appointment. The reason is that in these multi-part studies the appointments need to be offered for each single part at once, which is complicated and inflexible.
   • Online Internal Survey Study: Online study in which the questions are implemented directly in Sona.
     • Advantage: After a participant has completed all questions the credit granting is done automatically by Sona.
     • Disadvantage: Only certain types of questions and input options are available and there is no branching logic.
     • IMPORTANT: The data needs to be exported/saved on a regular basis because Sona does not guarantee long-term data storage.
   • Online External Study: Here, a link to an external platform is provided on which the online study is implemented.
     • Advantage: You can choose the platform that best suits the needs of the study as well as the experience of the researcher. Sona supports communication with a range of different systems in order to allow automatic credit granting (see informationen here)
     • Disadvantage: You have to make sure that the data on the external platform can be assigned to the participants in Sona. Please pay close attention to the information under "Special features for online studies" in the FAQs.
3. Provide information about the study (this information can be changed later on):
   • Name of the study (keep it short, but not too general, you might want to mention your research method here)
     IMPORTANT: All online studies (which are done on an individual schedule, i.e. without a live appointment, e.g. via Zoom) must begin with "[ONLINE] ".
   • Abstract (255 characters): The abstract serves as a kind of advertisement - this is what the participants see first, so here you can interest them in taking part, it should contain something about the content or the task and possibly also the method. For studies with monetary compensation, the amount could also be stated here.
   • Description (up to 15 000 characters): Here you should provide some information about the study, preferably in a structured way. The following information should be included in any case:
     • About the task/procedure
       Possibly something about the background: What is the study about?
       What is the task in this study, what exactly are the participants expected to do?
       For more complex studies, information on the procedure is helpful, at which point is done what, what is the exact procedure?
     • Participation requirements
       What are the inclusion and exclusion criteria for participation? In which language (what language level is required) will the study be conducted?
       Restrictions such as age, biological sex, native language German, handedness and, in some cases, the degree programme (for students) can be preset via Sona (e.g. via the prescreen restrictions) so that only suitable participants are shown the study on Sona. This information is optional here.
       Further restrictions such as certain language skills or other abilities and health aspects must be listed here and it is the responsibility of the study directors to check whether this applies.
     • Technical requirements (only for online studies)
       Which devices can be used to participate (PC/laptop, tablets and smartphones)?
       Which browsers/browser versions are supported or not (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, etc.)?
       Which input devices are required (keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, etc.)?
       Is additional equipment required (e.g. speakers/headphones, webcam)?
     • Preparation (only if applicable)
       Some studies/methods have specific requirements, e.g. that you cannot wear glasses (certain eye-tracking systems), that you have not consumed coffee/caffeine or that you haven't eaten anything. This should be listed here.
       For online studies, it is advisable to indicate that participants be in a quiet environment for the study, where they will be undisturbed for the duration of the task. In case the Sona ID is requested in the course of the study, this should be mentioned so that participants have it at hand.
     • Data protection
       Some brief information on data handling and data protection (approx. 3-5 sentences). This is usually done in detail at the beginning of the study, but this information should be provided in advance so that the participants are aware of it before they decide to participate.
       This usually includes the following aspects:
       • That all data collected in the study will be used exclusively for research purposes
       • How it will be stored, analysed and, if necessary, published (pseudonymised or anonymised), possibly with an indication of whether identification of individual persons is possible
       • Which legal basis applies, e.g. the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and/or the Brandenburg Data Protection Act
   • Eligibility Requirements: If there are no requirements or if this is already listed in the description (previous point), this field should be left blank.
   • Duration in minutes:  !!IMPORTANT!! The duration has to correspond to the number of credits (VP-Stunden). The rule is that each quarter-hour or part thereof will be rewarded with 0.25 credit (the minimal unit of credits). In analogy to the number of credits the duration also needs to be rounded up to the next quarter hour (see also the question "What should be entered as study duration?" in the FAQs). Under no circumstances is it allowed to advertise a study with a short duration ("Only 50 min for 1 credit").
   • VP-Stunden (Credits): Enter here the number of credits matching the duration, if it is a credit study.
   • Preparation: If no preparations are necessary or if this is listed in the description, the field should be left blank.
   • Name(s) of the Researcher(s): By default the person creating the study is listed. However, multiple researchers are possible for a study, and you can add them here.
   • Name of PI: Each study has to have one (and only one) principal investigator. If there is no suitable option available, select "Administrator, System".
   • Ethics committee approval code: Providing information here is optional. This will not be checkt by the Sona team.
   • Visibility of the study (for participants): In order for the study to be visible to potential participants it needs to be "active" and in addition there need to be available time slots in the future. If there are reasons for the study to be "Inactive" when the approval request is submitted, this should be reported to the Sona team.
   • Advanced Settings: It might be useful to look at these options, specifically the age restriction and the sign-up and cancellation deadlines.
   • Approval of the study: Newly created studies need to be approved by the Sona team (since 30/05/2020). This approval can be requested via the "Study Information" in section "Study Status" with the button "Send Reqest". Before doing this make sure you've checked all the settings, especially:
     • Are title, abstract and description informative and correct (don't forget the spell check)?
     • Is the study duration and the number of credits (if applicable) correct and do they correspond?
     • Are participation restrictions (if needed) properly specified?
     • Have you created (at least) one time slot?
     • For online studies: Have you made sure that collected data (in external platforms) can be assigned to Sona participants?
   • ADD this Study: Click this button to create the study.
4. After the study is created, you can check once again all information about the study.
5. Restrictions (view/modify): Here you may specify participant restrictions (e.g. biological sex, student status, native language German, handedness), the study is then only visible to those participants who fulfil all participation requirements.
   • If you do not wish to restrict participants we nevertheless recommend to set the age range to 18 – 99 years. This settings is not found under "Restrictions" but in the "Study Menu" under "Change Study Information" at " Age Restriction" in the "Advanced Settings". The rationale behind this is that everybody can register as participant in Sona and this setting ensures that minors do not participate unnoticed in a study.
6. Creation of time slots → Add a Time slot /  Add Mutiple Time slots
   Time slots need to be created for both lab and online studies. In lab studies (for individual sessions), there are usually many appointments that the participants can book. In online studies, there may only be one active time slot at a time. This is a participation period that runs until the specified time and in which the maximum number of participants is specified.

Online studies

The title of online studies should always start with "[ONLINE] ", so that it is immediately obvious that this is not a lab study.

It is important to create a time slot for online studies. Think of it as a participation deadline (that starts right away and runs until the specified date). Here you can enter the maximum number of participants. Make sure that this number is really necessary and reasonable (you should not collect more data than needed, which is also a waste of credits). There should only be one active time slot (one with a date in the future) in online studies.
As in lab studies the people who signed up for the online study via SONA are visible in the time slot. If the automatic credit granting function is not used then you should always ask participants to enter their Sona ID in platform/software of your online study so that the data can be assigned to the participant and credit can be granted accordingly. It is important to note that in this case the data collection is not anonymous, but pseudonymised. However, the data can then be anonymised by deleting the Sona ID or replacing it with randomly generated codes. And, of course, any other identifying features would also have to be deleted.
Sona is able to communicate with a variety of survey and experimental online platforms (for the automatic credit granting function). Information about this functionality can be found here: www.sona-systems.com/help

Please also check further information under "Special features for online studies" in the FAQs.

Inviting participants

Once a week (on Saturdays), Sona sends out a personalised email to all participants with a list of studies for which they could sign up (feature activated on 28/June 2019). The order of this list is randomised. Participants may opt out to receive these emails according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It is not necessary for you to send out study invitations! In addition, there is the possibility to send an invitation email for your own study. This should be an absolute exception!
 

A description of how to proceed in this exceptional case follows. A study-specific email is not being sent as a private person but on behalf of a research project and as part of Sona in general. This means that a number of formal criteria must be met (such as salutation, adequate information, link to the study, your title, name, contact information - see an example below).

• Select Restrictions
• Select Invite Qualified Participants
• Add %FIRST_NAME% , the other names will appear automatically
• Add important information about the study
• IMPORTANT: insert the link to the study (under the text field), so that the participants could go to the study directly
• Select Preview Messages
• Select Proceed

When you send emails to potential participants, please provide complete contact information including your department or project, address etc. For example:

First and last name
University of Potsdam
Psychology / H.  XX / R. X.XX
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25
14476 Potsdam

Phone: 0331 977 XXX
Fax: 0331 977 XXXX
E-Mail: name@uni-potsdam.de

After an appointment

It is important to document participation and to do the credit (VP-Stunden) granting in a timely manner. To do so, go to All Timeslots in your SONA study and select  → Modify :

• If the participant attended and collects credits → choose Participated and select the amount of VP-Stunden
• If the participant attended and receives money →  choose Participated and – in case of both reimbursement options (credit or money) – set the amount of VP-Stunden to "0" and put in the comment field "received money"
• If the participant did not attend but cancelled in time →  choose No-Show Excused
• If the participant did not attend and did not cancel prior to the appointment (and did not apologise after) →  choose No-Show Unexcused (do not use this option for online studies)

→ This documentation is important: If a participant has 3 unexcused No-Shows, the account of this participant will be automatically blocked from further sign-ups.

As long as timeslots remain "uncredited", you will receive weekly emails with a reminder from the system.  Sona can only work efficiently if is is constantly kept up to date.

For online studies: For external online studies there is the option of automatic credit granting which means that after successful participation the external platform can communicate with Sona. A number of platforms is supported by Sona  (i.a. Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, LimeSurvey, Unipark, etc.). More information can be found here: www.sona-systems.com/help

Completing a study

If a study is completed it should be set to "Inactive". This setting is found in the Study Menu under "Change Study Information". Before you do that make sure that all participations are properly documented and that there are no appointments "awaiting action" from the researcher.

In case you do not need your researcher role anymore please contact the Sona team.

Credits (VP-Stunden)

Granting of credits should be handled as consistently as possible. For each quarter hour or part thereof participants will receive 0.25 credits (VP-Stunde). If an experimental session took a bit longer than planned, you may adjust the credit value for this session on an individual basis and according to this rule.  

IMPORTANT: Credits (VP-Stunden) are documented in Sona. This documentation is sufficient for students of sport psychology, linguistics (since 19/June/2019) and psychology (since 20/May/2020). Therefore, it is not necessary anymore to document Sona credits on a separate signature sheet. Participants that do not participate via Sona still need such a signature sheet for documentation.