Recruiting on SONA and Prolific

Summary

SONA is a recruiting system used by the Psychological Sciences and Business school to recruit participants for studies in turn for course credit. Prolific helps researchers recruit and manage participants for your online research.

Full Description

SONA Systems

SONA Systems HandbooKSONA System Researcher Documentation

Researchers posting to SONA will be asked to fill out a description of their study. In protocol application to the IRB, researchers should be explicit in:

1. what SONA platform they'll be using, ("Participant Recruitment" section)
   • W&M has two platforms to recruit students: Psychology SONA platform OR Business School/MSOB SONA Platform
2. number of course credits ("Participant Recruitment" section)
3. what will be shared with participant ("Participant Recruitment" section)
   • Use this template to help you prepare to post on the SONA platform. All recruitment materials need to be submitted to the IRB before they can be displayed. Attaching this template or a screenshot of the SONA platform is acceptable.
   • See SONA Guide: Adding a Study
4. how the SONA ID will be used ("Data Collection and Security" section)
   • Using the Psychology/Linguistics SONA platform: When creating a study, researchers will be asked by SONA, "Should participants be identified only by a unique, random ID code?" Researchers must be explicit in the study protocol submission how participants will be identified to researchers. If asking questions that are sensitive, it is recommended to use just a code to identify the participants.
   • Using the Business School SONA Platform: Students are identified to researchers with a unique, system-assigned ID code. 

SONA Representative for Psychology/Linguistics: Madelyn Labella

SONA Representative for Business School/MSOB: Seth Li

Prolific

Participants are only known to researchers by their Prolific ID (a unique identifier assigned on the platform). Participants can be paid via monetary rewards, rather than with vouchers or points. Payments must also be made through the Prolific platform.

Prolific: Getting Started (researchers)

Prolific does not permit researchers to request directly identifiable information as part of their survey. "As a general rule, you cannot ask participants for any information that could risk de-anonymizing them.

• First and/or last name
• Initials
• Date of birth
• Phone number
• Address
• 9 digit ZIP code or full UK postcode: You can ask for a 5 digit ZIP code or the first letters of a UK postcode. Please see our geographic prescreeners for more options.
• Social media usernames, or links to social media accounts or posts (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok etc.)
• Gaming usernames (e.g. PlayStation Network ID, Xbox gamertag, Steam ID etc.)
• Email Address:  You can ask for participants' Prolific email address which will look like '594a5d31833f6d0001623f8a@email.prolific.com'.
• Employer name and/or address"

Prolific & Identifiers Article