Participant Pools

Participant pools are a helpful resource used to facilitate research by providing researchers access to individuals who are interested in participating in research studies.  Some departments at the UO have worked with the UO IRB to establish participant pools for research and educational purposes. These departments include the Marketing Department, Psychology and Linguistics Departments, and the School of Journalism and Communication. Each pool is managed by the departments and has a unique set of procedures, requirements, and templates for use and development of a protocol. Please see below for basic information about each pool and where to find more information.

Investigators are encouraged to contact the pool or lab coordinator(s) for guidance prior to developing a human subjects protocol for IRB review.

Each participant pool at the UO uses Sona Systems, a participant management software system, for the pool administration. Through Sona Systems, researchers may enter or create studies, which are approved by the pool coordinator/director in the corresponding department and then made available to participants in a convenient manner. Sona tracks the participant’s name, email address, student ID number, chosen username, chosen password, and the list of studies completed by the participant. Only the pool coordinator/director has access to and retains identifying information linked to the participant’s Sona ID number, which is used to ensure that they receive credit for participation, to distribute the debriefing email, and to match demographic data with survey responses.


Marketing Subject Pool

Marketing Pool Coordinator (Lab Manager) Contact Information: lcb-subjectpool@uoregon.edu

Department of Marketing website:  https://business.uoregon.edu/departments/marketing (pool information can be found at the bottom of the Department of Marketing home page)

How to request access

At least two weeks prior to the beginning of a term, the Lab Manager (LM) will send an invitation via email to the Department of Marketing for researchers to apply for credit. Researchers will have at least 5 business days to do so following this email. To apply for credit, researchers will fill out a web survey managed by the Department of Marketing, which will collect information on academic status (e.g., Ph.D. student in Marketing, Faculty Member), IRB protocol number, etc. Other information (such as during what week of the term the researcher expects to begin running studies) may be collected by the LM for planning purposes, but credit allocations will depend on information collected in the web survey only. If the study is accepted by the LM, studies may be entered into Sona and made available to participants.

Scheduling participants

Once a study is entered into Sona and approved, the researchers and research assistants listed may open time slots to participants. Sona provides a scheduling system that allows researchers to provide a time, place, and duration for their study to take place, as well as contact information for the researcher.

The Department of Marketing has established standard consent language regarding compensation for marketing pool participants. The applicable language below must be incorporated into the research plan and the informed consent materials.

Studies employing a written or electronic (online) consent procedure: All consent forms must include the following statements (delete language regarding paid subjects or credit if not applicable):

  • This study will take [expected duration] to complete. You will be paid [amount paid] or will be awarded [number] credit(s) for your participation. If you discontinue participation in the middle of the study, you will receive 0.1 credit for each 6 minutes of participation, rounded up to the next 6 minutes. For example, if you complete 1-6 minutes you will receive 0.1 credit, if you complete 7-12 minutes you will receive 0.2 credit, and so on. If you keep your scheduled study appointment but choose not to participate in the study at all, you will still receive 0.2 credit.
  • You will receive a full debriefing, during which the researchers explain what they were interested in investigating and why they chose the methods that they used emailed to you at the end of the term. 
  • Your participation is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your relationship with the UO Marketing Department. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and discontinue participating at any time without penalty. The Marketing Department has established alternative assignments for students who do not wish to participate as research subjects. Please see your instructor if you would rather complete an alternative assignment.
  • The Sona-Systems website maintains several pieces of data which identify you.  This includes your name, University of Oregon Student ID number, your chosen username, your chosen password, and the list of studies you have completed. This information is permanently deleted from the Sona server at the end of each academic term.  This data can only be accessed by the Subject Pool Coordinator.  Your instructor will be provided with a list of student names and effective hours completed from the Subject Pool Coordinator but will have access to no other information.

Debriefing

Subjects who are recruited through the Marketing Pool are required to receive a debriefing as part of their education in marketing as well as to fully understand the purpose of the study.

Debriefings should follow the standard template for the department and must be approved by the Lab Manager. Documentation of approval by the Lab Manager must be submitted to RCS before approval or determination can be issued. Additional approval of the debriefing by RCS may be required if the study involves deception.

Marketing Debriefing Checklist:

  • Actual name of the study (the one on your IRB protocol, not just the state/element/tree/dog name)
  • Explains any deception and ameliorates this
  • Any psychological jargon is explained. For example, when using words like validity, reliability, target, condition, or words specific to your area, such as memory retrieval, Stroop, interference, you should provide an explanatory sentence. This helps us fulfill the educational mandate of debriefing.
  • All acronyms are written out in full the first time they are introduced
  • Language is understandable for a student with no marketing background at all (remember, many students in the pool are not marketing majors, some have never had a marketing course, and many have only just arrived at college!).
  • Clarity. Avoid over-generalization and vagueness.
  • Relative brevity. One or two paragraphs explaining the purpose and importance of the study should be sufficient. Plus, you can print two on a page and save paper!
  • Relevant information only. Students don't need to know about how you will analyze your data, for instance.
  • Relevance to society, or to knowledge in a particular area of marketing; provides practical applications. Does the debriefing from explain why the study is important?
  • Contains directions for how the subject can obtain further information about the study (e.g., the name, phone number, and office number of the experimenter...and the same information for the researcher's advisor if the researcher is a student).
  • Contains contact information for the Human Subjects Coordinator (lcb-subjectpool@uoregon.edu) as well as Research Compliance Services (ResearchCompliance@uoregon.edu, 541-346-2510.)

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Psychology/Linguistics Subject Pool

Psychology/Linguistics Pool Human Subjects Coordinator Contact Information: hscoord@uoregon.edu

Psychology/Linguistics Pool Website: https://psyres.uoregon.edu/human-subjects

How to request access

Researchers must pass the Human Subjects Quiz on the Research with Human Participants Blog in order to gain access to Sona. At least two weeks prior to the beginning of a term, the Human Subjects Coordinator (HSC) will send an invitation to the Psychology and Linguistics departments for researchers to apply for credit; researchers will have at least 5 business days to do so following this email. To apply for credit, researchers will fill out a web survey managed by the Psychology Department, including the following information: Name, email address, contact telephone number, advisor's name (if applicable), and academic status (e.g., Ph.D. student in Psychology, tenured Linguistics faculty.) Other information (such as during what week of the term the researcher expects to begin running studies) may be collected by the HSC for planning purposes, but credit allocations will depend only on the above-listed information. If the study is approved by the HSC it will be made available to participants.

Scheduling participants

Once a study is entered into Sona and approved, the researchers and research assistants listed may open time slots for participants. Sona provides a scheduling system that allows researchers to provide a time, place, and duration for their study to take place, as well as contact information for the researcher.

Researchers must incorporate the standard consent language regarding compensation for Psychology/Linguistic Pool participants required by RCS in their research plan and the informed consent materials.

 Studies employing a written or electronic (online) consent procedure: All consent forms must include the following statements (delete language regarding paid subjects if not applicable):

  • This study will take [expected duration] to complete. You will be paid [amount paid] or will be awarded [number] credit(s) for your participation. If you discontinue participation in the middle of the study, you will receive ¼ credit for each 15 minutes of participation, rounded up to the next 15 minutes. For example, if you complete 1-15 minutes you will receive ¼ credit, if you complete 16-30 minutes you will receive ½ credit, and so on. If you keep your scheduled study appointment but choose not to participate in the study at all, you will still receive ¼ credit.

  • Your participation is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your relationship with the UO Psychology Department or the UO Linguistics Department. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and discontinue participating at any time without penalty. The Psychology and Linguistics Departments have established alternative assignments for students who do not wish to participate as research subjects. Please see your instructor if you would rather complete an alternative assignment.

Debriefing

Subjects who are recruited through the Psychology/Linguistics Pool are required to receive a debriefing as part of their education as well as to fully understand the purpose of the study.

Debriefings must include a full and educational description of the study, including what variables were examined and what the researchers' hypotheses were, as well as any other information (e.g., amelioration or explanation of deception) required by the researcher's protocol. This debriefing must be oral as well as written (except in the case of online studies), take at least 5 minutes, and occur as the last part of every study. Time spent debriefing counts as "participation time," and thus must fit into the advertised time required for the study. All oral debriefings must entreat participants to ask any questions they have about the study or research process, and all written debriefings (including online debriefings) must contain the same information as oral debriefings. For in-person studies, written debriefing must be provided for the participant to take with them, and must contain contact information for the PI, as well as contact information for the HSC and RCS. For online studies, a written debriefing is sufficient, but must entreat the subject to print or save the debriefing, and must provide email contact information for the PI in case of further questions.

Debriefings must be approved by the HSC. Researchers must submit the study's debriefing form to the HSC either via the New HSP Study Form or directly to hscoord@uoregon.edu.

Please note that documentation of review and approval of the debriefing materials by the HSC must be submitted to RCS prior to study determination. However, it is not necessary to submit the actual debriefing materials to RCS unless the study involves deception.

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School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) Subject Pool

SOJC Pool Director Contact Information: dmark@uoregon.edu

SOJC Pool Website: https://uoregon-sojc.sona-systems.com

How to Request Access

All researchers using the SOJC Participant Pool must receive approval from the IRB or Research Compliance Services (RCS) for their studies prior to commencing the research. Student researchers who are interested in using the SOJC Pool via Sona must receive approval of their research plan from their advisor and the participant pool director, David Markowitz (dmak@uoregon.edu), prior to seeking IRB/RCS approval. Email approval is sufficient and can be uploaded to the Research Administration Portal (RAP) site as part of the student’s IRB submission. Approval from one's advisor and the participant pool director is not IRB/RCS approval and all studies must be approved by the IRB/RCS before human subjects research activities may commence.

All researchers seeking to use the SOJC Pool must submit an IRB application through the Research Administration Portal (RAP), noting that the SOJC Pool will be used. Once the study is approved by the IRB/RCS, researchers are responsible for forwarding approval documentation to the Graduate Educator Lab Manager (GELM) or SOJC Pool director. After review and approval from the GELM/pool director, researchers may enter or create studies using the Sona system, which are then made available to participants.

Scheduling Participants

Once a study is entered into Sona and approved, the researchers and research assistants listed may open time slots for participants. Sona provides a scheduling system that allows researchers to provide a time, place, and duration for their study to take place, as well as contact information for the researcher.

Researchers must incorporate the standard consent language regarding compensation for SOJC Pool participants required by RCS into the research plan and the informed consent materials.

Studies employing a written or electronic (online) consent procedure: All consent forms must include the following statements (delete language regarding paid subjects if not applicable):

  • This study will take [expected duration] to complete. You will be paid [amount paid] or will be awarded [number] credit(s) for your participation. If you discontinue participation in the middle of the study, you will receive 0.1 credit for each 6 minutes of participation, rounded up to the next 6 minutes. For example, if you complete 1-6 minutes you will receive 0.1 credit, if you complete 7-12 minutes you will receive 0.2 credit, and so on. If you keep your scheduled study appointment but choose not to participate in the study at all, you will still receive 0.2 credit.
  • The SOJC has established alternative assignments for students who do not wish to participate in research when involvement in a study is required for course credit. Please see your instructor if you would rather complete an alternative assignment.

Written Consent Template

Online Consent Template

MTurk Consent Template

Debriefing

To ensure that the educational mission of the SOJC Pool is met, all subjects must be debriefed. This debriefing must include a full and educational description of the study, including what variables were examined and what the researcher's hypotheses were, as well as any other information (e.g., amelioration or explanation of deception) required by the researcher's protocol. A written debriefing must be provided for the participant to take with them, and must contain contact information for the researcher and PI for the researcher's protocol as well as contact information for the GELM and RCS in case of further questions. All debriefings must be approved by the GELM/pool director. The GELM/pool director is not responsible for storing or archiving debriefing forms; rather, this is the job of the researcher.

Please note, documentation of review and approval of the debriefing materials by the GELM/pool director must be submitted to RCS prior to study determination; however, it is not necessary to submit the actual debriefing materials to RCS unless the study involves deception.

Debriefing Checklist

  • Use subheads to "chunk" information.
  • Utilize readable font and font size (e.g. 12pt Times New Roman, 10pt courier new)
  • List the actual name of the study (the one on the IRB protocol, not just the state/element/tree/dog name)
  • Explain any deception and ameliorate this
  • Explain any psychological jargon. For example, when using words like validity, reliability, target, condition, or words specific to your area, such as memory retrieval, Stroop, interference, an explanatory sentence should be provided. This helps fulfill the educational mandate of debriefing.
  • Write out all acronyms in full the first time they are introduced
  • Ensure language is understandable for a student with no journalism or communication background at all (remember, many students in the pool are not SOJC majors, some have never had an SOJC course, and many have only just arrived at college!)
  • Provide clarity and avoid over-generalization and vagueness.
  • Ensure brevity. One or two paragraphs explaining the purpose and importance of the study should be sufficient.
  • Only communicate relevant information. For instance, students don't need to know how you will analyze your data.
  • Provide practical applications and relevance to society or to knowledge in a particular area of journalism or communication. Ensure the debriefing explains why the study is important.
  • Offer directions for how the subject can obtain further information about the study (e.g., the name, phone number, and office number of the experimenter...and the same information for the researcher's advisor if the researcher is a student).
  • Provide contact information for the Human Subjects Coordinator (dmark@uoregon.edu) as well as Research Compliance Services, (email: ResearchCompliance@uoregon.edu and phone: 541-346-2510)

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