As of January 2010, everyone using the lab facilities must have a SONA account. As a research assistant you should request a “Researcher” account on SONA if you do not already have one. This is mandatory in order to ensure lab transparency and that those using the lab are able to receive important announcements.
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If your study attracts walk-in participants, great! However, be sure to always sign the participant up for a timeslot on SONA before proceeding to run them in the study. This has to be done for several reasons:

• The participant may not have a SONA account, in which case one must be created for them (with a .edu email address).
• The participant may have had his or her account deactivated.
• The participant may have signed up for another study and mistakenly went to the wrong room.
• Participation records must be kept up-to-date and accurate.
• The participant will be able to sign up for your study again unless you have them coded as Participated for a timeslot.

This policy is very important in keeping our records up to date, effectively discouraging no-shows, and keeping our facilities and members safe.
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Our lab has four rooms with different capabilities available for researchers to use. As we aim to fairly coordinate room usage amongst a large group of researchers the following steps are crucial to keep the lab in order. Failure to follow these instructions will result in a loss of lab privileges.

1. Visit our calendar website.
2. Read over the descriptions of our lab rooms- B203, B204, B205, and 304 Uris Hall. Decide which lab room fits your needs (ex: need lots of computers? check out rooms B203 or 304). Determine what dates and times you would like to reserve the room for.
3. Check the availability of the room for those dates and times on the Lab Room Reservations Calendar. If the room is available, proceed to...
4. E-mail the lab coordinator with your name, the name of the study, the faculty sponsor, any RAs running the study with you, and your desired dates, times, and room number. Please note that you may not reserve rooms past three weeks in advance. Your reservation will not be confirmed until the lab coordinator receives all of this information.
5. Receive a confirmation from the lab coordinator for the dates, times, and room you requested. You may now post time slots on SONA for the confirmed times.

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In order to be fair to all who use the lab resources lab room reservation time has been broken down into two categories:

• Residual hours: This refers to the block of time one week from the current date (ex: 9/1-9/8).
• Non-residual hours: Refers to the block of time two+ weeks from the current date (ex: 9/9/11 - 9/9/12) These hours are deducted per room, but are not deducted for after-,before-, or weekend-hours reservations..

All Business school faculty members are allotted 100 non-residual hours per semester, all Business school post-doctoral researchers are allotted 50 hours per semester, and all non-Business school researchers are allotted hours based on the discretion of the lab committee. Please note that non-residual hours are shared amongst all researchers working underneath a given faculty member or post-doc. When scheduling lab space in advance please be considerate of your colleagues. As of 05/12 both residual and non-residual hours can only be used for a maximum of 24 hours per week, per room. This means that reservations for a specific room (say, B205) cannot exceed 24 hours within one exact week (Monday-Monday, Tuesday-Tuesday, etc.)
An up-to-date spreadsheet of non-residual hours is available here.
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If you need to cancel a time slot inform the lab coordinator as soon as possible. By doing this you free up lab space for other researchers who would be happy to use it, and in case any participants do not receive the cancellation notice they can be informed accordingly.
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If you are requesting petty cash from the lab in order to pay your participants review the information in the Petty Cash Manual prior to making any requests. You may also review the Accounts Payable human subjects payment policy.

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While getting participants to sign up for studies is one of the priorities of the lab, we insist on having a standard response to late participants for all researchers. Most of the studies conducted in the lab are very time-sensitive and a single late participant can throw off the entire experiment, so we ask that all researchers prepare to give participants unexcused no-shows on SONA if they arrive more than 5-10 minutes late for their timeslot without prior notification. By consistently adhering to this standard we can better ensure that participants will arrive on time for studies.
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The lab has adopted a “carrot and stick” policy in an attempt to reduce the number of participant "unexcused no-shows" during a semester. The “carrot” refers to the selection of participants with few to zero ' unexcused no-shows' at the end of the semester to be entered into a raffle for a prize. The “stick” refers to the practice of sending participants warning emails after three unexcused no-shows, then deactivating their SONA account for the semester after five no-shows. Because of this, it is crucial to correctly code “No-Shows” in SONA. If you are unsure of how to code a no-show please see our SONA system page.
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To make sure our machines are running well there are monthly data wipes of the computers. Starting January 15th, 2010, all non-administrative accounts will have everything erased from the computers. Please be sure to retrieve and store any important data prior to the monthly wipes.
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Because the policies and procedures are vital in keeping the lab running without conflicts, violations of our policies and abuse of our facilities will be taken very seriously. Make sure you review the information listed on this website and if any questions arise e-mail the lab coordinator. Penalties for not following lab policies can range anywhere from restricted use of lab facilities to the loss of lab privileges for an entire semester.
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The lab rooms are a resource shared by a number of different people. Please be considerate and keep the spaces clean and safe.

• Be sure to keep the lab doors closed and locked when you are not present in the room or are leaving for the day.
• Do not give out lab room keys or the access code to room 304 to anyone unless you have the permission of the lab coordinator.
• Do not bring food or drinks into the lab rooms.
• Clean up all research materials and garbage before you leave the room.
• When finished, shut off all lights in the lab space and make sure the door is closed and locked. If you are the last person to use the room for the day shut down all computers.

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• No software may be added to lab computers without discussing it first with the lab coordinator. If you would like to install software, give the lab coordinator and ITG a reasonable amount of time to make the installations.
• Log off of all computers when you are finished using them. If you do not log off you may “lock up” the computers, meaning that only you or an administrator will be able to access the machine unless it is rebooted.

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It is helpful for researchers to be consistent in their interactions with participants in order to minimize the amount of frustration or miscommunication participants experience.

• If you advertise that a study is running for a given period you are required to stay in the lab for the duration of that period. This means that if you want to leave at any point but still have timeslots on SONA, you must cancel the timeslots on SONA covering the hours you will not be in the room.
• Do not be late for your study. Being late poses several risks, including having participants leave, damaging the integrity of the lab, and holding up other studies using the facilities after you.
• If you advertise certain study requirements or rewards, you must provide those rewards and reinforce those requirements.

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