SONA
A Research Participant Recruitment & Study Management System
This research participation system is a web-based software tool offered through SONA. Merrimack College researchers can use it to manage human subject participation in IRB-approved studies.
The system can be used to recruit and vet participants, schedule meetings and to link to online surveys on other platforms, such as Qualtrics. Participants can use the system to view available studies and register for in-person or online participation.
All studies must be approved by Merrimack College’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) before they can be posted in the SONA research participation system.
Sign Up to Participate in Research Studies
1. Request a Participant Account
- Create an account on the Merrimack College Research Participation System home page and then click on “add account.”
- User ID / Email: If affiliated with Merrimack College, please use your Merrimack credentials including your Merrimack email address. If you are not affiliated with Merrimack College, you may choose your own user ID and email.
- Course:
- If you are not signing up as part of a course (not affiliated with Merrimack College / student interested in research outside of their course assignments) please select “External Participant / Unaffiliated with Merrimack College.”
- If you are signing up to participate as part of a course at Merrimack College, please review the available courses and select the corresponding option.
- Click on “Request Account.”
Please note, it may require 1 business day for the SONA Administrator to review and approve your request.
2. Log In and Take Pre-Screen Survey
- The first time you login you will be prompted to an online prescreen that you must participate in before you can sign up for studies.
- The prescreen consists of multiple-choice and/or free-answer questions. You must complete this prescreen in one sitting, as you are not allowed to resume at another time from where you left off. The prescreen will take less than 3 minutes to complete. You will have the option to make corrections before you save and submit.
- Once you submit your prescreen responses, you will bypass this step upon future logins.
3. View and Register for Available Studies
After submitting your prescreen responses or upon subsequent logins, you will be prompted to view available studies and provided with options to sign up.
4. Important Notes on Participation
- To protect your privacy, you will only be identified to researchers with a unique numeric code that the system will assign, not by your name. Participation in research is done on a voluntary basis. This means as a participant, you may choose to not participate or withdraw from participation at any time without incurring a penalty.
- All studies within the SONA system are reviewed and approved by the Merrimack College Institutional Review Board (IRB). If you have any questions or concerns, please email the SONA Administrator at [email protected].
Steps for Researchers to Utilize SONA
1. Request a Researcher Account
Merrimack College faculty with an IRB-approved project may request access to post their study on SONA. To do so, please email the Merrimack College SONA Administrator at [email protected].
2. Request a Research Account for Students / Research Assistants Facilitating Your Study (Optional)
Merrimack College Faculty may request Student Researcher Accounts for students that assisting on their studies. The request for a student researcher account must be made by the faculty or staff member leading the project. All students / research assistants must be listed on the approved IRB protocol and must complete CITI training. More information on CITI training can be found on the IRB Resources Page.
3. Create and Post Study
The SONA system provides in-platform prompts to guide you through posting a study. For additional guidance, you may consult these step-by-step instructions for adding a study. Please contact the SONA administrator at [email protected] additional assistance.
Course Credit and Financial Incentive Options:
Researchers can grant credit or cash to participants based on their participation. For example, a researcher might give 0.5 credits for 15 minutes or less of participation, 1 credit for 16–30 minutes, and 1 additional credit for each additional half hour.
Learn More About Granting Course Credit
In cases where participants are compensated for their participation in the study, you may set it up as a paid study and specify the compensation amount. The payment field is text, so you do not need to type in an exact amount, but can type in anything like “Amazon Gift Card.” or even indicate a variable payment based on performance.
Studies That Use Both Credit and Paid Incentives:
If participants are compensated and they receive credit, you should set it up as a credit study and indicate additional compensation in the study’s information section.
4. Activate Your Study
Once you have created the study in the SONA portal, please email [email protected] to request that the SONA Administrator activates your study.
Additional Resources
Please utilize the following links for additional support with SONA:
