Posted on No Comments on Planning to use crowdsourcing for your research study? Here are a few tips.

Planning to use crowdsourcing for your research study? Here are a few tips.

You’ve decided that you are going to recruit your participants using crowdsourcing. As a student, you may not know much about it, but you figure that it shouldn’t really be difficult to pull off. You’ve considered using Amazon MTurk, but wonder if there are other sources to consider. You have a (limited) budget and want to use it to pay eligible participants for your study. Your faculty advisor isn’t familiar with it, or has little to no knowledge about how it works. You feel this will be the best and easiest way to go about this process, and time is passing each day you delay. What do you do?

Where do I start?
  1. Speak with your advisor about your interest and options. The IRB has found that when student researchers include their faculty advisors and mentors in their plans and gauge their level of knowledge or interest in their plans, the student has a much better chance to carry out those plans successfully.  if your faculty advisor is not knowledgeable about crowdsourcing, there are other faculty who are. Reach out to them with your faculty advisor, so that you both learn about the process together. The IRB  can refer you to faculty who have used this recruitment process numerous times.  If for some reason you are unable to speak with your faculty advisor in earnest about this, then consider another person to fill that role. If you wait too long for them to get back to you, then you risk putting yourself in a situation that can be avoided by working with a more responsive faculty advisor.
  2. Take the time to read more about it to make sure that this is what you really want to do. Here is an article that can jumpstart your research. A beginner’s guide to crowdsourcing (1)  includes some useful information, links and references.
How do I fill out your IRB application?
  1. Once you click on the link to IRBManager, the online submission system, use the information provided in the area of this blog titled, “application checklist”.
  2. When discussing your plans to recruit your participants in your IRB application, keep in mind that the IRB is concerned about what the recruitment process will look like from the perspective of your participants. The IRB wants to know how you will reach them, what they will learn about the project and whether they will be compensated for their participation. The IRB will flag any studies that don’t clarify these three points. The IRB needs make sure that your study provides everyone the same opportunity to participate (unless you have some reason to exclude people based on your research aims). that no one is unduly influenced by your study, and that compensation is reasonable in relationship to their time and effort contributed to the study.
    1. If you are are planning to recruit participants using crowdsourcing, state this outright.
    2. Once you’ve established that crowdsourcing will be used, explain which tool will be used (Amazon MTurk, Prolific, Qualtrics, SONA). Each tool has very different processes for how end users are selected and engaged in your study. Know the differences and be prepared to discuss the relevant choice to the IRB. Will they be paid an estimated amount based on the anticipated time it will take to fill out the survey? Are there specific guidelines specified by the crowdsourcing platform that inform your decision? If so, what are they? What is the form of compensation? Will they have to complete the survey to receive payment?
    3. DO NOT use a third party system different from the crowdsourcing platform to carry out any part of the study. Keep the consent form, study materials and any additional information relevant to participants within the crowdsourcing platform. To make a different choice will cause problems that may compromise the anonymity of your study and complicate the process for participants, which can show up as harm depending on what occurs. And finally, this will cause problems for you and delay the time it takes for you to complete your research.

Have additional questions? Contact the IRB Office at x2449 or research@roosevelt.edu.

Posted on No Comments on Why haven’t I heard back from the IRB about my study yet? It’s been a while…

Why haven’t I heard back from the IRB about my study yet? It’s been a while…

You submitted your IRB application, Renewal or Termination and may not be sure sure why you haven’t heard back from the IRB. Here are a few reasons why this may be the case:

  • You are a student whose faculty advisor did not sign off on your study. This is the most common issue for why this happens. Every student study submitted to the IRB requires approval from your faculty advisor. If you haven’t been in touch with your faculty advisor, check  in with them to find out if they actually reviewed your study after your submission to the IRB. Faculty advisors are now responsible for agreeing to providing proper oversight over student research that requires IRB approval and to provide a one-page plan on how they will monitor student research projects. Once a faculty advisor completes that process and actually pushes the “submit” button, then the project comes to the IRB for review. If your study is sent back to you during the pre-review, review, and post-review stage (if a full board study), then your faculty advisor is required to review and submit it again before the IRB reviews your changes. Keep in contact with your faculty advisor to make sure that they are actually responding to emails received from IRBManager.
  • You are a PI with a different submitter for your study. The IRB application has a place to indicate whether the person is the submitter and/or PI. If that person is one in the same, then the submission should move forward without an issue. If a student or staff person submits a study on behalf of someone else, then the system requires that the PI sign off on the study prior to IRB review. The IRB Office sees numerous studies at this stage all the time.  Please be sure to check for emails from the IRB Office, or research@roosevelt.edu. You likely have been sent an email that requires your attention and response.  Once you receive an email notification from the IRB, please go into your study, review it and push “submit” to complete the submission process.
  • You did not use your actual Roosevelt University email address to submit your study. All study information is tied to your Roosevelt profile. The system recognizes this information for everyone to have single sign-on access through Roosevelt and to access your CITI training information. Any submitter that uses a personal email address while accessing IRBManager or providing contact information for the IRB Office to process is creating a situation that confuses the system’s ability to recognize you as a submitter. Applications submitted with private contact information are not processed by the system and require the IRB Office to delete the second contact information and for the submitter to begin again with another form.
  • You didn’t actually complete the submission process by pushing “submit”. We have found that many submitters simply do not push “submit”.  The submission will only be completed once this task is completed.
  • You received an email notification requesting changes to your application that you haven’t responded to. Please be sure to check your emails to make sure that you are being responsive to any feedback, questions, or required changes to your study.
  • If you have addressed any or all of the above concerns and you are still haven’t received a response in 5-10 business days following your submission, please check in IRBManager to see if there has been a status change to your submission. If it shows as “under review” please call or email the IRB Office to inquire about the status of your study for exempt or expedited studies. If your level of review is full board, please know that it will be reviewed at the next full board meeting. If your level of review is exempt or expedited, it will be reviewed by one or two IRB reviewers, which should not take as long. Please contact the IRB Office (dsomerville@roosevelt.edu) if the review time has been longer than 10 business days for your exempt or expedited study.