MTSU Department of Psychology

Information about Research Participation and SONA

The last day to participate or turn in written reports is Monday, April 21, 2025 by 11:59 pm (central time zone)

Research Participation

What is SONA and the Research Pool?

The Research Pool is the term that we use for a group of students who are willing to participate in research studies as a part of their educational experience. Our faculty, graduate students, and other advanced-level students conduct research experiments and collect data from the participants of the pool to further our understanding of human behavior. SONA is the online system that we use to manage the Research Pool. This is where studies are posted, and participants can login to learn more about the studies and sign up to participate in the studies they find interesting.

Registering with SONA

You will need to be able to access your MTSU email account to use the research pool (i.e., the address that ends with @mtmail.mtsu.edu). If you are having trouble accessing your email account, call the ITD Help Desk at 615-898-5345.

Navigate to http://mtsu.sona-systems.com/
Click on “Request and account here” and fill out the form provided
Receive your SONA password in your MTSU email

Once you have registered, a password and logon ID will be sent to your email account within several minutes from the Webmaster (i.e., the Research Pool Administrator). Note that your login ID is just the portion of your MTSU email before the @ sign and your password will be DIFFERENT than your MTMAIL password. If you do not receive this email, an error may have occurred. Contact the Research Pool Administrator immediately to correct the problem.

Be sure to check your Spam/Junk email folders, and configure your email filters to accept emails from mtsu-admin@sona-systems.net.

This brief video demonstrates how to create a new account in mtsu.sona-systems.com

Requirements and Credits

Requirement. All students in full-term fall or spring sections of PSY 1410 are required to earn 5% of their course grade through participation in experiments or completing written reports. Students in accelerated calendar sections and dual-enrollment high school students may be exempt from this requirement.

Credits. Students in PSY 1410 must earn 10 credits to receive your full 5%. Each fifteen minutes of research participation is worth 1 credit. Research projects vary in duration and you will be given credit based on the project’s length.

In-Person Bonus. In-person (laboratory) studies are worth 1.5 x the number of credits as online. For instance, a half-hour (2 credit) study in-person would be worth 3 credits and a one hour (4 credit) study would be worth 6 credits.

Students in other psychology courses might also be allowed to participate in research for extra credit. This would also be managed though the SONA system. If you are in classes other than PSY 1410, there is no minimum required number of credits. Please check your course syllabus or ask your instructor about the maximum number of credits for your class.

Receiving Credit

Log into the MTSU Study Sign-Up System and look at your credit report. Researchers are required to enter credits within seven (7) days of your participation. If you did not receive the correct number of credits, email the research pool director with the study number and the date and time of your participation.

Prescreening Survey

There is an online prescreen that you may participate in to earn your first research credit. The prescreen is administered on the SONA system. You will have the option to take it the very first time you log in. The prescreen will take no more than 15 minutes to complete and is worth one credit. It consists of multiple-choice and free-answer questions. You may choose to decline to participate, but declining to participate may limit the number of studies you are eligible to participate in.

Signing Up for Studies

This brief video shows you how to sign up for studies using SONA:

In-Person Studies

Go to the session at the designated time and place. If you are more than 10 minutes late, the experimenter will report this as a no-show. When you have completed an in-person study, the experimenter has up to 7 days to enter your credits into SONA, so they might not show up immediately.

Online Studies

You must complete an online study before the timeslot due date. If you do not, a no-show would be recorded. Some studies grant credit in SONA automatically the instant that you finish. Credit for other studies must be entered manually by the experimenter and might take a few days to show in your records. After 7 days, you may check “My Credits” on the MTSU Study Sign-Up System to verify your credits.

Canceling Your Participation

If you cannot keep an appointment, you must cancel your participation by going to the MTSU Study Sign-Up System and removing yourself from the research. You may cancel up to two hours before the research is scheduled to begin.

No Show Policy

If you miss two appointments without canceling (have two no shows), you will be removed from the MTSU Study Sign-Up System and will have to do a written report. Canceled appointments will not count as a no show. If you have an appropriate excuse (e.g., an emergency prevented both your attendance and canceling the appointment), you may appeal a no show to the research pool director. If you are removed, you will still be able to log in, but you will not see any studies. If a participant is more than 10 minutes late, they are recorded as a no-show.

Researcher No Shows

If a researcher cannot attend, you still get credit for showing up for the research. If you show up and the researcher is not there, log into the MTSU Study Sign-Up System and double check that you were in the right place at the right time. If so, contact the research pool director with the details of the research. Note: If you are more than 10 minutes late for a research study, you will be recorded as having missed your appointment.

What if I can’t find any studies?

If you find yourself in the following situations, please consider completing two (2) written reports to meet your SONA credit requirements:

If there is a shortage of experiments posted on SONA
If your schedule makes it difficult for you to attend experimental sessions
If you are uncomfortable participating in research

Is it safe?

All studies eligible for SONA credit have been reviewed by the Institutional Review Board at Middle Tennessee State University, meaning that a group of experts other than the researchers involved have determined that the research procedures meet strict ethical guidelines. In addition, researchers will explain all experimental procedures and ask for your consent prior to beginning your participation. You are free to stop participating at any time during any study, or to refuse to complete any procedure, if you become uncomfortable.

Complaints about a study

If you have any complaints about a study, please contact the study’s Principal Investigator (PI). You can find this information by going to the study description in SONA, or by finding the name and contact information on the consent form or debriefing form. If you do not receive a response from the PI, or you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the SONA Administrator at Research.Pool@mtsu.edu.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about completing the research exposure requirement, please first look at the FAQ’s page, as many questions can be answered there. If you still have questions, contact the Research Pool Administrator:

Name: Stuart Bernstein

Office: Academic Classroom Building 357

Phone: 615-898-5943

Email: Research.Pool@mtsu.edu

Written Reports

Link: Written Reports

If you choose not to participate in research or are less than 18 years of age, you may fulfill your research credit requirement by reading two (2) of the assigned research papers and answering a set of questions on the written report form. Students must turn in two (2) written reports to earn their full 10 points of credit. Answers must be typed, clearly written, using complete grammatical sentences (click on the link below for grading guidelines). This exercise is designed to take approximately 2.5 hours (the same amount of time as research participation). Students who are over 18 years of age may also choose to complete a combination of research credits and a single written report. For instructions, please click https://psychology.mtsu.edu/research_pool-written_reports/