Dear Experimenter, This document outlines the rules and procedures associated with conducting an experiment at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS). Would you please carefully review this document and ensure that you understand and agree to all of these rules and procedures. CESS will only authorize experiments conducted by researchers who agree to abide by these rules and procedures. I agree to, and will abide by, the rules and procedures of the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences described in this document titled “Conducting an Experiment at the CESS” Signature Name of Experimenter Title Date Experiment Identifier 1 Conducting an experiment at CESS In general, every researcher willing to use the Centre's facilities has the freedom to decide the optimal way of designing and conducting experimental research. However, some potential externalities should be kept in mind. The centre's reputation depends crucially on the quality of the experiments conducted. This includes issues regarding how subjects are recruited and treated during the sessions, as well as other important methodological issues. For this reason, experiments run at the CESS in Oxford must fulfil a set of basic rules that will be complemented with other laboratory regulations and procedures. This leaflet includes a presentation of the CESS facilities, as well as the guidelines for conducting experiments at CESS. I. THE CESS facilities • The Centre's Experimental Lab facilities are located at Nuffield College, George Street St Mews, 3 (2nd floor). • The laboratory is a state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art facility with 25 fully partitioned work-­‐
stations and a separate experimenter's office. It is designed to support a wide range of experiments including those in which subjects are entirely separated from other participants; experiments in which subjects interact with each other; and experimental games in which subjects communicate anonymously but in real time. • The laboratory is open for use by both university staff members and other interested parties. • The CESS maintains a subject pool consisting of students from the universities in the Oxford area. In addition, the Centre actively recruits non-­‐student subjects to its pool. We have an efficient on-­‐line recruitment system. • The CESS offers programming and logistic support for conducting your experiments. II. SUBJECT RECRUITMENT TO CESS SUBJECT POOL CESS maintains a subject pool of about 3000 student-­‐ and non-­‐student subjects. Every year, the subject pool is updated with new subjects recruited at the University of Oxford Freshers’ Fair and via local newspaper and online advertisements. Those interested in participating in behavioural laboratory or online experiments are asked to visit the CESS website where they can register online as potential participants (http://cess-­‐wb.nuff.ox.ac.uk/experiments.php). The registration entails leaving their name, e-­‐mail address, and phone number. If an experiment is scheduled, a random sample of the required number of registered subjects is contacted via e-­‐mail and asked to participate in the experiment. Invited subject are free to sign up for one of the scheduled experimental sessions and are reminded to show up in time at the laboratory if they do. First-­‐time participants have to read and sign a consent form upon arriving at the lab, and it is also checked whether they are 18 years old or older. 2 Only subjects who have reached the age of 18 and have signed the consent form are allowed to participate in the experiments to which they are invited. II. RULES AND PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS II. A. Procedure These are the important (chronological) steps experimenters should follow in order to carry out an experiment at CESS: 1. Experimental design: The experimental design will be reviewed by CESS staff in order to determine the appropriateness of implementation in the CESS facility. We recommend that these research designs be presented beforehand in the CESS Colloquium. Colloquia can be arranged by sending an e-­‐mail to [email protected]. 2. Ethics committee approval: All the experiments using the CESS lab or subject pool must attain approval from the CESS Ethics Review Committee (read the section on Ethical guidelines). • Application form available on the website. • Applications must be sent to [email protected]. • Application forms will be reviewed within 2 weeks by two members of the CESS ethics committee. 3. Preparation of the experiment • Meeting with the CESS lab manager to determine the logistic arrangements of the experiment; meeting with the programmer in case programming support has been requested. • Testing the program: All programs must be tested in advance. • Pilot experiment: A pilot experiment is typically one session carried out 2 weeks before the actual experiment. • Lab booking and recruitment of subjects (read the section on lab usage guidelines). 4. Conducting the experiment – (read the section on lab usage guidelines) 5. Research paper -­‐ The research papers presenting the experimental results should be made available via the CESS working paper series. When the results of an experiment are reported or published, the Nuffield CESS lab should be referenced.1 Moreover, all the programs used to recruit subjects and design experiments should be properly cited (see where?). 1
We suggest the following acknowledgement: “This research was fully or partly
conducted at the Nuffield College Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS).
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the CESS in conducting their
research.”
3 II. B. Rules ETHICAL GUIDELINES Ethical Review procedure All laboratory experiments conducted at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences at Oxford require the Ethics Approval of the CESS Ethics Review Committee. Researchers must fill in an Application Form (available here: where?) and submit it to CESS ([email protected]). The committee accepts proposals at any time and is committed to answer them in two weeks. The proposals are reviewed by at least two members of the committee. The committee may ask researchers for extra information regarding the proposal. The committee should report any positive decision to the lab manager in order to make the preparations for the experimental sessions. Then the lab manager will coordinate with the main investigator on issues regarding implementation, testing, scheduling, subject recruitment, and other technical matters. Please read these rules carefully and inform the CESS committee of any issue that may be raised with regard to your project (Point 8 in the Application Form should include a discussion of all relevant ethical issues). Protection of Participants and their Rights 1. All participants have the right not to participate in any investigation and this right must be respected. There should be no coercion of research subjects to participate in the research. Students and others in a dependent relationship with investigators must be assured that any decision not to participate will not prejudice their academic or other progress in any way. 2. Each participant must have the right to withdraw easily from the project whenever and for whatever reason without explanation or penalty. That is, participants should be free to leave the experimental room at any point if they wish to do so. 3. All participants and research assistants have the right to expect protection from physical, psychological, social, legal and economic harm at all times during the investigation. Participants and researcher’s staff must be fully informed in advance of and protected against any hazardous, stressful or uncomfortable contexts and procedures. In addition, researchers should attempt to avoid harm not only to an immediate population of subjects but also to their wider family, kin and community. Should any adverse reaction / event occur, the researcher must report this immediately in writing to the Ethics Review Committee. The report should describe fully the adverse reaction / event, the action taken and the date, time and place of the event. 4 Informed Consent 1. All participants should sign once and for all the CESS form of consent before participating in their first experiment (the CESS keeps records of participants who have signed the form and will provide the forms on the day of the experiment). If consent is not to be secured a statement justifying this must be provided. The primary objective is to conduct research openly and transparently without deception. 2. If the participant is not capable of giving informed consent on their own behalf or is below the age of 18, then consent must be obtained from a carer, parent or guardian. Two points to note: • The ability to consent depends upon having sufficient understanding and intelligence to make that decision; it does not depend on a fixed age limit. However, even when a child under 16 years of age is judged able to consent, approval from a carer, parent or guardian must be sought, and it may also be useful to consider seeking it for older adolescents. • In the case of incompetent adults, the law in the United Kingdom does not recognise proxy consent by a relative. However, the views of a relative and / or a carer should be sought. In addition, the assent of the incompetent person him/herself should be sought. 3. It should be remembered that research staff are also participants and need to be made fully aware of the proposed research and its potential risks to them. Deception Under no circumstances should subjects be lied to or deceived in any way. The laboratory is very concerned about developing and maintaining a reputation among the student population for honesty. This rule of no deception applies to the recruitment process, the instructions provided during the experimental sessions, and the economic compensation subjects receive for taking part in the experiment. Experiments that involve deception and then later truth-­‐telling (i.e. debriefing) are also proscribed. Recruitment of and Payments to Participants 1. Recruitment of subjects should occur through the CESS recruitment website. If researchers wish to use alternative recruitment procedures, they should clearly state that in their application and seek the approval of the CESS Ethics Committee. 2. Every subject who has registered for the experiment and shows up on the appropriate day and time should get a show-­‐up fee of £4. 3. Incentives, additional payments and rewards paid to participants require approval by the Ethics Review Committee. Unless convincing 5 methodological reasons on the contrary are provided, experimental subjects should get on average an economic incentive that motivates them to take part in the experimental sessions. The average payment should be between £10 and £15 per hour. In case of a flat fee, subjects should expect to get at least £5 per half an hour spent in the lab (on top of the show-­‐up fee) 4. Cancellations. If a session has to be cancelled or rescheduled, all the participants present should at least receive the show-­‐up fee and £5 per half an hour spent in the lab. 5. In no circumstances should the subjects earn negative payments. Researchers must have a procedure in place to deal with the possibility of subject bankruptcy (such as providing a higher flat fee). 6. Participants should sign a receipt for the payment they receive after the experiment. CESS will provide receipt forms and keep a copy of all signed receipts. 7. The anonymity of participants should be guaranteed in the payment procedure. Subjects will be assigned a number and CESS will provide envelopes with a corresponding number for all participants. The researcher may choose how to distribute the envelopes to participants: Either by taking apart subjects one by one or by distributing them in the experimental room at the end of the experimental session. In no circumstances should the participants be informed of each other’s payment. Data storage and privacy policy 1. All participants have the right to expect that the information supplied by them will be treated as confidential and will be protected as such. 2. All participants have the right to expect that their identity will be protected. 3. Researchers should ensure that data is stored in an appropriate way, protecting the confidentiality and anonymity of participants. 4. Researchers should be aware of requirements with respect to personal data laid down in the Data Protection Act 1998. More information can be found on this link: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/Acts1998/ukpga_19980029_en_1 5. The data collected in the experiments should only be used for scientific purposes. 6. No link will be established between the personal data in the participants’ database and the data collected during a study. 6 Personnel and assistance in conducting experiments 1. Presence of investigators. Although experiments can be run by assistants, the principal investigators must be present or easily accessible in order to solve questions related to the implementation of the experiment. 2. Experiments conducted at the CESS lab will always be assisted by at least one student assistants. 3. However, only one person can be in the lab while running the experiment, being the assistant present only in the case the experiment requires it. Programming support The CESS maintains a dedicated server for conducting experiments in the lab. The server and the client computers used by the subjects are equipped with an operating system and basic software necessary for running experiments. Each experiment will require some customized programming or software support that is the responsibility of the experimenters. Any additional services will be provided at an hourly rate of £35 per hour. 1. Experimenters are responsible for the programming of their experiments and for pre-­‐testing of the experimental software. CESS will install the programmes. It is the responsibility of experimenters to pre-­‐test their experimental programmes. 2. Any customized reconfiguration of the CESS server or client software (or hardware) will be provided to experimenters at an hourly rate of £35. Unexpected Termination of Experiments The CESS provides experimenters with state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art equipment and software that is supported by a well-­‐trained professional staff. But there is always the small probability of equipment malfunctions, software problems, or other chance events that result in a pre-­‐mature termination of an experiment. In the case of a pre-­‐mature termination of an experiment that cannot be restarted, the experimenter will be obligated to pay the participants the turn-­‐up fee and dismiss the subjects. Regardless of the cause of a pre-­‐mature termination of an experiment, the CESS will not reimburse these or any other costs incurred by the experimenter. LAB USAGE GUIDELINES Test and pilot experiments Only experiments that have been previously tested at the lab can be actually run. A pilot session has to be run at least 2 weeks before the actual experiment. Lab booking and subject recruitment 7 1. Lab booking. To book the CESS lab for an experimental session, researchers should use the calendar page of the recruitment system. Recruitment of subjects must be completed well in advance of the scheduled experiment in order to avoid cancelling a session. 2. Time between sessions. Sessions must be scheduled with enough time between them. It is imperative that subjects of one experimental session do not encounter subjects from a previous or subsequent session in the vicinity of the laboratory premises. 3. Recruitment e-­‐mails: When recruiting subjects, details of the experiment or the experimental procedure should not be mentioned. For most experiments the following information is sufficient: date, time, location, and expected duration of experiment. Subjects should not be provided with details of how much they will or can earn. Conducting the experiment 1. Early arrival. Experimenters must be at the CESS lab at least thirty minutes before start time. Subjects often come early and the door must be opened for them so they can wait inside. 2. Professional atmosphere. Experiments should be run in a relaxed but professional atmosphere. It is particularly important that subjects should not perceive experiments like games or examinations. 3. If a subject causes troubles and is sent away, his/her name should be noted to exclude him/her from further experiments. 4. Cleanup. After using the CESS lab we expect all researchers to leave it in the state it was in upon arrival. No experiment-­‐related papers should be left on any desk, and all experiment-­‐specific software and files should be removed from the computers. II. C. COSTS OF RUNNING AN EXPERIMENT AT CESS The CESS experimental lab facilities are available to all social science researchers who conform to the CESS experimental rules and ethical standards. Experiments at CESS are priced on a per session basis and these per session costs are determined by the status of the researcher. These are outlined below: Researchers from CESS affiliated departments The per experimental session cost for researchers from affiliated departments is £175. These costs include assisting with the design of an experiment and setting up the experiment, supervision, assistance, and subjects recruitment (programming costs not included). Subject payments, which include a ₤4 show-­‐
up fee, are also the responsibility of the researcher. 8 Unaffiliated academic researchers The per experimental session cost for unaffiliated academic researchers is £480. Again, these costs include assisting with the design of an experiment and setting up the experiment (including 20 hours programming maximum), supervision, assistance, and subjects recruitment. Subject payments, which include a ₤4 show-­‐up fee, are also the responsibility of the researcher. Unaffiliated researchers The per experimental session cost for non-­‐academic researchers is £748. Again, these costs include assisting with the design of an experiment and setting up the experiment (including 20 hours programming maximum), supervision, assistance, and subjects recruitment. Subject payments, which include a ₤4 show-­‐up fee, are also the responsibility of the researcher. CESS subventions CESS has a limited budget available to subsidise some experiments. Under determined circumstances (such as experiments that have minimal to no funding support, especially those conducted by students and for experiments that require minimal support from CESS) the CESS may designate a reduced pricing status. This status would apply to a small percentage of the total experiments conducted. Subventions are determined on a per case basis by the CESS director. Subventions only apply to the per-­‐session costs -­‐-­‐ subject payments, which include a ₤4 show-­‐up fee, would still be the responsibility of the researcher. Researchers also are responsible for programming costs. Programming cost Customized programming is on a per hour basis of £35. Invoicing and Terms of Payment CESS will invoice experimenters for the total cost of the approved experiment. Included in the total cost will be estimates of the subject payments. The invoiced amounts must be paid in full before the experiment can be scheduled. Any additional costs associated with programming or subject payments will be invoiced after completion of the experiment. Terms of payment for these invoices are 14 days. 9