Introduction to Sona
Sona is an online participant recruitment system that students and staff in the School of Psychology, Sport Science & Wellbeing can use to recruit and manage participants for online and lab-based studies. To create a new Sona account or log into an existing account, please click the Sona Login button below. The below video and leaflets are available for additional information to show how Sona can work for you.
Undergraduate students need to collect 60 Sona points during the first 2 years of study to be able to have access to an “unlimited” SONA account in their 3rd year of study to recruit participants for their dissertation. If a student reaches their final year of study and they have fewer than 60 Sona points, they will receive a “limited” researcher account.
A “limited” researcher account means that the student will only be allowed to award as many points as they have collected. Therefore, it will limit how many participants the student can recruit. If a student has a “limited” researcher account, and continues to collect Sona points in their 3rd year and reaches 60 Sona points, the student’s account will then become unlimited.
Postgraduate students and staff do not need to collect 60 Sona points to have access to a researcher account.
Researcher Accounts
Once you have submitted your researcher account request, it will be approved by your supervisor and the Sona team. You will then be granted a researcher account and you can then add your study to Sona. Once you have submitted your study information, it will be checked by the Sona team and then activated.
Things to remember before submitting your study:
- 15 minutes = 1 Sona point;
- Round up to the nearest 15 minutes, i.e. a 35 minute study should be listed on Sona as 45 minutes and allocated 3 points per participant;
- Even if a study does not collect any identifiable information, the study is called pseudo-anonymous, which means that a participant code is created to link participation through QuestionPro, for example, to participant Sona registration information. However, Sona registration information is not known to the researchers, and not directly linked to participant data. Therefore, confidentiality is preserved, except if specified otherwise in the participant information sheet of the study’;
- Please submit the study information that has been approved by ethics. Further information regarding ethics can be found here: Ethics support
Need help?
If you have any further questions about Sona, please email sona@lincoln.ac.uk or visit the Psychology Technicians in SSB4217.
Help Pages
Automatic credit granting – all compatible platforms (including QuestionPro)