Erin’s Tips for Running a Good Study
- Be friendly. Greet participants enthusiastically, make them comfortable, and engage them in the study.
- Give clear instructions in a way that motivates subjects. Read through any on-screen or written instructions WITH subjects, to make sure they understand.
- Explain every form that you give them; SHOW them how to fill it out.
- After subjects finish each form, be sure to check that they completed it correctly.
- Always ask “ Do you have any questions ?”
- Be unbelievably organized.
- Practice all study procedures on a mock participant before running a real subject.
- Document your procedures and data in a way that a stranger could find everything understand everything. Open Science Framework is great for this.
- Check the data. Did the data save correctly? Is it all there? Does anything look weird?
- Back up electronic study data to the cloud (in this case Open Science Framework) immediately, or at least once a day.
- It’s ok to make a mistake! But if you do make a mistake, DOCUMENT IT (notes in subject folder and in subject log).
- Ask for help when you need it.