Sona is an online platform used by many universities and institutions around the world to recruit participants for research studies. The BRL has its own Sona site, where members of our participant pool can view and sign up for studies offered by our researchers. Once you have a Sona account, you will also receive email notifications regarding currently available studies, your upcoming study appointments, and so on. Our Sona site can be accessed through a web browser or through the Sona mobile app.

For step-by-step instructions on how to use Sona, please watch this video tutorial.

You may be unable to log into Sona due to one of the following reasons:

1. You have not requested a Sona account. Please click here to request an account.
2. Your Sona account has not been approved. Newly created accounts must be approved by a BRL staff member, a process that usually takes two to three business days. If you requested a Sona account more than a week ago but still have not heard from us, please email lab-manager@mit.edu to ask for an update.
3. You did not enter the correct user ID (username) or password. Please click here if you forgot your user ID or password.
4. Your Sona account was previously deactivated or deleted, either at your request or as a result of a policy violation.

This situation may occur due to one of the following reasons:

1. No studies are being conducted at the BRL.
2. There are studies being conducted at the BRL, but all open slots have been taken by other participants.
3. There are studies being conducted at the BRL, but you have been disqualified from those studies based on your prescreen survey responses (see the FAQ entry below) or participation history (e.g., whether you completed similar studies in the past).
4. Your Sona account has been “limited” because you have accumulated three or more unexcused no-shows.

All participants must complete a prescreen survey before they can sign up for studies on Sona. In this survey, participants are asked to provide basic demographic information for future screening purposes. While many of our studies are open to everyone in our participant pool, some researchers may wish to recruit participants with certain demographic characteristics (e.g., members of a particular age group). In such cases, researchers may make their studies visible only to participants who provided certain responses in the prescreen survey.

You may decline to answer any of the questions on the prescreen survey, but please understand that this may affect your chances of becoming eligible for future studies.

As a participant, you will receive emails from mitbrl-admin@sona-systems.net regarding your login information, study sign-ups, study cancellations, upcoming appointments, and so on. BRL staff members will also use this email address to send out regular announcements about currently available studies. If you are not receiving these types of emails, it may be due to one of the following reasons:

1. You entered the wrong email address when creating your Sona account. Please go to “My Profile” after logging into Sona to verify that your email address is correct.
2. The email account you are checking is not the one listed on your Sona profile.
3. The emails are in your spam folder. If this is the case, please configure your spam filter to accept future emails from mitbrl‑admin@sona‑systems.net.

It is very important that the contact information listed on your Sona profile is accurate and up-to-date. To change your email address or phone number, please go to “My Profile” after logging into Sona. You may also change your account password, but not your user ID (username), under “My Profile”. If you would like to modify your user ID, please send an email to lab-manager@mit.edu.

In certain situations, such as when you have a question about a specific study offered by the BRL, you may want to contact the researcher who is running the study. If you have already signed up for the study, you can find the researcher’s email address in all the auto-generated confirmation and reminder emails you have received from Sona. Otherwise, you can obtain the researcher’s email address by following the steps below:

1. Log into Sona.
2. Click on “Studies” in the menu bar.
3. Click on the name of the appropriate study. This will bring you to the “Study Information” page.
4. Right-click on the envelope icon next to the name of the researcher.
5. Select the option that allows you to copy the link address (the specific wording of this option depends on the web browser you are using). You can then paste this link (i.e., the researcher’s email address) into the recipient field of your email.

You can learn about new studies by logging into Sona regularly, either on a web browser or through the Sona mobile app. You will also receive an email from us shortly after a new study is posted (unless you have unsubscribed from our emails). Finally, you can check our Facebook page for new study announcements.

Our lab studies do not run on a fixed schedule. They may fall within regular business hours, on weeknights, or on weekends. Please log into Sona to check the specific dates and times of upcoming sessions.

Most of our lab studies consist of one or two sessions (i.e., lab visits), and each session typically lasts between 45 and 90 minutes. Online studies are usually shorter, lasting between 15 and 45 minutes.

You can sign up for as many studies as you want. However, please only enroll in studies you can actually attend. If you accumulate three or more unexcused no-shows, your Sona account will be “limited”, meaning that you will not be able to view or sign up for any studies in the future.

Yes, you will receive an auto-generated reminder email the day before your session is scheduled to take place.

Before arriving at the BRL, you should have your Sona identity code ready (please see the FAQ entry below), as researchers will use this code to take attendance. No additional preparation is needed, unless a researcher sends you an email beforehand and tells you otherwise.

Your Sona identity code (or “Sona ID”) is a unique, system-assigned number containing five or six digits. On Sona, you are identified to researchers by this code, and not by your name. When you come to the BRL for studies, researchers will ask you to provide your identity code so that they can update your participation status on Sona. Please note that your identity code is different from your “user ID”, which is the username you use to log into Sona.

You can find your identity code by logging into Sona and clicking on “My Profile” in the menu bar. This code will also be included in all auto-generated emails you receive from Sona.

You have the right to be treated ethically, to give informed consent, to participate in studies voluntarily, to have your data protected, and to receive reasonable compensation. Please see the “Rights & Responsibilities” section of this webpage for details.

You should plan to arrive at least five minutes before your session is scheduled to take place. Most researchers start their sessions promptly and do not wait for late participants. The door to the lab will be opened when researchers have finished setting up their sessions, and closed when sessions formally begin. If the door is shut when you arrive at the lab, please do not knock on it or attempt to open it.

The BRL is located in Building E19 (400 Main Street) on the MIT campus. The entrance to this building is locked after 6 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends and holidays. If you signed up for a study that takes place during these times, the researcher who is running the study will email you in advance with instructions on how you can enter the building. In most cases, someone will be waiting in the building lobby to open the entrance for you when you arrive.

If you signed up for a lab study but are no longer able to participate, you can (and should) cancel your sign-up on Sona up until 12 hours before your session is scheduled to take place. To cancel a sign-up, please follow the steps below:

1. Log into Sona.
2. Click on “My Schedule/Credits” in the menu bar.
3. Scroll down to the sign-up you would like to cancel.
4. Click on the “Cancel” button.
5. Select “Yes, I want to cancel”.

You should email the appropriate researcher (click here for instructions) with a valid reason as soon as possible and no later than the session’s scheduled start time. Please also understand that the session may have already begun by the time you arrive, in which case you might not be allowed to participate. If you see that the door to the lab is closed, it means that the researcher is no longer accepting participants, and we ask that you do not knock on the door or attempt to open it.

If you missed a lab session but cancelled your sign-up beforehand, you would not be listed as one of the participants in the study — it would be as though you did not sign up for the study in the first place. However, if you missed a session because you were late, you would be given either an excused no-show or an unexcused no-show on Sona, depending on whether you were able to notify the researcher before the session’s scheduled start time and whether you had a valid reason for your lateness. While there are no negative consequences associated with excused no-shows, accumulating three or more unexcused no-shows would result in your Sona account being “limited”, which means that you could no longer view or sign up for any studies.

If you cancelled a study sign-up on Sona, or if you received a no-show (either excused or unexcused) for missing a lab session, you are allowed to sign up for the same study again, unless you have accumulated three or more unexcused no-shows as a result of your absence.

Researchers may cancel a lab session under certain circumstances, such as sickness, personal emergencies, and adverse weather conditions. We will send you an email as soon as a session is cancelled (it is therefore important that the email address on your Sona profile is up-to-date).

Researchers may also cancel a lab session “on the spot” if, for example, that session involves a group activity but not enough participants are present for the activity to take place. When such situations occur, participants who have arrived at the lab will be paid $5 for their time before they are dismissed. In some cases, researchers may offer participants the option to stay behind and take part in an alternative study for a predetermined compensation amount, which may be different from that of the original study.

In the event that a researcher cancels a lab session, he or she will remove your sign-up on Sona so that you may enroll in the study again in the future (if there are available time slots).

To view all your study sign-ups (past and present) as well as your “credit status” (i.e., participation status) for each of these studies, please log into Sona and click on “My Schedule/Status” in the menu bar. There are four possible types of credit status: “Awaiting Action from Researcher”, “Participated”, “Failure to Appear — Excused”, and “Failure to Appear — Unexcused”. Your credit status should be updated within 24 hours after you complete a lab study. As for online studies, researchers will update the credit status of all participants at once within five business days of a study’s participation deadline. If your credit status is inaccurate or not updated on time, please send an email to lab-manager@mit.edu.

The “points” you see on Sona actually do not mean much. Points are arbitrary numerical values that participants can potentially earn by completing studies. At universities where students are required to participate in studies as part of a course, professors or researchers may use the point system on Sona to keep track of how many different studies (or how many hours of research) students have completed.

Since the BRL is not associated with any specific courses at MIT, our participants are always compensated with real money, and never with course credits. This means that you will most likely not receive any points after participating in a study. Even if you do, your points do not translate to anything tangible. You should only pay attention to whether your participation status on Sona is accurate (see the FAQ entry above), rather than how many points you have received.

Yes!

Participants typically earn $15–$25/hour for lab studies and $12–$20/hour for online studies. While most researchers pay participants a flat rate, some researchers prefer to use a performance-based payment system, where participants receive a fixed base rate for completing a study, plus a variable bonus that reflects how well they perform in certain tasks.

Researchers may pay participants with cash, gift cards, electronic gift certificates, or checks. If the compensation amount exceeds $75, researchers will only use checks to pay participants, as this is required by MIT for tax reporting purposes (see the FAQ entry below).

Yes. The money you earn from participating in research studies is part of your taxable income. If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you are responsible for tracking your participant compensation and including it in your annual tax return. Furthermore, you will be asked to provide your name, address, and social security number on a payment form if your compensation amount for a study exceeds $75. We will submit your payment form to staff members at MIT Accounts Payable, who will then send a check to your address. MIT is required to issue Form 1099 to research participants who are paid more than $600 in any given calendar year. Please consult your tax advisor or preparer about proper filing procedures for Form 1099.

Participants who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents will always be paid by check. MIT will deduct a 30% income tax from each payment (regardless of the amount), pursuant to U.S. tax laws.

Depending on how a researcher chooses to pay participants, payment schedules will vary:

• Cash or gift cards — You should expect to receive payment immediately after completing a study.
• Electronic gift certificates — You should expect to receive payment no later than five business days after completing a study.
• Checks — You should expect to receive payment two to three weeks after completing a study. Check payments have a longer processing time because they are handled by MIT Accounts Payable, and not directly by researchers.

Researchers should pay participants in a timely manner. If this is not the case for you, please send an email to lab-manager@mit.edu.