Instructor and Researcher Information

Instructor Information

If you would like an instructor account, please email research-participation@uwm.edu. Instructors need an account in order to download their credit reports at the end of the semester. Instructions for downloading credit reports can be found here.

For help navigating Sona as an instructor, see Instructor Help or contact the administrator research-participation@uwm.edu.

Experimenter Information

Getting a Research or Principal Investigator Account

Each lab will have a single Principal Investigator account (under a faculty member’s epanther ID) plus Researcher accounts for each lab member. Faculty members can request a Principal Investigator account, and pre-approved lab members may request new Researcher accounts by contacting the administrator research-participation@uwm.edu.

Important Sona Policies

  1. It is the Principal Investigator’s responsibility to ensure all procedures are approved as needed by the IRB. 
  2. Time value assignments should be determined in 30 min increments. A study that requires a participation time of 30 min or less should award ½ credit hour, participation times of 31-60 min should result in 1 credit hour, etc. Multi-session studies may include a “bonus” for completing all sessions: Participants can receive an additional ½ credit hour per each two sessions of repeat participation. 
  3. Please award credit within 24 hours of the student’s participation – for multiple session studies this can be after the final session of the study. 
  4. Sona users complete a brief survey the first time they log in each semester. 

Help using Sona

Resources for creating studies, adding timeslots, assigning credit, and other common Sona functions can be found in Researcher Help. If you have looked through the help and still have question, contact the Sona administrator research-participation@uwm.edu. 

Using External Survey Tools with Sona

If you would like to use the Qualtrics Survey Tool to create a brief pre-screen that will automatically determine and inform participants of their study eligibility please read this PDF Document Qualtrics Automatic Scoring and Emailing (PDF) tutorial. 

If you are conducting an online survey or experiment it is highly recommended that you automatically award Sona credit upon study completion. Follow Sona’s guide to integrating external tools in your Sona study.  

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.