Research

Communication Research: Lab and RePaSS
Overview


            The purpose of this webpage is to outline the policies associated with research associated with CAS resources: the use of Communication Research Lab and RePaSS. The research participant pool (RePaSS) is a mutually beneficial arrangement between researchers in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) and students enrolled in CAS100A- Effective Speech. The benefits for researchers are clear: They have relatively easy access to a large set of research participants that would otherwise be costly to recruit.  Benefits for participants are also significant, but researchers must ensure that they are realized. Two percent of CAS100A students’ final grade is contingent on successful participation in a research project being conducted by an investigator in the CAS department. Researchers must ensure that students have the opportunity to participate within the semester and facilitate their involvement, and reporting to their instructors, in a timely manner. Students also have the opportunity to obtain first-hand knowledge of the research methods employed in communication science. 

 

Eligibility


            All CAS Department faculty and graduate students are eligible to apply for use of the RePaSS participant pool.  Undergraduates who are sponsored by a CAS Department faculty member are also eligible to apply.  Researchers not affiliated with the CAS Department may request access to the pool as well.

 

Application Procedure
File the Appropriate Application(s).
 
CAS100A Participant Pool.  Download the CAS Participant Pool application here and fill in the requested information.  The IRB protocol number and project title (the exact title that you used in your IRB application) you provide will be verified against the records of the Office of Research Protections.  If you do not yet have the IRB approval number at the time you submit your application for the research pool, report the IRB approval number to the RePaSS administrator within 48 hours of receiving it.  Submit the completed CAS Participant Pool Application as a hard copy or e-mail attachment to the current research administrator (Mr. Kurt Braddock).  The application must be received no later than one calendar week before the semester in which the research will be conducted is to begin.

 

Communication Research Lab.  Any researcher within the CAS Department is eligible to apply for use of the Communication Research Lab in Sparks 224 and 225.  The application procedure for use of the lab is similar to the procedure outlined above, but use of the Lab requires submission of a Communication Research Laboratory Usage section of the CAS Participant Pool Application, which can be downloaded here.  Application for use of the CR Lab must be submitted to the RePaSS administrator and CR Lab coordinator via e-mail attachment or hard copy no later than one calendar week before the semester in which the lab is to be used will begin.  Construction of the lab schedule will take place in the week before the semester begins, and will be distributed to all CAS researchers using the lab within the first few days of the semester.  If the study being conducted does not receive IRB approval by the time 20% of the semester has passed (5th week in the Fall/Spring; 1st week in the Summer sessions), CR Lab times will be forfeited and re-allocated.
           
Obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB).  Penn State’s Office of Research Protections maintains a website that provides instructions for those seeking approval from the IRB

 

(http://www.research.psu.edu/orp/areas/humans/applications/index.asp). 

 

Researchers should obtain approval for their projects from Pennsylvania State’s IRB no later than 20% of the way through the semester.  If IRB approval is not obtained by the time 20% of the semester has passed, participants will be re-allocated at the discretion of the RePaSS administrator and faculty liaison.  If something in the researcher’s protocol changes such that he/she no longer has IRB approval, the RePaSS administrators must be informed within 72 hours of this event.  If IRB approval is not regained by the halfway point in the semester (8 weeks in the fall/spring or 2.5 weeks in the summer sessions), the researcher must inform RePaSS administrators.   Subjects that have not participated will then be reallocated at the administrators’ discretion. 

 

research

Wait for Approval.  You will receive notice of your Participant Pool Request approval or rejection shortly after submitting materials.  Under normal circumstances, you will be granted access if you submit the appropriate materials on time and the information you provide is accurate.  All applications (IRB, 100A pool, and CR Lab) require researchers to submit a statistical power analysis along with their request. If there are several applications for participants, demand for subjects may exceed the supply.  If this is the case, you may not receive as many participants you requested.  Priority for access to participants will be determined as follows:

 

Tier 1: Non-tenured faculty project


Tier 2: Tenured faculty projects, Doctoral Dissertations, Master's Theses


Tier 3: All other research being conducted in which the lead researcher is a member of the CAS department


Tier 4: All research being conducted in which the lead researcher is NOT a member of the CAS department

 

Issues to Consider
           

  • Inevitably, some participants that sign up for timeslots on RePaSS will miss their appointments.  This typically occurs because the participant forgets about the appointment.  In this instance, the researcher is in the position to decide whether to reschedule that participant’s appointment, give the participant the alternate assignment for credit, or to decline the participant’s opportunity to earn the credit.  These options are all viable, and which option the researcher chooses is dependent on the circumstances surrounding the missed appointment.  If a student approaches the RePaSS administrator about a missed appointment, the administrator will forward the inquiry or request directly to the researcher in charge of the study to which the participant was assigned.
  • For those studies in which credit is not automatically granted in RePaSS, it is the researcher’s responsibility to keep a detailed account of who showed up to participate in the study and who did not.

 

  • Many studies occur in two (or more) different stages or waves.  If you are conducting a study that takes place in several parts over the course of one semester, the latest part of the study must be launched no later than 80% of the way through the semester (the end of Week 12 in the Fall/Spring; the end of Week 4 in the Summer sessions).
  • In the event that a researcher is unable to use all of his/her participants for any reason, the RePaSS administrator and faculty liaison, in conjunction with the Chair of the CAS Department, have final word regarding the re-allocation of those participants.  Re-allocations will be made using the aforementioned policies as guidelines.

 

Ask a Question Via E-mail


            If you have a question regarding the policies or procedures associated with the use of RePaSS or the Communication Research Lab, please contact either:

 

Kurt Braddock, RePaSS Administrator and CR Lab Coordinator (khb125@psu.edu)

 

or

 

Dr. Rachel Smith, CAS Research Resources Committee Chair (ras57@psu.edu)

 

The preceding text was adapted from that constructed by Dr. Matthew McGlone, University of Texas at Austin. We appreciate his thoughtfulness as well as the input of current and past CAS researchers in constructing these policies.