The Recruitment Section should clearly state the ways in which potential participants will be contacted and the study will be solicited to them. You must consider all possible forms of recruitment before you write your REB protocol. The most common sources of participants for SPRQL Studies are the PSY100 Participant Pool and the Greater Toronto community. Your recruitment section should make it clear how participants will first be notified of your study, the exact information that you will give them about the study prior to informed consent, the interaction method you will use to schedule them, and, if applicable, any personally identifiable data that will be collected prior to informed consent. Be sure that your Recruitment Section explains each of these aspects of recruitment clearly and concisely.

Recruitment Materials

Common recruitment materials include study descriptions that will be posted to recruitment websites and flyers that will be posted around campus or the Greater Toronto Area. Most REB Protocols will have a recruitment ad or other recruitment materials attached as an Appendix. If you are using an Appendix for your recruitment materials, then you should specifically reference the appendix in the body of the Recruitment Section on the REB Protocol.

Study Descriptions

The study description should be as short as possible to increase the hit rate. Each study description should begin with one sentence that generally describes the overall purpose of the research project. The next sentence should succinctly describe everything the participant will be asked to do; this should be a description of what they need to evaluate whether they want to participate (e.g., you will complete cognitive tasks at a computer while connected to physiological equipment), not a step-by-step description of the study procedures. If applicable, you should close with a final sentence that describes any eligibility restrictions (e.g., must have meditation experience) or required behaviours (e.g., you must be willing to not drink any caffeine nor exercise within 4 hours of when the study begins). Always remember that shorter study descriptions with common, conversational language attract more participants.

Recruiting PSY100 Participants

Potential participants involved with the PSY100 Participant Pool are undergraduate students currently enrolled in the Introduction to Psychology class at the St. George campus. They are recruited through an online scheduling system called “PSYNUP.” On PSYNUP, a brief description of the study is provided and interested participants can schedule themselves for an available time slot that is convenient for them.

PSY100 participants are “free,” money-wise, and they are also much easier to recruit and run through our protocols. As a result, SPRQL researchers are expected to take the maximum advantage of this great resource as much as possible to conserve lab resources.

Recruiting Community Samples

Some studies in SPRQL involve community samples, which means participants who are not undergraduate students. Community samples are typically recruited through online job postings like craigslist and Kijiji. On occasion, the lab has rented ad space in local newspapers, but we are finding shocking low rates of return on advertisements.

Community samples are advantageous in many ways, as reviewers tend to appreciate them. However, one reason why reviewer’s appreciate community samples is that they are much harder to recruit, schedule, and compensate. Moreover, community participants cost money in addition to headaches. For these reasons, community samples should be sought for big capstone studies, but are less reasonable for small or “risky” (i.e., previously untested hypotheses) studies.

Recruiting from Website

Both PSY100 and community participants can be recruited through the lab’s website. So, irrespective of the rest of recruitment, you should include a clause in the Recruitment Section of the REB protocol that describes the posting of study descriptions on our lab website. Feel free to copy and paste the following blurb:

Participants will also be recruited through the lab’s website. A description of the study will be posted under the relevant section of the lab’s recruitment section (i.e., under postings demarcated for “[PSY100|Community members]”) alongside a secure contact form that will send an email from the participant to the Principal Investigator, who will then follow up with the potential participant. Aside from the participant’s email being visible in the Principal Investigator’s email records, there will be no formal record kept of the participant’s contact information.