introduction to the xlab for researchers:

Affiliation with UC Berkeley: You must be a faculty or official visiting scholar or postdoc, or a regularly enrolled graduate student. Before submitting your Protocol through the Xlab, please review the <Master Protocol> to see if your application qualifies.

Protocol Narrative: A brief (one or two paragraphs) description of your experimental design, its scope, and your goals.

Human Subjects: If your experiment includes human subjects, please use the procedures listed on the <human subjects> page and the associated links to the right.


Number of Sessions: How many sessions would you like to schedule? The Xlab can run up to four 1-hour sessions in one day, dependent upon the start time of the first session.

Dates: When you decide the timeframe of your experiements, please view the <XLAB CALENDAR> to confirm the availability of those time slots.

Number of Subjects per Session: The participation show-up rate for experiments is approximately 50-60%. Therefore, to meet the number of subjects requested, the Xlab over-recruits. Researchers are required to pay a $5 show-up fee to those subjects who come to the lab as scheduled, but are excused because the subject limit has been met.

Special Requirements for Subjects: Some experiments require even numbers of participants, or perhaps an evenly balanced mix of genders. Xlab will make every effort to fill your special requests.

Participation Fees and Incentives: Xlab policy states that researchers must pay a "show-up" fee of at least $5 (five) dollars to subjects who show up, on time, for an experiment but for some reason beyond their control (too may subjects, experiment cancelled, etc) they do not get to participate in the experiment. To be considered as having arrived "on time," subjects are expected to check in at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of an experiment. Note that the consent Form used under the Xlab's Master Protocol indicates that subjects who begin, but withdraw from an experiment will not receive any compensation (course credit, incentive payment, or show-up fee).

Beyond this, you need to also determine compensation rates for subjects participating in your experiments. In Economics experiments, a typical average compensation rate is at least $15 (fifteen) dollars per hour of lab time. It is Xlab policy that a $15 (fifteen) dollar participation fee be paid to subjects in experiments that are begun but cannot be completed due to technical or other difficulties.

Chartstring for Advance Payment of Fees: Your expected payout per session times the number of sessions will be the basis for a transfer of funds in advance of any scheduled experiment. Unspent balances will be transferred back to you. Coordination of chartstring information and transfers of funds will be done by the Xlab administrator and the researcher.