X-Flash #17
April 2 , 2010
Staff Changes at Xlab: This past week we bid a fond farewell to our indefatigable Xlab Administrator, Brenda Naputi, who has accepted a nice offer from Research Enterprise Services. Brenda has been with Xlab since day one—six years!—and was indispensable to maintaining the lab as a great resource for researchers. We will miss her energy, expertise and boundless dedication.
Miho Tanaka, who has been involved with the Xlab for 4 years, will take over many of Brenda’s responsibilities. Miho has a thorough knowledge of the Xlab’s workings and, like Brenda, is very customer-oriented. You can contact her at miho@haas.berkeley.edu
Human Subjects Reviews: Investigators preparing applications/protocols for review by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) for Xlab projects can now receive assistance from compliance staff at Research Enterprise Services (RES). Latara Harris and her colleagues at RES can provide a pre-review to make sure that your protocol/application is ready for submission to CPHS and minimize the possibility that it will be sent back for editing or revision.
Please contact Latara (latara_harris@berkeley.edu 643-0384) prior to beginning the submission process. She will meet with you to discuss the specifics of your submission and gather any pertinent information. RES Compliance will build the application in eProtocol in the format of the Xlab “Master Protocol” while customizing it to your study specifications.
Once the application is complete, Latara will email you with instructions on how to access eProtocol, add funding information and how to submit the protocol to CPHS.
ONLY when Latara has reviewed your protocol and found it satisfactory should you “submit” it through eProtocol.
The Xlab Director will NOT review protocols on behalf of CPHS that have not undergone this pre-review process (except for experienced investigators who make separate arrangements directly with the Xlab Director in advance)!
Contact Information:
Latara Harris: latara_harris@berkeley.edu (510) 643-0384. She will be listed as the “Administrative contact”
Miho Tanaka miho@haas.berkeley.edu (510) 642-8780. She will be listed as the “Other” contact.
Surveys Xlab has successfully pilot-tested its system for conducting on-line surveys, with subject payments done electronically using Amazon Gift Card codes. Because the recruitment and payment sides are highly automated, we think that this can be scaled up to accommodate surveys significantly larger than those done in-lab. The only constraints are that payment must be a single, flat fee and the subject pool is limited (currently) to our UCB student/staff pool. Please contact Miho Tanaka for more information about on-line surveys and experiments.
Evening Hours The last weeks of the semester are a busy time at the Xlab, often making it difficult to find space on the calendar. One solution is to use the Xlab’s laptops-on-a-cart for experiments conducted in Haas rooms outside the lab—even after hours. This “self-service” option is for experiments where technology support is not required, and all computer operations and subject payments are handled by researcher, and where researchers and research assistants have been pre-approved by Xlab staff. Interested investigators should contact Xlab Administrator Miho Tanaka miho@haas.berkeley.edu for more information.
Grants: Xlab continues its policy of making small grants available to faculty and graduate student researchers. The Xlab’s website at http://xlab.berkeley.edu/researchers_pages/grants.html
Comments? Send suggestions or comments to the Xlab’s Faculty Director, Prof. Shachar Kariv <kariv@econ.berkeley.edu> or the Manager, Bob Barde <barde@haas.berkeley.edu>
Comments? Send constructive comments to Shachar Kariv <kariv@econ > or Miho Tanaka<naputi@haas>
For more information, check out the Xlab web site at xlab.berkeley.edu