Support for University Research Projects
The new “Research at Illinois” feature on the Illinois app offers researchers a dedicated space to showcase their ongoing projects and actively recruit participants, fostering a collaborative and engaged research community.
The Research Interest form allows users of the Illinois app to indicate their interest in participating in a research project. The form includes a demographic questionnaire. This information will help researchers identify potential participants who meet specific demographic criteria, such as age, gender, ethnicity, or educational level. By identifying potential participants, this feature of the app can help researchers get a diverse sample of participants that accurately reflects the population they are studying.
What is the Research Interest Form?
You can indicate whether you are interested in participating in an existing research project by filling out the Research Interest Form and enabling the Participate in Research Profile setting. The form will ask you questions about your demographic information such as age, gender, and ethnicity. Your participation in any research projects will be based on an invitation from the investigators and your consent.
Filling out the Research Interest Form does not automatically recruit you for any research projects, but it will place you on a list of willing applicants available to researchers. Your personal information and any data stored on the Illinois app will not be shared with researchers.
How do I indicate my interest to participate in research projects at Illinois?
1. Go to your Profile by tapping the profile icon in the upper right corner of the app.
In the Profile settings, enable Participate in Research under Research at Illinois.
2. Tap Research Interest Form to fill out the demographic questionnaire.
What happens to the information I enter?
The information you enter into the Research Interest Form is stored in a confidential location. When an investigator seeks research participants, they identify a small number of demographic characteristics for the people they are interested in. If your characteristics match the characteristics they are looking for, you will be given an opportunity to contact the investigator to express interest in participating. After that, the investigator will contact you with further questions. The investigator and the research team do not have access to your survey responses.
How do I add my research project to the Illinois app?
We are not currently accepting new research project listings, but version 4.3 of the Illinois app will begin accepting research projects for recruitment.
Principal Investigators (PIs) will first need to seek IRB approval to use the Illinois app for participant recruitment. The Illinois app will receive a list of PIs with this permission from the IRB office. The PI will then enter the name and details of the project that they would like listed on the Illinois app. This information will be sent automatically to users of the app whose demographic information matches the research project criteria. These users will be granted the opportunity to apply for participation.
Supporting Social and Behavioral Research
Efforts are being made to develop app-based tools to support data collection in Social and Behavioral Science Research, including data collected through momentary ecological assessments, smartphone sensors, surveys, and other means. To be able to use an app as a data collection tool, PIs will need to have IRB approval for their project as well as for the use of an app for data collection.
