COUHES applications
From UIDWiki
In order to do a user study, you have to submit a proposal to COUHES (the MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects).
The turnaround time for a COUHES proposal is about 5-6 weeks. There's an application deadline every month, and a committee meeting about 3 weeks later where they decide whether to approve or reject proposals. See the COUHES web site for the current deadlines.
To submit a COUHES proposal, you'll need to get the application forms from the COUHES web site. Examples of some of our applications are found below.
You'll also need to take Human Subjects Training, a short online course. Only people who've taken this course are allowed to run user studies.
Most of our studies involve only minimal risk to participants, so you can use the "Exempt Status Form" on the COUHES web site. It's much shorter than the standard form.
- For conventional lab usability studies, look at the Chickenfoot application. This application actually specifies about 6 different user studies, each with a different consent form. (Most applications only need to specify one study.) The study protocols are written fairly generally, so that we can use them for various experiments with Chickenfoot. There's also a Continuing Review Questionnaire for Chickenfoot; study approval lasts for only a year, and extending it requires filling out one of these forms.
- For web-based studies and surveys, look at the Facemail application. This is an application for exempt status, meaning that we don't have to obtain signed consent forms.
- For security-based studies, look at the Defensive Web Browsing application.
More applications:
