truman

Running a study ​

This page takes you from a tested version to a study that's open, with real participants arriving through its link. It also covers how to watch a study, stop it, and change it.

One idea runs through all of it: saving a version never changes what participants get. A study points at one live version, and new participants get that one. You launch a version on purpose, and each launch and stop is recorded in your codebook.

Launch ​

  1. On the Studies page, find the version you want and press Launch.
  2. Read the window. It says new participants will get this version, starting now. It warns you if:
    • the version's scenario tests haven't run, are still running, or didn't all pass
    • the consent page still has the placeholder text
    • some posts can never appear because of when they're timed
  3. Press Launch it, or Not yet.

The study now says Open to participants, the version is marked Live, and the Study link appears under the study's name.

On hosted Truman

A lab has to be approved before it can launch, and there's a limit on studies open at once. See Your lab on hosted Truman.

The link is the site's address, then /join/, then the link name you chose when you started the study. With a recruitment ID on the end it looks like this:

https://clikbrite.com/join/your-link-name?PROLIFIC_PID=TEST123

If the ID isn't in the link, the page asks for it. To come back on a later day, participants use the same link.

Participant screens don't say Truman or research unless your study does. That includes the address. On hosted Truman, studies run at clikbrite.com by default. To choose another address the server offers, use Participants go to under the study's name on the Studies page. The study link, test participant links, and the link Prolific uses all follow it.

Participants open the link in a browser, on a computer or a phone. There's also a phone app that adds push notifications, though it isn't in the app stores yet. See The phone app.

Recruit on Prolific ​

You can give the study link to any recruitment platform that can add an ID to it. For Prolific, Truman does most of the setup. Open Monitor and download for the study, then press Recruit on Prolific.

  1. Connect your account. Create a token in Prolific under Settings, then API tokens. Paste it under Prolific API token and press Connect. Each researcher connects their own. It's stored encrypted and can't be shown again.
  2. Create the study on Prolific. Fill in what participants see, the pay, and Number of people, then press Create the draft on Prolific. This makes an unpublished draft with the right link and completion codes. Nothing is spent.
  3. Set what you expect before paying someone: Minutes viewing posts, Posts seen, and actions. Not meeting a rule never rejects anyone. It means a person looks at them.
  4. Publish on Prolific. Choose your audience and publish there. Truman never publishes for you. Launch the study in Truman first, or the link won't let anyone in.

As people take part, Submissions lists each Prolific ID with what they did and whether they pass your rules. Press Select everyone who passes, then the approve button. A confirmation comes first, because approving pays people from your Prolific balance. Bonuses work the same way.

When people finish, Truman sends them back to Prolific with the right code. Someone who declines consent is sent back with a code asking them to return their submission. If your study sends people to a survey after Truman, the page shows the link to put at the end of your survey. See Consent, surveys, and debriefing.

Monitor ​

Monitor and download shows how a running study is going. It refreshes on its own and shows counts, never IDs.

  • Joined, In progress, Finished, and Active in the last 15 minutes
  • how many declined consent or withdrew
  • By condition: people, the planned share, how many finished, and their posts, comments, likes, votes, and flags
  • People joining each day
  • Where people in progress are, by step of the flow

Test participants aren't counted.

Photos to look at ​

On hosted Truman, every photo a participant uploads is scanned automatically for nudity, violence, gore, and hate symbols. When one is flagged, a Photos to look at card appears on this page. It doesn't appear when there's nothing to look at.

Each photo is covered until you press Show photo. The card says what it was flagged for, and then you choose:

  • Release or It's fine keeps the photo.
  • Remove deletes it for good. Anyone who would have seen it sees "This photo was removed."

What happens before you decide depends on the study. In a study where each participant has a world of their own, nobody else can see their photo, so it's only listed for you. In a shared world, a flagged photo is held: the person who uploaded it still sees it, and everyone else in their world sees "This photo is being reviewed" until you decide.

The scan reads JPEG and PNG photos. A GIF or WebP can't be scanned, so in a shared world it's held and listed for you the same way. The scan makes mistakes in both directions, so it's a prompt to look, not a verdict.

The page also has the Christof, the director card, covered in A cast that writes for itself, and the Shared worlds section, covered in Several real people together.

Stop ​

Press Stop new participants beside the live version, then confirm. New people can't join, but anyone already in the study can still come back. You can launch again whenever you like.

Changing a study that's running ​

A saved version can't be changed. To change a running study, you make a new version and launch it.

  1. On the Studies page, press Edit a copy of version and its number.
  2. Make your changes and press Save as new version.
  3. Test it. It isn't live yet.
  4. Press Launch beside the new version.

People already in the study stay on the version they started with. Only new participants get the new one. The Launch window tells you how many people are on the old version, and that your data would span two versions, which your analysis will need to account for.

study_version in the export says which version each participant had, and the codebook describes each version's settings.

When it's over ​

Stop the study and download the data. See Your data.

A study that isn't open can be hidden with Archive on the Studies page, and brought back with Restore. Nothing is deleted. An archived study that only test participants took part in can be deleted for good by an owner.

Launching, stopping, and exporting can also be done from the command line. See Studies as files.

Open source under the MIT license.