One workspace, from the question to the paper
Decisions made while planning are quoted by the ethics documents and the paper, and marked when they change.
- How well did you sleep last night?
- Hours asleep
- Mood this morning
How well did you sleep last night?
1 is very poorly, 7 is very well.
Hours asleep
7.5On this page
- How well did you sleep last night?Opinion scale
- Hours asleepNumber
- Mood this morningMultiple choice
Gating
Delivery
1Plan
State the question, design and hypotheses once, and the proposal and analysis plan quote them.
- See the plan summed up in one sentence, with the next decision named.
- Open a protocol already filled from what the project records, with what is missing listed.
- Work out the sample size on your own device, and keep it with the project.
- Freeze a registration snapshot, and record each deviation from it.
- Import references from RIS or BibTeX, annotate them, and export a bibliography.
Your question
Does a regular bedtime improve next-day mood?
Protocol
We will recruit 120 participants and randomise them to a regular or a free bedtime for 14 days.
2Clear ethics
Write the application and consent form from templates, and publish only studies that keep the consent form's promises.
- Choose the promises the consent form makes, such as not recording voices or images, or not asking for anything that identifies a participant.
- Export the application, consent form and information sheet as Word or PDF, each quoting your study's decisions.
- Download an ethics pack in one zip, with anything still missing listed at the top.
- Track approvals, amendments, adverse events and who is delegated to do what.
What this project promises
- We will not ask for anything that identifies you
- We will not record your voice or your image
- Nothing here is misleading, and there is no hidden purpose
A promise this project made is broken
Broken by Sleep and mood diary: the question “Your email” collects a direct identifier (email address).
3Build
Build questionnaires and behavioural tasks as one study.
- Run timed trials, with images, audio and video as stimuli.
- Import a Qualtrics survey (.qsf) with its flow and logic, and see what could not come across before anything changes.
- Unsaved edits are kept on your device, and come back if the page reloads or the browser closes.
4Recruit
Share a link or QR code, embed the study on your own website, or keep a panel for follow-ups.
- Hand out single-use links, so each one admits one participant.
- Keep a panel for follow-ups and later studies, with contact details stored apart from answers.
Share your study
Participant link
<iframe src="https://study.sigmer.io/e/k7Hq2xW" title="Sleep and mood diary"></iframe>
5Collect
Collect in one part or many on a schedule, with answers kept on the participant's device until they are delivered.
- After each part, a participant can save their link and add the next part to their calendar.
- Once a study has loaded, participants can keep going offline. Their answers wait on their device until they can be sent.
- Participants can install a study on their phone's home screen.
Schedule
4 parts- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 7
- Day 14
Responses
128
submitted
Completed
121
reached the end
Dropped
7
partial sessions
Completion
95%
of submissions
How well did you sleep last night?
6Analyse
Analyse the data where it was collected, or in a notebook that runs Python and SQL in your browser.
- Fit regression, mixed and survival models, and run the usual tests.
- A notebook's export records the random seed and the package versions it ran with.
- Export responses as CSV, Excel or SPSS: coded by default, identified or anonymised when you need either.
- Export a task's trials in long form, one row per trial.
3 Python
model = smf.mixedlm("mood ~ bedtime",
df, groups=df["pid"]).fit()| Coef. | SE | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intercept | 4.112 | 0.091 | <.001 |
| bedtime[regular] | 0.384 | 0.112 | .001 |
| Group Var | 0.412 | 0.087 |
7Write up
Write the paper beside the project's records, cite from your own library, and export Word or PDF.
- Format citations in seven styles, and export a submission package.
- Quote decisions such as the sample size in the text, marked when they change.
- Draw figures on your device, with captions naming the records they came from.
Methods
Following earlier diary work [1], we recruited 120 participants and followed them for 14 days.
120 participants
The sample size has been decided again since this was written. It now reads: 120 to analyse, recruit 132.
Use the current valueWorking as a team.
- Invite colleagues to a workspace, add an outside collaborator to one project as a guest, and add reviewers who comment without access to responses.
- People you add to one project, such as a reviewer or an outside collaborator, do not take a paid seat.
- In a lab's workspace, a supervisor sees every student's project on one page, and what is waiting on whom, without reading responses.