Students - Participate in Research

Some business courses include a requirement (or offer an extra credit opportunity) that students complete a research experience. Please see specific course syllabi for more details.

The research experience requirement can be met by participating in research studies approved by the university and listed on the College of Business SONA website. (Note, the psychology department at SJSU maintains their own SONA site with a different web address.  Make sure you are using the SONA site for the College of Business for your business classes).

Students who do not wish to participate in research studies may write a brief review of a research article that appears in an approved journal (see below).  One article review = one research credit.

Students may combine the two options to fulfill their requirement (e.g., you may participate in one credit of research studies and complete one article review if you need to earn 2 credits).

If you have any questions regarding any of these requirements, please contact the Research Pool Coordinator at researchadmin.cob@gmail.com.

Research Experience Option 1: Participate in Studies

To complete the research participation option, you will need to use the SONA system to find experiments and complete them. The SONA url for the college of business is: https://cobsjsu.sona-systems.com

You must first login to the SONA website using your SJSU ID and password before you can create an account in SONA. Here are detailed instructions on how to create an account.

Relevant deadlines

  • There will be no experiments posted until September 1 (if Fall semester) or February 1 (if Spring semester).  Enrolled students will receive an email when the first experiment is posted.
  • No new studies will be posted after Dec. 6, 2024. The deadline to complete all studies is Dec. 9, 2024 @ 5pm.  However, researchers may set an earlier deadline for any given study. In addition, your instructor determines the due date for completion of the requirement (it may be earlier than Dec. 9th).

FAQ

  • Research Opportunities will be posted approximately every 3 weeks. THEY WILL HAVE LIMITED SLOTS AND WILL EXPIRE AFTER 7 DAYS.
  • If there are not any available studies when you log in to SONA it means that there aren't any available studies for which you are eligible at that time. Check back at a later date for new studies.
  • You will be issued a separate SONA ID (a 5 or 6 digit number) which can be viewed when you login to SONA.  To maintain your anonymity, researchers only have access to your SONA ID. If you are asked to provide your SONA ID during an online study, you will need to provide the correct SONA ID to receive credit.
  • Credits will be given within 72 hours AFTER the participation DEADLINE for each study (which may be more than 72 hours after you personally completed the study).
  • If you choose to participate in a study and you find the procedure objectionable, you can withdraw from the study at any time. You will not be penalized for your withdrawal and you will receive full credit for participation in that study.

Research Experience Option 2: Research Article Reviews

 

If you do not wish to participate in research studies, you may write a brief review of a research article that appears in a management journal. One article review = one credit. Thus, if you are required to complete 2 credits you need to complete two article reviews. The management journals can be accessed, for free, from the SJSU library website.

Deadline 

Article reviews must be submitted to the research coordinator by 5 pm on Dec. 9, 2024.

Content

The article review should be written in appropriate style, with an attempt to convince and persuade the audience. Each article review should include the following:

  • The full citation in APA style.
  • A summary of the main points including theories and hypotheses tested.
  • A summary of the methods used to test the theories and hypotheses.
  • A summary of the main findings.
  • An evaluation of the contribution of the article to the field of management and organizational behavior. This evaluation should take into consideration: the conceptual rigor, the methodology (if applicable), and the conclusions. Communicate your evaluation convincingly and persuasively.
  • Accurate grammar and spelling.

Format

  • Be sure to include your name, Student ID, instructor, class course and section ID when submitting your article reviews.
  • Each review should be approximately 3 pages in length, double-space typed, 12pt Times Roman font, 1inch margins on all sides. A title page is NOT necessary.

Information about articles

What is a research article?

A research article reports the results of original research, assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area, and is published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. A given academic field will likely have dozens of peer-reviewed journals.

How do you know if an article is a research article?

Words to look for as clues include: analysis, study, investigation, examination, experiment, numbers of people or objects analyzed, content analysis, or surveys.

Acceptable journals include

  • Academy of Management Journal
  • Academy of Management Review
  • Journal of Organizational Behavior
  • Harvard Business Review (must be an article not a web post)
  • Journal of Management
  • Leadership Quarterly
  • Human Relations
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
  • Journal of Marketing Research
  • Journal of Consumer Research  
  • Journal of Consumer Psychology
  • Journal of Advertising
  • Journal of Retailing
  • Journal of Business Research 

How to submit

If you decide to complete the Article Review option instead of the Research Experience option, you must submit your article review(s) to the coordinator at researchadmin.cob@gmail.com by the deadline. If your review meets the requirements, the research coordinator will add your credit to your SONA account.

These article reviews are subject to all the requirements of Academic Honesty as other assignments for your classes. See SJSU's Academic Integrity Policy [pdf] and your course syllabus for definitions of Academic Dishonesty, Cheating, and Plagiarism.