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Alumni Research Experience Program

Stanford Alumni Hall - tan building with pointed roof framed by palm trees

photo credit Linda A Cicero/Stanford News Service

What is AREP?

The Alumni Research Experience Program (AREP) is a unique and fun opportunity for Stanford alumni to volunteer as human subjects for non-medical, social science research. Alumni participants contribute to scholars' research on important questions of political science, economics, sociology, communication, and psychology. Participation is confidential and regulated by Stanford's Institutional Review Board. This program is brought to you by IRiSS in collaboration with the Stanford Alumni Association.

Who can be part of AREP?

All Stanford alumni are welcome to participate in online studies. Spouses are welcome too. You must be at least 18 years old.

A local Bay Area program of in-person studies will be piloted in 2016. If you reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and are interested in taking in-person experiments on site at Stanford, please contact program director Carolyn Ybarra.

What are the studies like?

Studies may be surveys, or interactive websites (including puzzles, games, studies containing videos, or smart phone apps). The first survey you take is a prescreen survey with demographic questions from all the research projects. Online experiments run from February through May, and require an average of 30 minutes per study. (Occasionally studies may request a longer time commitment – if so this will be posted in the study description.) Studies may be done remotely—wherever you have computer Internet access. 

To Register

You may register on the start date in February by clicking on REGISTER NOW. Returning participants, please click and then login to your previous account.

Participating in Studies

When you login for the first time each year, you will need to take a brief prescreen survey. This provides the researchers with relevant demographic data. You may participate in studies after completing the initial prescreen survey. From the A-REP system, click on "view studies." You will see the title(s) of any studies available for your participation. Click on the title for a description of the study. At the bottom of the description page, click on "View timeslots for this study." Choose a timeslot to sign up for the study. After signing up, you will receive a link or further instructions from the researcher.

Questions?

For general questions about the AREP program and getting started, please see our AREP Frequently Asked Questions.

For more specific questions about using the AREP software, please see our AREP Software Guide.

Contact

For more information, please contact program director Carolyn Ybarra.

Research Results

2014 Studies: Preliminary findings from our second year will be available soon.

All other past projects available on the REP Projects page