CI SONA opens on Friday, September 6 and closes on Wednesday, December 11 at 4 p.m.
 

Research Signup

Students enrolled in a section of the following lower division courses will be required to earn two credits by participating in communication research or by completing alternative written assignments:

• CIS 110, 111, 112, 300
• COM 101, 249, 252, 281, 287, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317
• ISC 161, 261, 321
• ICT/IS 200

Each student in each CI course mentioned above must complete two research credits or alternate written assignments.

You must complete the research requirement for one course in which you are enrolled in a given semester. If you are enrolled in two or more such CI courses, you will not be required to complete more than two credits. Instead, the CI SONA pool administrator will provide you with “free credits” which you can use to apply to the additional classes.

The CI administrator will provide you with these credits by midterm.

You are responsible for using these additional credits to apply to your classes beyond the first two. No additional communication with the instructor is needed, as the credit will appear just as another credit, but it must be applied to the course.

In the event that you do not see the additional credits by the end of midterm, please email CISONAHelp@uky.edu.

PLEASE NOTE: CI SONA requirements are different from the SONA requirements/pools that may exist in other UK colleges and must be completed separately and in addition to any other SONA requirements set forth by those other colleges. CI SONA credits are only good for the CI classes listed above, whereas PSY SONA credits must be used for PSY classes, and MKT SONA credits must be used for MKT classes.
 

Policy

The College of Communication and Information is committed to providing students a broad and comprehensive education. Students in these classes are provided the option to participate in research studies or alternative assignments in order to earn TWO research credits, which is equal to 4% of your grade (TWO credits worth 2% each). If you complete only one of the required credits, you will earn half the points. If you complete two required credits, you will earn the full points. Each study listed within the CI SONA will have an allotted time requirement and credit(s) to earn when study is complete.

CI SONA opens on the Friday following the last day to add classes, and the deadline to complete SONA is the Wednesday during Prep Week.

CI SONA will have an allotted time requirement and credit(s) to earn when study is complete. If you are enrolled in two or more CI SONA courses, you will not be required to complete more than the two credits needed for any CI SONA class. Instead, the CI SONA pool administrator will provide you with “free credits” that you can use to apply to the additional classes.

PLEASE NOTE: The CI SONA administrator will provide students with these credits by midterm.

Students are responsible for using these additional credits to apply to their classes. You will need to log-in to CI SONA and assign these credits to specific classes, but no additional communication with the instructor is needed, as the “complimentary credits” will appear just as another credit. In the event that you do not see the additional credits by mid-term, please email CISONAHelp@uky.edu for assistance.

During the first week of the semester, you will receive an email from the CI SONA system CISONAHelp@uky.edu letting you know when the system is open. This will be sent to your official University of Kentucky email address.

PLEASE NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure you are receiving and reading any emails sent to your official UK email address. Using your LinkBlue ID, you can login to view detailed information about available research studies and sign up at https://ci.uky.edu/sona.
 

Alternatives to Research Studies

Participation is voluntary for research studies, thus, there are alternative options in order to earn credit. Additionally, if you are 17 years of age or younger, you will not be able to participate in the research studies. In these cases, research Alternative Assignments will be listed along with actual studies on the CI SONA website. These alternative assignments usually consist of reading an article or webpage and summarizing the contents. Research alternatives are to be completed through the CI SONA website.

PLEASE NOTE: The alternative assignment is a writing assignment. Students may not be awarded credit if they fail to follow directions (i.e., do not meet word length requirement, use fillers to meet word count or plagiarize content from another person or the internet).
 

Earning Credits

After completing each study, you will either see a completion page on the CI SONA website or the researcher will thank you for your time. Your credit will be granted by the researcher either automatically or within seven days. Please make sure to confirm that credit has been awarded by logging in to your CI SONA account. At the end of the semester, your instructor will be able to view the number of credits you have earned. Note: Your instructor will not know specifically which studies you participated in to earn credit. If you have questions about credits earned, contact the researcher directly.
 

Need Help?

If you have general questions about how to use the CI SONA website or are having issues logging on, please email CISONAHelp@uky.edu. If you have questions about a particular study or if you have questions about the research, please contact the researcher for the specific study about which you are inquiring. This information will be listed in the study description.