Open Lab: A web application for running and sharing online experiments

Abstract

Online experiments have become a popular way of collecting data in the social and behavioral sciences. However, the high technical hurdles of setting up a server may prevent researchers from starting them. Also, proprietary software may restrict a researcher’s freedom to customize or share their study. Open Lab is a server-side application designed to host online surveys and experiments created using lab.js. Available online at https://open-lab.online, Open Lab offers a fast, secure, and transparent way to deploy studies; it handles uploading experiment scripts, customizing study design, managing the participant database, and working with the study results. Open Lab is integrated with the lab.js experiment builder (https://lab.js.org/), a browser-based program which enables the creation of new studies from scratch or the use of templates. This paper compares Open Lab with other study deployment services, discusses how Open Lab contributes to open science practices, and provides a step-by-step guide for researchers.