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lab.js makes it easy to build, run and share studies that help understand the mind. It allows everyone to construct and construct experiments and surveys within the browser; the graphical builder makes it easy to get started without writing code.
The graphical builder interface is the easiest way to create studies, and the best place to start. The tutorial will walk you through building your first study, step by step.
If you prefer working directly with code, you can build studies using the JavaScript library. Everything you need is bundled in the starter kit, which is provided with every release. There is also a tutorial to help you get started.
If you get stuck or things don't make sense, please don't hesitate to reach out!
The easiest and quickest way to find help is to join our Support channel, where there's someone around to discuss things and help out most of the time. You're welcome to just join and say hello, we'd love to have you around!
If you'd like to keep in the loop regarding the development, please subscribe to our newsletter to receive very occasional updates and release notifications.
We would love to have you as part of this project! There are lots of different ways to contribute, and we recognize and very warmly welcome all kinds of involvement:
- Feedback, ideas and suggestions are always appreciated. If we can make
lab.jsmore useful, we'd love to! - If you've found something that didn't work, felt harder than it should, or figured out a trick, it's likely that others will benefit from your experience. Please file an issue that describes what's going on, or contribute a brief recipe to the documentation.
- We wholeheartedly invite fellow scientists and students to share your studies: Chances are that others are trying something very similar — by sharing yours, you'll be giving other researchers a head start. We'll happily help you polish your study if you'd like.
- Of course, code contributions are hugely welcome! If you're missing something, we'd love to work with you to extend the project. If you're looking for an area to contribute, let us know, or check out the issues for some ideas — we'd love to support you and help you get started, regardless of your skill level: We are all learners.
Please also let us know if you'd like to join in but are unsure how, we'd be thrilled to help you find something that suits your interests and resources. The contributor's guide provides further information about our process; we have some pointers regarding how to build the project in the documentation.
(in alphabetical order)
Felix Henninger · Pascal J. Kieslich · Ulf K. Mertens · Yury Shevchenko · Vanessa Sochat
Michael Kriechbaumer · Felix Ludwig · Folco Panizza · Merle M. Schuckart
Dilek Akkus · Angelo Belardi · Ursa Bernardic · Erin Buchanan · Emily Elliott · Jeffrey Fisher · Kerstin Fröber · Robert Gaschler · Benjamin E. Hilbig · Lea Hildebrandt · Alex Irvine · Dave Kleinschmidt · Kristian Lange · Dano Morrison · Karthikeya Pammi · Shivangi Patel · Kwame Porter Robinson · Nick Robinson · Sophie Scharf · Nikoletta Symeonidou · Hendrik Singmann · Dawid Strzelczyk · Kevin Tiede · Anne Voormann · Andreas Voss · Andrew White · Malte Zimdahl
The students and teaching assistants in the graduate course Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Koblenz-Landau inspire the continued development of this software, have provided countless valuable insights, and sparked many of the ideas embodied in this project through questions and discussions.
We are wholeheartedly grateful to our generous sponsors for making possible the development of this tool:
FernUniversität in Hagen · GESS, University of Mannheim · Meta Reality Labs · Mozilla Science Lab · Rational Altruists Mannheim · Stifterverband · University of Koblenz-Landau · Volkswagen Foundation · Wikimedia Germany
If you would like to support development as a scientific institution, the easiest way is to host a workshop. We'll gladly show you and your colleagues how to build experiments using this software, and build your favorite paradigm together! We are also open to consulting if you are looking for a particular feature — please don't hesitate to get in touch so that we can discuss things in more detail.
We kindly request that you cite
lab.js if you use it in your research. Here's how:
Henninger, F., Shevchenko, Y., Mertens, U. K., Kieslich, P. J., & Hilbig, B. E. (2022). lab.js: A free, open, online study builder. Behavior Research Methods, 54(2), 556–573. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01283-5
(There are also version-specific dois if you prefer those)
All parts of this project are openly available, subject to different licenses:
- The
lab.jscore library that is included in your studies is made available under the terms of the Apache License. - The builder, the graphical interface used to build experiments, is provided under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License.
The studies you build based on the library, and those you create using the builder, are always your own, and you are free to distribute them as you see fit. When studies include the core library files, these files alone are governed by the aforementioned license.