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Onboarding checklist

What to do when you first join the lab.

Before you can start getting involved in the lab, there are a few preliminary requirements you need to complete. Most importantly, psychology research has to be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which ensures that experiments are ethical and that experimenters have relevant ethics training. In addition, if you want to receive credits for your work in the lab, you’ll need to sign up for PSY 273. Finally, we’ll get you set up on the various accounts you’ll need.

The walkthrough below is adapted, with thanks, from Dr. Lauren Richmond’s onboarding guide for the Cognitive Aging and Memory Lab at Stony Brook.

1. Registering for credit

You can register to receive course credit for your work in the lab by signing up for PSY 273 (graded S/U). To do so, you should:

  1. Decide how many credits you want

    • PSY 273 is worth 1–3 credits, and each credit is 45 hours of lab work across the semester:
      • 1 credit = 3 hours per week
      • 2 credits = 6 hours per week
      • 3 credits = 9 hours per week
    • These are rough estimates and some weeks might be busier or quieter in general, but treat them as representative of how much time you have to give to research during the semester in general.
    • In the shorter summer these hours are doubled, but the work can be split across the two summer semesters if that suits you better.

  2. Get permission from Cameron

    • Make sure you have confirmed with Cameron by email that you are planning to take PSY 273 in the lab, and the number of credits you are applying for.
    • Ideally, do this a semester ahead (so around April for Fall Semester or in November for Spring semester)
    • The deadline to enroll is usually around the end of the first week of classes, but please don’t leave it this late!

  3. Email Diane DeSimone:

    • Send an email to Diane DeSimone (diane.desimone@stonybrook.edu), the department’s Undergraduate Program Coordinator, and cc Cameron.
    • Include your name, your SBU ID number, the section, and the number of credits you want to apply for.
    • Diane asks that you include your student ID number on every email you send her.
    • Here is an example email:

    Hi Diane,

    I would like to request permission to enroll in PSY 273 with Cameron Jones for the [semester] semester, for [N] credits.

    My Stony Brook ID number is [ID].

    Best, [Name]

  4. Enroll on SOLAR once you have permission.

    • Diane will email you to confirm your position and give you permission to enroll on SOLAR.
    • The permission will have an expiry date so please enroll as soon as you can.
    • There is more information on the process here

Note:

  • You can only take 6 credits of PSY 273 with any one faculty advisor across your whole degree (e.g. 2 semesters at three credits). If you want to keep working in the lab after that, the next steps are PSY 447 (Readings in Psychology) or PSY 487 (Unsupervised Research), which are letter-graded and involve a higher commitment. It’s worth having this conversation early if you are planning to be involved with the lab for a while.
  • You can take two sections of PSY 273 in a single semester, but no more than 3 credits can be applied to any one section.

2. Ethics training

  1. Set up a myResearch IRB account:

    1. go to the SBU myResearch site
    2. click “IRB”
    3. Log in with your NetID.
    4. Here you will see any IRB protocols that you are added to.

  2. CITI training:

    1. Go to CITI Program’s site and select “Log in through my organization” and select “SUNY - University at Stony Brook” as your organization.

    2. Log in through SSO with your NetID.

    3. Click ‘Add a Course’

    4. Check the following courses:

      • I want to complete the course in Human Subjects Protection.
      • I want to complete an RCR Course at this time.
      • I want to complete the Conflict of Interest Course at this time.

    5. Complete the follow-up questions

      • Check ‘Basic course’ for the question about RCR
      • Check ‘Social and Behavioral Sciences Course’ for the second question about RCR
      • For the question: “Are you currently, or could you possibly in the future be funded by the Public Health Services?” Select “No”
      • Answer the following questions accurately.

    6. You will now be able to complete the selected trainings

      • Allow yourself plenty of time and try not to rush them.
      • SBS is by far the longest (SBU predicts 4-6 hours); the others are much shorter.
      • You can save your progress and don’t have to complete them in one go.

  3. Send your certificates:

    • From My Records, download the completion certificate (not the report) for each course.
    • Store them somewhere safe on your computer.
    • Email copies of the certificates to Cameron so you can be added to IRB protocols.

3. Accounts and access

Once you have joined the lab, we will get you set up with all the accounts you will need to be involved in lab activities. Let us know which email address to use for these (if it’s not your SBU email).

  • Slack: A lot of our day-to-day communication about projects and logistics happens on Slack. Cameron will send you an invitation to join.
  • GitHub: If you are writing or reading code, it will probably be hosted on the lab GitHub. Send Cameron your GitHub username to be added.
  • OpenRouter: We use OpenRouter to access various different kinds of AI models via an API. If you need this for your project, we will set you up with an account which will allow you to create your own API keys to query models.
  • The lab server: If you are building online experiments, they will probably be hosted on our server. We will set you up with an account that you can use to access the server from your laptop.

Keep an eye out for invitations in your email and if you find you don’t have access to something you need, just ask!

4. Building and lab space

The lab is located in Psychology Building A on the second floor. This is where we meet for weekly lab meetings, run in-person experiments, and where many of your meetings happen. If you need space to work inside the lab or need a key to access the lab on your own, email Cameron to ask.

5. Info for the website

Send Cameron a short bio, a photo, and optionally a link to your website or profile so we can put you up on the people page. You can see existing entries to get an idea of the rough tone and length.

6. Finish the handbook

  • That’s it! There will be plenty more to do before you start. The best thing you can do to prepare for your work in the lab is to read the rest of the handbook and let us know if you have any questions.

Last updated August 8, 2026.