ADELE

BACKGROUND

Human and social sciences (HSS) researchers routinely use online survey applications, both for administering questionnaires and conducting complex experiments. While the market offers an abundance of tools, truly relevant options become scarce once criteria for GDPR compliance, CNIL recommendations (particularly the May 27, 2021 opinion on US collaborative tools), acceptable commercial policies, and expected research functionalities are applied.

As part of the PLATIPUS platform, several tools were tested. Lime Survey, although open-source, suffers from poor usability and limited features. Qualtrics, on the other hand, is very comprehensive but costly and incompatible with GDPR requirements. Therefore, the JSPsych framework was chosen. It is free, easily hostable, suited for both online and offline studies, and offers a wide plugin library covering many experimental needs for both self-reported and behavioral measures. Several researchers already use JSPsych for their experiments, but its use still relies on programming skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), which is a barrier for many users.

GOING FURTHER WITH THE SUPPORT OF LabEx CerCoG

To democratize the use of JSPsych, PLATIPUS initiated the development of a graphical interface named ADELe, allowing users to create experimental protocols through a user-friendly interface without needing to program. The tool remains compatible with advanced usage, as more experienced users can still access and modify the generated code. This interface aims to simplify and speed up the creation of questionnaires and experiments while ensuring technical and ethical compliance.

The development of ADELe is supported by LabEx CerCoG. Jean-Charles Quinton and his students and doctoral candidates are developing plugins tailored to the specific needs of psychology and cognitive sciences, in response to requests from several teams within the CerCoG network (LPNC, LIP/PC2S, LJK). ADELe will make it possible to distribute these plugins beyond their initial creation framework while serving as a foundation for new projects and features.

Initial funding from CerCoG enabled the launch of ADELe through the recruitment of an IT DUT second-year intern, extended with a fixed-term contract, alongside partial support from the PLATIPUS IT technician. The latter handled server installation, feasibility studies, supervision, testing, and debugging. A second internship (third-year DUT) is planned for spring 2025. However, many steps remain: integrating existing plugins (from the JSPsych website or developed locally), improving usability, and facilitating the addition of new modules. The goal is to design a sustainable, scalable tool that is accessible to the research community.