Resource Report

URL: http://www.randomizer.org

Proper Citation: Research Randomizer (RRID:SCR_008563)

Description: This site is designed for researchers and students who want a quick way to generate random numbers or assign participants to experimental conditions. Research Randomizer can be used in a wide variety of situations, including psychology experiments, medical trials, and survey research. The program uses a JavaScript random number generator to produce customized sets of random numbers. Since its release in 1997, Research Randomizer has been used to generate number sets over 10.7 million times. This service is part of Social Psychology Network and is fast, free, and runs with any recent web browser as long as JavaScript isn''t disabled. Research Randomizer is a free service offered to students and researchers interested in conducting random assignment and random sampling. By using this service, you agree to abide by the SPN User Policy and to hold Research Randomizer and its staff harmless in the event that you experience a problem with the program or its results. Although every effort has been made to develop a useful means of generating random numbers, Research Randomizer and its staff do not guarantee the quality or randomness of numbers generated. Any use to which these numbers are put remains the sole responsibility of the user who generated them. What are the system requirements needed to run Research Randomizer? This program works best with Firefox and other recent web browsers. If you''re using a browser that came with America Online, or older browsers made prior to 2003, you may experience some difficulties with Research Randomizer. You may also not be able to use Research Randomizer with some limited-function browsers that do not fully support JavaScript, such as the Opera broswer used on certain game consoles. We would suggest that you update to a fairly recent, fully- functional stand-alone browser. How do I know what browser I am using? The easiest way to find this out is to click Help on the pulldown menu at the top of the screen. One of the options should be About Mozilla Firefox, About Internet Explorer, About Netscape, or something similar. Selecting this option will open a window that displays the name, version number, and copyright date of your browser. How does Research Randomizer generate its numbers? Research Randomizer uses the Math.random method within the JavaScript programming language to generate its random numbers for all modern web browsers. If you are using an older version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (that is prior to version 4.0 of either), Research Randomizer uses an adaptation of the Central Randomizer by Paul Houle. Note that Research Randomizer no longer supports much-older browsers by other vendors (e.g., Mosaic). Who designed Research Randomizer? The original idea and programming for Research Randomizer came from Geoffrey C. Urbaniak in 1997. Research Randomizer was then jointly developed with Scott Plous, webmaster of Social Psychology Network, and online tutorials were added to the main program. In 1999 the site was redesigned with the assistance of Mike Lestik, in 2003 Mike Lestik added the download function, and in 2007 Mike Lestik and Scott Plous redesigned the site and added new content.

Synonyms: Research Randomizer

Resource Type: data access protocol, software resource, web service