A hands-on guide to conducting field experiments using mobile applications

Abstract

Researchers must increasingly account for growing expectations from scientific journals to infuse their work with real-world significance through field experiments. However, field experiments often require researchers to have access to substantial resources or a network that includes nonacademic partners willing to provide those resources. This article aims at overcoming those barriers by providing researchers with the tools they need to conduct randomized field experiments delivered to participants through mobile applications, given limited resources. The method presented herein takes advantage of the facilitated access to user data made possible by computing and development platforms such as Google’s Firebase. While the programming tools required to collect and analyze the data may feel intimidating, this article provides step-by-step instructions and illustrates the procedure with a case study experiment.