The Research Participation System (RPS) at SFU Linguistics provides students an experience with linguistic phenomena, linguistics research (including podcasts), and/or research ethics. When you volunteer to participate in an RPS study, you get to see what the science of language entails first-hand. At the same time, you earn credit towards participating LING courses. Credits can also be earned by attending research talks and conferences. Contact your instructor or lingrsch@sfu.ca for inquiries about the program. 

Deadline: Fall 2025

The deadline to earn RPS credits for Fall 2025 is Sunday, November 23, 2025. Information about Spring 2026 will be posted here shortly. 

Prof. Margaret Grant on purpose and benefits of RPS

How to earn RPS credits

Linguistics RPS credits can be accumulated in the following ways:

1. One RPS credit is awarded for every half-hour of research participation in a sanctioned research project through the RPS system in the Department of Linguistics. Participation is voluntary. You may participate in more than one research project, but you may not repeat research projects to multiply credits awarded. You can find a list of available sanctioned projects below. Please use the direct booking link or send an email to the contact person of the study to make an appointment.
   
2. One RPS credit is awarded for listening to 1-hour's worth of a podcast from this list. To claim your credit, please complete a half-page summary (single-spaced) for each hour of podcast time that you listened to. This summary must include a) the URL and duration of the podcast, b) the title and author of the podcast, and c) a minimum 300 word summary of its contents. Send this summary in PDF format using this webform.
   
3. One RPS credit is awarded for attending a 1-hour colloquium (i.e., research talk) from our department, or any session at a Linguistics conference offered this term. See the Colloquia page for upcoming events. Additionally, many Linguistics conferences are free (do not pay for conferences) and offer virtual options for attendance. See, for example, the Linguist List conferences and events page. To claim your credit, please complete a half-page summary (single-spaced) of what you learned. This summary must include a) the title and date of the conference (must be during this semester), b) the name of the session you attended, and c) a 300-word summary of the session contents – it is certainly OK not to understand everything – simply include what questions you have about the content of this talk or presentation in your summary. Send this in PDF format using this webform.
   
4. One RPS credit is awarded for completing a 3-hour online Research Ethics Tutorial sanctioned by Canada's official research agencies. Upon completion, you will be given a PDF of a certificate of completion with your name. Please note that the date of training completion must be during this semester (i.e., prior completions do not count). Send this PDF using this webform.  

Please note:

• Each set of points can be applied to ONE course only (no duplication of points)
• All points will be used during the current semester (no banking of points)
• Different instructors may have different ways of including RPS points in their overall grade assessment. Please see their course syllabus or research engagement policy below (Participating Courses). 

Participating Research Projects in Fall 2025

Note: Last update: 10/22. Note that ongoing updates are made throughout the term: new studies are added as they receive ethics approval, and removed once enough data has been collected.

Inquiries

Please contact lingrsch@sfu.ca.