Comparison to other Systems
Decentralized Excel Sheets
In many institutions, each research project manages its own participants in an Excel sheet. While simple, this approach has significant drawbacks:
Difficult or impossible to implement GDPR rights such as access, correction, or deletion of personal data, especially after researchers have left the institution.
No enforcement of organizational rules and processes.
Sona Systems
Sona is a participant recruitment system for universities. It allows students to enroll in studies and tracks the credits they receive if participation is part of their coursework.
Focus on universities: It tracks credits and assumes that subjects will participate without further activation.
Accessible by all participants, which significantly increases the risk of data leaks.
Prolific
Prolific is a service with its own participant pool, allowing you to submit online studies and receive pseudonymized results.
No need to implement GDPR rights because you only ever see pseudonymized data.
Only suitable for anonymous online studies.
Castellum
Given these alternatives, Castellum is best suited for research institutions that …
do on-site studies or studies that are not fully anonymous
do not have access to a large pool of students who are obligated to participate in studies
have high requirements on security and GDPR compliance
value open source and data autonomy