Announcement

We are gradually migrating from the current Open Lab platform at open-lab.online to the new platform at research.open-lab.online (for researchers) and app.open-lab.online (for participants). Because the new platform is built on a completely new technical infrastructure, researcher accounts cannot be migrated automatically; you will need to create a new account on the new platform. To make this transition smooth, the old and new platforms will run in parallel for several months, and the functionality of the old platform will be reduced step by step (no new studies, then no new participation). If you have an active subscription on the current platform, you will be able to continue using your subscription on the new platform; detailed instructions on migrating your subscription will be provided before 1 April 2026. Later in 2026 we plan to phase out the old platform in a gradual and predictable way, while keeping access to your existing data and clearly communicating each change in advance. Please start creating new studies and managing participants on the new platform and export any data you wish to keep from the old platform in advance.

Important for researchers:  Accounts from the old platform are not migrated automatically. Please create a new researcher account on research.open-lab.online and start setting up your studies there while the old and new platforms are running in parallel.

  • 1 March 2026:  Beta version of the new Open Lab platform is publicly available at research.open-lab.online (for researchers) and app.open-lab.online (for participants). The old platform continues to operate, but new studies should preferably be created on the new platform.
  • 1 May 2026:  Uploads from the lab.js builder to Open Lab and new researcher sign-ups are redirected to the new platform.
  • 1 June 2026:  The old platform no longer allows creating new studies or tasks but still allows participation in existing studies.
  • 1 July 2026:  The old platform only allows downloading existing data; no new participation or study/task creation is possible.
  • 1 August 2026:  We plan to complete the transition away from the old platform. Access to the old plaftorm will be reduced or switched off depending on remaining active users, while the main page (https://open-lab.online/) will continue to point to the new research and app subdomains.

Please export your studies and data from the old platform ahead of these dates and move your ongoing and new projects to the new platform.

Welcome to Open Lab

Open Lab is a platform designed to help researchers conduct online experiments in a simple, transparent, and secure manner. It is tailor-made for researchers who want to create and conduct their study via the internet. Open Lab is integrated with the lab.js experiment builder, with which you can design your own study. The Open Lab server application takes care of running your experiment online and then collecting, storing and managing your data.

Hosting your study created in lab.js

There is no need to set up your own server: you can use existing templates or upload a study from lab.js with just one click.

Data security

HTTPS encrypts all data sent between a user and the server. Both researchers and participants can set up password-protected accounts.

Participant management system

You can track data collection in real time. Open Lab supports between-subjects study designs with the ability to balance the number of participants in different conditions.

Collaboration with colleagues

Open Lab provides tools for collaboration between researchers, such as shared access to studies, the language localization of tasks, and the integration of data collection within Open Science Framework (OSF).

Data protection compliance

All data are stored on servers in Germany according to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In accordance with the GDPR, participants can request access to their own data. Check our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more details.