The customizable PHP script Generic HTML Form Processor is intended to assist researchers and students in quickly setting up surveys and experiments that can be administered via the Web. This script relieves researchers from the burdens of writing new cGi scripts and building databases for each Web study. Generic HTML Form Processor processes any syntactically correct HTML form input and saves it into a dynamically created open-source database. We describe five modes for usage of the script that allow increasing functionality but require increasing levels of knowledge of PHP and Web servers: The first two modes require no previous knowledge, and the fifth requires PHP programming expertise. use of Generic HTML Form Processor is free for academic purposes, and its Web address is www.goeritz.net/brmic.

There are other advantages of Web research. On the Web, people can be tested at any time and place, laboratory rooms or physically present experimenters are not necessary (so experimenter effects remain constant), and automated data handling reduces both the labor and error of data coding and entry (Birnbaum & Reips, 2005; Göritz & Schumacher, 2000). In addition, the Web method allows one to collect large samples inexpensively, which makes it possible to draw clear conclusions and to check their generality to different subsamples tested (Birnbaum, 1999; Reips, 2002).

An example of an HTML Web form is given in Birnbaum (2000). Such an HTML page can be placed on a server, where the participant can view it and fill in answers by typing in information and clicking on choices. When the participant is finished, he or she can then click on a button to send the data. Birnbaum’s (2000) surveyWiz and factorWiz are freely available programs that make it easy to create HTML forms for simple surveys and within-subjects factorial experiments. Reips and Neuhaus (2002) have developed WEXTOR, which is useful for generating Web experiments that utilize (for instance) between subjects factorial designs with multiple pages for different conditions.

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