Online implementation of an event history calendar with formr: a tutorial

Event history calendars (EHCs) are popular tools for retrospective data collection. Originally conceptualized as face-to-face interviews, EHCs contain various questions about the respondents’ autobiography in order to use their experiences as cues to facilitate remembering. For relationship researchers, EHCs are particularly valuable when trying to reconstruct the relational past of individuals. However, while many studies are conducted online nowadays, no online adaptation of the EHC is available yet. In this tutorial, we provide detailed instructions on how to implement an online EHC for the reconstruction of romantic relationship histories within the open source framework formr. We exemplify on ways to customize the online EHC and provide a template for researchers to adapt the tool for their own purposes.

Preprint available at https://psyarxiv.com/h8cs9/. Open material available at https://osf.io/afzwt/.