Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

badamsgirl

elsien said:

Raspberry_Queen said:

This is infuriating. I just spent hours typing in all my details after signing up to Prolific, and now it will probably come to nothing because I don't have a passport or driving license. 

Why do you need a passport or driving licence? I didn't share anything like that when I joined up.

They changed the rules a few months ago and you now have to provide a selfie and photo id to sign up.

ndf9876

Raspberry_Queen said:

This is infuriating. I just spent hours typing in all my details after signing up to Prolific, and now it will probably come to nothing because I don't have a passport or driving license. 

Drop them a line (link is at the bottom of this page : https://participant-help.prolific.co/hc/en-gb/articles/360017282699-Verifying-your-identity-FAQ) and explain your situation. They may be able to verify your ID in another way?

C_J

@Value - thanks for your update. I offered to send the error message screenshot to the researcher, but she just replied apologising for the glitch, and approving a full payment for me. I'm very impressed that it was handled so professionally.

I had another study this afternoon which was so difficult to read - the researcher had chosen a dark maroon background with grey text, and it was almost illegible! I do wonder sometimes if researchers actually test out their studies before uploading them!

olliebean

Make 20 Choices on Effort and Risk

Hosted by essex.ac.uk

£2.00 43 minutes £2.79/hr -47 places remaining

We will ask you to choose a risk and effort level in 20 simple problems. You will receive a basic payment of 2 GBP plus bonus payments as explained at the beginning of the survey.

This is infuriating. I chose to complete the maximum possible number of tasks, in expectation of the corresponding bonus payment, which would have made the study worth £13 in total. It took me nearly an hour to complete, unfortunately Prolific only allowed me slightly less than an hour so I timed out when I was nearly finished and was unable to submit. I don't think I could reasonably have completed it faster. I have reported the study (although the reporting procedure for "timed out" seems to imply "tough luck, you took too long") and also messaged the researcher. Hopefully I will get paid what I am due, and will not have just wasted an hour of my time.

<edit> A very quick response from the researcher, reassuring me that I will be paid (£2 immediately and the rest within a week), so that's a relief. The most infuriating thing was that there were a few mistakes in the study (the response from the researcher implies they were not deliberate), where it told me I was wrong and I wasted time checking very carefully to ensure I was not, and were it not for those I would probably have squeaked in within the allotted time.

yupiteru

badamsgirl said:

elsien said:

Raspberry_Queen said:

This is infuriating. I just spent hours typing in all my details after signing up to Prolific, and now it will probably come to nothing because I don't have a passport or driving license. 

Why do you need a passport or driving licence? I didn't share anything like that when I joined up.

They changed the rules a few months ago and you now have to provide a selfie and photo id to sign up.

Are they rolling this out for everyone I wonder, or just new participants?  I haven't received any communication from Prolific regarding this, I have been a member for a couple of years.

ndf9876

Are they rolling this out for everyone I wonder, or just new participants?  I haven't received any communication from Prolific regarding this, I have been a member for a couple of years.

It's something they're doing for new participants only - I can imagine sooner or later that existing participants will have to do it, but that's speculation on my part.

olliebean

I feel like that's a demographically unsound policy - certain demographics will be under-represented amongst people with a passport and/or driving license.

bartbear1

olliebean said:

Make 20 Choices on Effort and Risk

Hosted by essex.ac.uk

£2.00 43 minutes £2.79/hr -47 places remaining

We will ask you to choose a risk and effort level in 20 simple problems. You will receive a basic payment of 2 GBP plus bonus payments as explained at the beginning of the survey.

This is infuriating. I chose to complete the maximum possible number of tasks, in expectation of the corresponding bonus payment, which would have made the study worth £13 in total. It took me nearly an hour to complete, unfortunately Prolific only allowed me slightly less than an hour so I timed out when I was nearly finished and was unable to submit. I don't think I could reasonably have completed it faster. I have reported the study (although the reporting procedure for "timed out" seems to imply "tough luck, you took too long") and also messaged the researcher. Hopefully I will get paid what I am due, and will not have just wasted an hour of my time.

<edit> A very quick response from the researcher, reassuring me that I will be paid (£2 immediately and the rest within a week), so that's a relief. The most infuriating thing was that there were a few mistakes in the study (the response from the researcher implies they were not deliberate), where it told me I was wrong and I wasted time checking very carefully to ensure I was not, and were it not for those I would probably have squeaked in within the allotted time.

I had this study as well and got timed out Got paid the £2 via manual completion Did you manage to complete the number of puzzles you said you would I got to 25/30

olliebean

bartbear1 said:

I had this study as well and got timed out Got paid the £2 via manual completion Did you manage to complete the number of puzzles you said you would I got to 25/30

That's what made it so frustrating as I was in the high 90s when it timed out. I did complete all 100, though. Now I've been sent a £3.90 bonus, which by my understanding ought to be £11, so I've messaged the researcher again to query this.

Sapindus

olliebean said:

I feel like that's a demographically unsound policy - certain demographics will be under-represented amongst people with a passport and/or driving license.

I agree.  I'd hazard a guess that if you contact them to say so they will manually approve you.  I failed the verification twice with no explanation as to why, but when I contacted them to ask how one is supposed to take a selfie in profile and thus unable to see the phone to press the button, they approved me with no further questions asked.