Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

serena9

Hi, I started prolific on Monday and I think it's going well, 11 submissions including a focus group, 5 submissions approved and a total paid out of just under £23 so far which I successfully cashed out yesterday, I have a couple of questions if anyone more experienced than me could answer that would be great 

1. Does anyone use the prolific chrome extension to alert them to studies? I've installed it but it seems kind of slow and alerts me to surveys not for my demographic or that are full already, any comments or suggestions?

2. Can you change your answers in the about me section? I can only see a delete button.

3. Any other tips that would be helpful? mine would be to have a look on Reddit there is a sub-board for UK prolific users which was very interesting.

Thanks for any help 

MollyR

I use the Firefox extension, but it is only about one time in ten that it offers me a study I can actually complete.  However, in Firefox the Prolific browser tab lets me know when there is a survey on offer on the main page, and that is much more reliable.

Yes, you can change the answers in About Me - select Delete, and then it will allow you (maybe in a few minutes' time) to answer that question again.

Don't worry when people mention studies here that you aren't seeing;  what one gets offered is dependent on one's About Me answers, and it is very rare for everybody to see the same study!

And, most important of all - tell the absolute truth in all your studies.  Not only are you likely to be kicked off Prolific if they spot dodgy answers, but the researchers are genuine academics who are relying on these answers to write their theses and other reports, not commercial organisations looking to claim that 8 out of 10 cats like Whiskas.

elsien

serena9 said:

Hi, I started prolific on Monday and I think it's going well, 11 submissions including a focus group, 5 submissions approved and a total paid out of just under £23 so far which I successfully cashed out yesterday, I have a couple of questions if anyone more experienced than me could answer that would be great 

1. Does anyone use the prolific chrome extension to alert them to studies? I've installed it but it seems kind of slow and alerts me to surveys not for my demographic or that are full already, any comments or suggestions?

2. Can you change your answers in the about me section? I can only see a delete button.

3. Any other tips that would be helpful? mine would be to have a look on Reddit there is a sub-board for UK prolific users which was very interesting.

Thanks for any help 

My tip would be to expect swings and roundabouts. They have an algorithm which means that if you do lots of studies you’ll have a tumbleweed period for a while. 

All perfectly normal in prolific world.

Makingabobor2

Wow, that's an excellent start @serena9, 11 since Monday. Well done.  I'm having a very slow week again. Its definitely slowed down since the new year. 

serena9

Thank guys for the advice and encouragement, I did wonder if it was a bit of a honeymoon period.

@MollyR I did the delete thing by accident yesterday but wasn't sure if that was the right way to do it so thank you, I'm using the extension in Chrome and its sleeping currently so I think I'll just keep checking manually which is annoying don't know why the main page cant alert how you're saying it does in ff that would be very useful, I seem to fit a sweet spot demographic, at the moment anyway, so wouldn't want to jeopardise anything by lying, I can tell the studies are different to most sites and they are actually interesting and enjoyable.

MollyR

You are what Prolific call a "naive" user - in other words, all the types of studies are new to you, and you are a fresh voice to the researchers.  The more studies you complete, the less naive they will consider you, and the fewer studies you will get.  But it's always worth hanging in there;  I've been doing it since September 2019, and still none of my other survey sites pays as well as Prolific.

Martico

I just keep a Chrome window open. When I have few enough tabs running at once while I'm working, I can see if a little (1) has appeared on the Prolific screen. It doubtless helps that I do all my work in G-Drive, so Chrome is my natural workplace

elsien

I had a completely nonsensical reply to my question and screenshot about the inaccurate balance, telling me that it doesn’t show adjustment figures.

 And ignoring that I wasn’t asking about adjustment figures and the screenshot was not showing any money I’d earned in the last few days. 

It has righted itself now so it’s not a problem but  prolific help normally so spectacularly dense?

onemouseplace

elsien said:

I had a completely nonsensical reply to my question and screenshot about the inaccurate balance, telling me that it doesn’t show adjustment figures.

 And ignoring that I wasn’t asking about adjustment figures and the screenshot was not showing any money I’d earned in the last few days. 

It has righted itself now so it’s not a problem but  prolific help normally so spectacularly dense?

In my experience, yes.  I have been having some issues (discussed above) with getting any studies via my new ISP and help has been no help at all.  

elsien

I am also getting a default button popping up. Which isn’t particularly helpful because by the time you’ve decided what you want your studies sorted by,  they’ve gone anyway.