Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

Slinky

I've had this one over 50 times!

Hello, We are reaching out to invite you to participate in a study conducted by our research team at Pew Research Center. For participating in this study, we are offering a payment of $25. The study involves answering a short survey about your recent online shopping experiences. Your responses will be used to improve the user experience for online shoppers like yourself. The survey will be conducted through a secure online platform, and we assure you that your information will be kept confidential. The survey will take only a few minutes to complete, and your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Please reply to this message if you are interested in participating. Please note that there are limited spots available, and some users have already reserved their spots for this study. We encourage you to respond as soon as possible if you are interested. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards, Pew Research Center

John1963

Slinky said:

I've had this one over 50 times!

I'm up to 99 on the Pew message now - must be a record of some sort!

MollyR

I have received a message, tagged on to the messages for a study I completed last May, as follows:

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Follow up Learning the consequences of my actions To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4Z7EITrvAScUClBgkuMHyAZR3uKQGGLj1O3xgZyijTf9G_A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear participant, Some months ago you took part in the experiment “Learning the consequences of my actions” through Prolific. As specified in your Informed Consent, we are now sending you an additional questionnaires that we would like you to fill in. The data will be anonymous and analyzed as a group. Let me know if there's any problem.

 Best, The researcher

Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

I have replied as follows:

That was nearly a year ago, and I cannot possibly remember what the details of the study were.  Please let me know why you are not issuing the invitation to this additional study via the Prolific platform, and how you intend to pay respondents for it since you will not be able to do so via Prolific.  Please also let me know how long the further questionnaire is likely to take to complete, and how much the specific payment will be.  Finally, please let me know why you are sending this message signed only "The researcher";  there has been a spate of spam and phishing messages sent via Prolific recently, and I need to be sure that this is not one of those, so please confirm your name and your academic institution.  When I have your satisfactory replies I will be prepared to undertake the further study.

I'll report back if I get a reply!

Slinky

It's spam I bet

JGB1955

MollyR said:

I have received a message, tagged on to the messages for a study I completed last May, as follows:

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Follow up Learning the consequences of my actions To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4Z7EITrvAScUClBgkuMHyAZR3uKQGGLj1O3xgZyijTf9G_A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear participant, Some months ago you took part in the experiment “Learning the consequences of my actions” through Prolific. As specified in your Informed Consent, we are now sending you an additional questionnaires that we would like you to fill in. The data will be anonymous and analyzed as a group. Let me know if there's any problem.

 Best, The researcher

Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

I have replied as follows:

That was nearly a year ago, and I cannot possibly remember what the details of the study were.  Please let me know why you are not issuing the invitation to this additional study via the Prolific platform, and how you intend to pay respondents for it since you will not be able to do so via Prolific.  Please also let me know how long the further questionnaire is likely to take to complete, and how much the specific payment will be.  Finally, please let me know why you are sending this message signed only "The researcher";  there has been a spate of spam and phishing messages sent via Prolific recently, and I need to be sure that this is not one of those, so please confirm your name and your academic institution.  When I have your satisfactory replies I will be prepared to undertake the further study.

I'll report back if I get a reply!

I've had the same message.  The original survey was in May 2022.  There WAS mention of a follow-up questionnaire, but that was supposedly due a couple of months later.  Will be interesting to see the reply (if any) you receive.

silvercar

MollyR said:

I have received a message, tagged on to the messages for a study I completed last May, as follows:

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Follow up Learning the consequences of my actions To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4Z7EITrvAScUClBgkuMHyAZR3uKQGGLj1O3xgZyijTf9G_A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear participant, Some months ago you took part in the experiment “Learning the consequences of my actions” through Prolific. As specified in your Informed Consent, we are now sending you an additional questionnaires that we would like you to fill in. The data will be anonymous and analyzed as a group. Let me know if there's any problem.

 Best, The researcher

Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

I have replied as follows:

That was nearly a year ago, and I cannot possibly remember what the details of the study were.  Please let me know why you are not issuing the invitation to this additional study via the Prolific platform, and how you intend to pay respondents for it since you will not be able to do so via Prolific.  Please also let me know how long the further questionnaire is likely to take to complete, and how much the specific payment will be.  Finally, please let me know why you are sending this message signed only "The researcher";  there has been a spate of spam and phishing messages sent via Prolific recently, and I need to be sure that this is not one of those, so please confirm your name and your academic institution.  When I have your satisfactory replies I will be prepared to undertake the further study.

I'll report back if I get a reply!

If it is genuine, and I am not saying it is, they could pay you by way of a bonus on the original survey. I'm doing one study where I get sent weekly surveys via an app and it is paying by increasing the bonus on the original survey from months ago.

MollyR

I am beginning to wonder whether Prolific have suffered a hacking attack, and both participants' Prolific IDs and researchers' ones have been stolen - so we may expect more fake messages from IDs of genuine erstwhile researchers.

JGB1955

JGB1955 said:

I've had the same message.  The original survey was in May 2022.  There WAS mention of a follow-up questionnaire, but that was supposedly due a couple of months later.  Will be interesting to see the reply (if any) you receive.

I bit the bullet and completed the follow-up questionnaire - after all, they HAD paid me a £22.52 bonus last year.  Today's survey took less than a minute.  Quite happy with that.  I don't feel scammed. It seems like a reasonable question.... 'how were you affected by completing the previous survey'?  Not at all - I have no memory of it!  Done and dusted.

Ivana_B_Rich

MollyR said:

I have received a message, tagged on to the messages for a study I completed last May, as follows:

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Follow up Learning the consequences of my actions To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4Z7EITrvAScUClBgkuMHyAZR3uKQGGLj1O3xgZyijTf9G_A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear participant, Some months ago you took part in the experiment “Learning the consequences of my actions” through Prolific. As specified in your Informed Consent, we are now sending you an additional questionnaires that we would like you to fill in. The data will be anonymous and analyzed as a group. Let me know if there's any problem.

 Best, The researcher

Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

I have replied as follows:

That was nearly a year ago, and I cannot possibly remember what the details of the study were.  Please let me know why you are not issuing the invitation to this additional study via the Prolific platform, and how you intend to pay respondents for it since you will not be able to do so via Prolific.  Please also let me know how long the further questionnaire is likely to take to complete, and how much the specific payment will be.  Finally, please let me know why you are sending this message signed only "The researcher";  there has been a spate of spam and phishing messages sent via Prolific recently, and I need to be sure that this is not one of those, so please confirm your name and your academic institution.  When I have your satisfactory replies I will be prepared to undertake the further study.

I'll report back if I get a reply!

I've received a similar direct invitation in the past. I reported the direct contact to Prolific as I assumed that the researcher was trying to avoid Prolific's fees. I was also concerned about not getting paid but also having my account terminated if I bypassed Prolific and completed the study.

I do feel Prolific treat participants well and as such I feel a certain amount of loyalty to them. Certainly more than many of the poorer quality survey sites

JGB1955

Ivana_B_Rich said:

MollyR said:

I have received a message, tagged on to the messages for a study I completed last May, as follows:

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Follow up Learning the consequences of my actions To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4Z7EITrvAScUClBgkuMHyAZR3uKQGGLj1O3xgZyijTf9G_A/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&usp=mail_form_link

Dear participant, Some months ago you took part in the experiment “Learning the consequences of my actions” through Prolific. As specified in your Informed Consent, we are now sending you an additional questionnaires that we would like you to fill in. The data will be anonymous and analyzed as a group. Let me know if there's any problem.

 Best, The researcher

Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

I have replied as follows:

That was nearly a year ago, and I cannot possibly remember what the details of the study were.  Please let me know why you are not issuing the invitation to this additional study via the Prolific platform, and how you intend to pay respondents for it since you will not be able to do so via Prolific.  Please also let me know how long the further questionnaire is likely to take to complete, and how much the specific payment will be.  Finally, please let me know why you are sending this message signed only "The researcher";  there has been a spate of spam and phishing messages sent via Prolific recently, and I need to be sure that this is not one of those, so please confirm your name and your academic institution.  When I have your satisfactory replies I will be prepared to undertake the further study.

I'll report back if I get a reply!

I've received a similar direct invitation in the past. I reported the direct contact to Prolific as I assumed that the researcher was trying to avoid Prolific's fees. I was also concerned about not getting paid but also having my account terminated if I bypassed Prolific and completed the study.

I do feel Prolific treat participants well and as such I feel a certain amount of loyalty to them. Certainly more than many of the poorer quality survey sites

Mine wasn't  a direct invitation
. It came through Prolific AND I received a simultaneous email from Prolific, inviting me to complete the survey.  I''m not fussed about spending one minute of my time in return for the £30+ reward I originally  earned.