Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

Mum161111

Slinky said:

Has it been a poor week for everybody else? Last week there were quite a few, this week I've only done 3 since Monday, including 1 I was guaranteed a place in as it's an ongoing study.

I've had lots of notifications of "New Study available" but, when I clicked to start the Study immediately on receiving notification,  most were already full.  It has been quite a poor week for me too, Slinky

I have just, after receiving good advice here, changed my submission for "A study about finances." to Returned after being screened out after starting the Study.

onemouseplace

Slinky said:

Has it been a poor week for everybody else? Last week there were quite a few, this week I've only done 3 since Monday, including 1 I was guaranteed a place in as it's an ongoing study.

Dreadful.  Fortunately I've had a reasonable run of the AI studies recently, otherwise things would be looking even sparser than they currently do this month.

mikep22

Slinky said:

Has it been a poor week for everybody else? Last week there were quite a few, this week I've only done 3 since Monday, including 1 I was guaranteed a place in as it's an ongoing study.

You have to remember what Prolific fundamentally is, which is a platform used by researchers at universities or academia of some sort. Then you have to remember that we are in mid July and most universities have very little running right now.
So therefore while you tend to get quite a lot of surveys between say March-May, it is normal for there to be fewer surveys available at the time of year where there really isnt very much happening in most academic circles.

That said, the ones available for me has been a fairly steady stream.

albion22

I've just been terminated because I was unable to answer an Attention Check general knowledge question within 10 seconds - on what date is St George's Day with numerous options to choose. Is the researcher allowed to do this? 

elsien

Are you sure that’s what they were asking?
It is more usual for them to ask a question and give a choice of answers but tell you which one to tick to prove that you are reading the instructions properly. 

albion22

elsien said:

Are you sure that’s what they were asking?
It is more usual for them to ask a question and give a choice of answers but tell you which one to tick to prove that you are reading the instructions properly. 

I've taken a screenshot and there is no such thing. It starts with:

Respond to this question within 10 seconds:

What date is Saint George's Day in England?

Then there are 6 dates to choose from including April 23 but no prompt to choose this date.

In addition they had a second so called Attention Check question:

How often do you visit shopping websites. I have worked out that they wanted you to answer weekly as choosing monthly failed its Attention Check. I was able to test this out by opening the study again. Howver, they do warn that repeated attempts after being terminated will not be paid so I have returned to avoid a rejection.

I have reported the researcher to Prolific as I believe this kind of Attention Check is not allowed. Would you agree? 

MollyR

See https://researcher-help.prolific.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360009223553-Prolific-s-Attention-and-Comprehension-Check-Policy and https://researcher-help.prolific.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360009501033-Failed-attention-checks for full details of what is and is not permitted.

Slinky

The St George's Day thing would fail as being a valid attention check as it assumes prior knowledge.

albion22

Slinky said:

The St George's Day thing would fail as being a valid attention check as it assumes prior knowledge.

That's the way I interpret it as well. My complaint message to the researcher has since paid off somewhat with a small bonus payment and I guess an acknowledgement that they breached Prolific guidelines.

Slinky

There seem to have been more surveys today, several travel related ones in particular. I've also had some that I was waiting for to be cleared for payment too, so will do a good chunky (for me at least) transfer across to my bank later.