Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

MollyR

From Prolific this evening:

We’re writing to let you know we’re making some changes to our current Participant Terms & Conditions. We’ve summarized the most important changes in this email. You don’t need to do anything - the updates will happen automatically. 

The new terms will apply from 27th September 2024. 

What’s changing?

• Researchers now have the option to include screening questions within studies. If you're not the right fit for a study based on your answers to these questions, you'll still be paid for your time. This won't affect your approval rate in any way.
• Compensation for answering screening questions will be proportionate to the time spent on them. This may be less than the full study reward. Researchers are required to set fair compensation rates for this screening process.
• Studies with screening questions will be clearly labeled, so you can choose whether to participate in a screening study or not.

You can find out more about the changes we’re making here. 

We believe this change will help match you with studies that are a better fit for your time and opinions. As always, we remain committed to fair practices and recognizing the importance of your contributions to advancing research.

If there's anything about these changes that are unclear, or if you have any additional questions, please reach out to our Support team before 27th September 2024.

You have the right to close your participant account and stop using Prolific any time before this date if you’re not happy to accept these new Participant Terms. If we don’t hear from you before  27th September 2024, we’ll assume you agree to these changes.

elsien

Not enthused about these changes.
One of the benefits of prolific once you were in a study you weren’t going to get turfed out and I can’t help but think that it’s good academic practice to set your screening questions correctly in the first place.

[Deleted User]

Are the going to stop people using bots and extensions that refreshes the page every few seconds.

I see they have taken down the thing that stops people refreshing more then 10 times in a row, you can now refresh as many times as you like

CliveOfIndia

elsien said:

Not enthused about these changes.
One of the benefits of prolific once you were in a study you weren’t going to get turfed out and I can’t help but think that it’s good academic practice to set your screening questions correctly in the first place.

I do agree with you on this.  However, to be fair they do say that you'll still be compensated for the time spent, even if you're screened out - which is more than any other survey site does.

olliebean

It's a bit odd that they say this will apply from 27th September, as I've already been seeing studies with screening questions (and tagged as such on Prolific). I don't think I've actually been screened out by any yet.

Mum161111

MollyR said:

I would report it to Prolific, and ask them to remove the rejection from your record.

Re:  On 26 June 2024

Study rejected after no response from The Researcher.

SMIs Communication styles

By soton.ac.uk

I started this Study on 05 June and on 25 June, after receiving no subsequent communication from The Researcher to my message on 05 June, my submission was rejected this evening I received a message from Prolific this morning, MollyR.  They have changed the submission to "Returned" and have paid £1 to my account. 

Unfortunately I received no subsequent communication from the Researcher but very pleased with the response from Prolific.

Value

Anyone do this one? It made no sense to me and I really can't see how anyone can get the bonus for high quality responses as it was multiple choice.

This is a study about compound words

By David pacuku

MollyR

Can't get into it yet - it is only allowing 50 at a time.

olliebean

Value said:

Anyone do this one? It made no sense to me and I really can't see how anyone can get the bonus for high quality responses as it was multiple choice.

This is a study about compound words

By David pacuku

Just did this one. Utterly bizarre. I have no idea what they were trying to get at. "Here's a list of made up nonsense combinations of words, please rate how likely you are to use each of these word combinations you've never heard before to describe a new technology you've also never heard of." That's "extremely unlikely" across the board, then.

onemouseplace

olliebean said:

It's a bit odd that they say this will apply from 27th September, as I've already been seeing studies with screening questions (and tagged as such on Prolific). I don't think I've actually been screened out by any yet.

Yes, I had one a couple of weeks ago that I was screened out of, but clearly hadn't been set up properly as I not only got paid the full amount for the survey, but also got a payment a couple of days later for my time for being screened out!