PROLIFIC Study submission rejected.

[Deleted User]

I hope this is the right place to ask.  (I've already received help on another forum about my Mobile Phone Contract and I am here hoping for more advice about a Rejected Prolific Study Submission, if possible, please.)

It is regarding "Study of emotion and arithmetic" on Saturday evening.  I successfully reserved a place then struggled to download the required document.  I found out really quite quickly (Google and YouTube helped) well within the time allowed, how to resolve this and was pleased to be able to download the document and continue with the study with the appropriate information and code etc.    It took over an hour and, although I was really glad to have the opportunity, it was hard going.  I was so pleased to be able to successfully enter my Prolific ID,  download the document, enter the required Paradigm Code, then start the remainder of the study which, although worthwhile, really was quite hard work, all the way through to the end of the study.

I was so pleased to actually complete the study and I entered the correct completion code.  I contacted the Researcher to explain and I thought that everything was in order.  I was so disappointed to receive this message from the Researcher today:

*"Dear participant, I am rejecting your submission to my study "Study of emotion and arithmetic" (https://app.prolific.co/studies/614448e551cef3f9f873f221). Unfortunately, despite you submitting the correct completion code, I cannot find any data associated with your Prolific ID in my dataset. I accept that this could be due to circumstances beyond either of our control, such as a technical issue. So please contact me if you wish to contest this rejection. Apologies and regards, "

In the circumstances I contacted the Researcher, thinking that the decision really was unfair, having spent so much time and significant effort, on this difficult study and having successfully completed the study entering the correct codes when required, including the completion code.

So far I have not recieved a reply from the Researcher but, so far, there is this awful bright red 'block' in my submission saying: 'REJECTED'.  I'm wondering if anyone, given that I am being truthful regarding all the information here and as submitted during the study all the way through to the received Completion code, if anyone thinks I am being unreasonable in expressing my disappointment about being rejected, please let me know.  I will be glad to hear any of your opinions and experiences if you have had what you believed to be a successful and fully completed long study, rejected for the reason such as the one I have been given  above.*

I think I'll have to accept it, if the Researcher insists on rejecting my submission, but I really struggle to believe that, with the information provided, I could be penalized through no fault of my own.  I was not 'timed out' and was able  to continue to the end of the study.

I'll be really glad to hear from you, thank you.

Crimson

jlemaitre

my partner just had a rejection on his survey. He didnt tell them who he works for, so they rejected his survey.

Project Q–UK (Awareness and Adoption of ‘Always Connected Personal Computers’

Hosted by soton.ac.uk

I am rejecting your submission to my study "Project Q–UK (Awareness and Adoption of ‘Always Connected Personal Computers’" (https://app.prolific.co/studies/61302c8f8d8fe7b801843413). Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the quality of the data you provided. [You did not provide the right name of your institution as this is very important for validation purposes]

elsien

There’s a thread specifically for prolific on here where you may get more responses. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5783213/prolific-academic-survey-alerts#latest

If you don’t get a positive response from the researcher then you can still ask prolific to look at at.
However when I had similar (luckily from a shorter study) I’d missed the final link to fully close the study although I also had a submission code so the error was mine. I wonder if you did something similar? 

I didn’t bother challenging with prolific although I did challenge the researcher a second time because it was too small an amount and it was my fault. Although I did tell them exactly what the study had involved to prove I’d done it. 

[Deleted User]

Thank you for replying and for giving me the correct link, elsien.  I have an update just this morning:

I was given a link to do the study again and I have just completed this second one with the same completion code at the end.  After submitting this I noticed a new message from the researcher explaining that they have a lot of 'fakes' and asking me to confirm my date of birth.

I replied to this confirming my date of birth and explaining that, with the new link, I had just completed the study again.  Of course I do not expect to be paid twice for doing the same study twice. 

Hopefully this second submission will be straightforward.  It's been a learning experience and I thank you all for being good enough to reply.  It is much appreciated.  Because it looks as if the matter has been resolved I won't use the link you gave, elsien, but will keep it in mind for the future - but hoping not to need it though, thank you very much.

Crimson

[Deleted User]

The Researcher approved my second submission very promptly after completing the repeat study this morning.  Of course I am very pleased - just sorry that problems like this arise and, sadly, it seems that some participants try to cheat.  Thank you for all your interest and for replying.

Crimson

ndf9876

Whilst I appreciate the situation is resolved, there are a couple of points I just want to raise (perhaps it might help someone in future)...

- Researchers are not permitted to ask for Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This goes against Prolfic terms. See the following link for evidence : https://researcher-help.prolific.co/hc/en-gb/articles/360015378834-Can-I-ask-Participants-for-their-Personal-Information-Identifiers-
- I do not think employer name is classed as PII, but I would question this myself with the researcher.
- If you complete a study and, as in the case of OP you are rejected for (and I quote from the original post : "I accept that this could be due to circumstances beyond either of our control, such as a technical issue." - this is not a valid reason for rejection. See the following link for evidence : https://researcher-help.prolific.co/hc/en-gb/articles/360009092394-Reviewing-submissions-How-do-I-decide-who-to-accept-reject-

I think it was very nice of you to complete the study again, but by the letter of the "law" you shouldn't have had to in order to get paid. I think if it had taken me over an hour I might have dug my heels in personally.

[Deleted User]

Thanks very much, ndf9876, for that helpful information.  I was not aware of it at all and is good to know.  If I am really honest I was more concerned because the 'first' study took over an hour to complete, and although I was pleased to have the opportunity, it really was not an easy study and was quite hard going at times.  I was just glad to have completed it.  This probably resulted in me being quite upset about the rejection.

The subsequent outcome worked out well in that the Researcher very quickly approved my second submission.  Because I was, by then, familiar with the study it, somehow, seemed less difficult and I completed it comfortably within the hour.

Thank you again for that helpful information, ndf9876,  I really appreciate your reply.

Crimson

DisablednProud

My advice is not to bother with them. They recently featured on some TikTok video and got  bunch of new users, almost doubling their user base overnight. As a result researchers have reduced prices knowing they can get away with paying well below £3/ph and everything is over saturated. Prolific used to be a decent earner 2-3 years ago before people started finding out about it, but now it's just slave labour.

elsien

DisablednProud said:

My advice is not to bother with them. They recently featured on some TikTok video and got  bunch of new users, almost doubling their user base overnight. As a result researchers have reduced prices knowing they can get away with paying well below £3/ph and everything is over saturated. Prolific used to be a decent earner 2-3 years ago before people started finding out about it, but now it's just slave labour.

I’ve not had anything come up paying that low. There’s certainly less studies than there were but the payment rate is generally still ok. Nowhere near as much “slave labour” as some other survey sites. 

ndf9876

DisablednProud said:

My advice is not to bother with them. They recently featured on some TikTok video and got  bunch of new users, almost doubling their user base overnight. As a result researchers have reduced prices knowing they can get away with paying well below £3/ph and everything is over saturated. Prolific used to be a decent earner 2-3 years ago before people started finding out about it, but now it's just slave labour.

...and my advice would be to ignore this "advice", because parts of it are simply not true. Prolific enforces a strict £5\hour minimum pay rate, see the following link for evidence : https://researcher-help.prolific.co/hc/en-gb/articles/360009500733-Deciding-on-a-Reward

If you accept an underpaying study - and they do come up from time to time - you have the option of simply not taking part, or using the 'Report Study' option to let Prolific know that the study is underpaying. Every time I have done this, I've received an "Adjustment" payment to bring the pay rate up to the minimum. I've also seen researcher accounts banned from the platform for refusing to pay the minimum and wildly under-estimating their completion times.

If you want to talk about low hourly rates, how about Qmee (average is what, £1.50\hr?) and Swagbucks (big yikes). But that is my personal opinion and experience. Anyway, I guess this topic has run its course now

jlemaitre

qmee is 0.00p an hour for me. i think ive earnt a few pennies over the last couple of years. i still try once a while but never get any success.