FAQs for Startups

Q: Can I create my survey on Prolific?

A: No, you cannot create your survey on Prolific. However, you can easily integrate your survey to your Prolific study with just a link. Currently, we support seamless integration with Qualtrics, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Google Forms. Read our detailed Integrations Guide to learn more. If you have another survey software that you would like to integrate with your study, please let us know.

Q: What kind of questions can I ask?

A: You can ask any questions that serve the purpose of your research. We encourage you to carefully design your questions so you get the best responses. If your survey will be asking sensitive questions that participants might shy away from answering honestly, read here to learn more about how to increase the likelihood of getting honest answers.

Q: How do I know the answers I get will be genuine?

A: There are a number of things we do at Prolific to help you collect the most genuine answers. We take great care to make sure there are no bots on our platform, and have a range of checks in place to maximise the quality of our participant pool. In addition, you have the ability to review and approve/reject the data you collect. To examine whether participants are paying attention to your questions and answering with care, you can also include some attention checks in your survey. This is a widely used mechanism for you to quickly and easily assess data quality.

Q: How much does it cost?

A: The cost of your study depends on the number of participants you need, and the estimated time it will take to complete your survey. We mandate a minimum hourly payment of $6.5/£5 for each participant, but you are free to offer a higher reward.

As an example, let's assume you need 50 participants for your study. If your survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and you set your reward at $6.5/hour, then your total cost should come out to be around $6.5 / 60 minutes * 15 minutes * 50 people * (1 + 0.33 commission) = $108.06.

You can easily find out how much your study will cost with our pricing calculator.

Q: Can I target a niche audience for my study?

A: Yes, you can use the prescreening tool to narrow down your target audience. We have 100+ demographic screeners to help you set your desired criteria. 

In the event where there isn’t a specific enough set of demographic screeners, you can narrow down your audience by running a two-part study. The first study will be a short screening survey to help you create a custom whitelist of participants who meet you specific screening criteria*. Next, you can run a second study with only participants you have whitelisted. Read here for more details. 

*We ask that you approve every complete submission for your first study, as it would be inappropriate to reject participants who do not meet your criteria.

Q: How quickly will I get my data?

A: The average study on Prolific is completed <2 hours. However, if your desired audience pool is very specific and/or very large, it may take a little longer for enough participants fitting your criteria to complete your study. You can use our audience checker to see how many participants matching your criteria have been active in the past 90 days - this helps you get a sense of how long it could take to collect data.

Q: Can I receive respondent contact information (i.e. emails, phone numbers, etc.)?

A: In compliance with GDPR, we do not share personally identifiable information such as names, emails, and phone numbers of our participants.

We do, however, have an in-app messaging feature where you can easily contact your study participants without compromising their anonymity. 

Read here for more information.

Q: Can I retarget my audience for follow up video calls?

A: Yes! Prolific has in-app tools that help you retarget your audience to do a number of things, including to conduct follow up video calls. 

All you have to do is make a whitelist of participants from your completed study, create a second study, specify who to invite based on your whitelist, and insert an appointment scheduler (such as Calendly) link that lets your participants schedule calls with you. For more information, see here.

Q: Can I pay video call participants through Prolific?

A: Yes - in fact, we encourage you pay participants through Prolific so as to avoid unnecessary accounting and legal work. 

Just like any study, you can set an amount to reward your participants for participating in a video call. As video calls typically require more time and effort, we recommend you pay each participant $15 per hour for this arrangement. Once again, you can approve responses (which in this case would equate to whether participants showed up for the scheduled call) and only pay those who have completed the study/ call.

Q: What are some best practices in setting up survey studies?

A: We are glad you asked! At Prolific, we are all about empowering great research. As such, we have created a research best practices guide here. 

Should you have any questions regarding study design specific to your needs, don’t hesitate to contact via info@prolific.ac so one of our experienced support team members can help you!