Contents:
1. Read the study requirements and consent forms
2. Inputting your Participant ID
3. Sharing your Prolific email
4. Inputting your completion code
• What if I haven’t received a completion code?
1. Read the study requirements and consent form
Before beginning your study, make sure you read the description to ensure you can complete it.
- Check the consent form, confirm which device you should use, and verify if you need additional equipment like headphones, a microphone, or video camera.
- Some researchers, with Prolific's approval, can collect personal data (personally identifiable information) or conduct in-person studies. You'll see a personal data collection warning before consenting to these studies, helping you make an informed choice about participation. Read more about these studies here: Personal information in studies.
- Studies will typically indicate their type, such as survey, writing task, annotation, or interview.
- Studies containing sensitive topics or explicit/disturbing content will display a content warning in the study preview.
- If your study is labeled as an "ongoing study," make sure you can commit to completing the required tasks within the maximum allowed completion time.
You may need to accept Terms & Conditions before proceeding. Once you've confirmed everything, click to begin the study.
2. Input your Participant ID
You'll need to input your Participant ID when asked. You can find your ID either:
- At the start of every study (shown with your Prolific email) or,
- On your Account page, under "Your Prolific ID"
Your ID helps researchers match your responses anonymously. Some studies automatically pass your ID, so you may not be asked to enter it manually.
Once done, check Your Submissions. If marked as "awaiting approval," your submission was successful and will be reviewed within 22 days.
3. Share your Prolific email
Researchers may ask for your Prolific email - an internal email address they use to send messages and invite you to follow-up studies. The format is yourparticipantid@prolific.co
Most researchers cannot ask for your personal email address since this would reveal your identity and counts as Personally Identifying Information (PII). You can read more on PII in this article: Telling us 'About You'.
Some researchers, with Prolific's approval, may request your personal email. Read more here: Personal Information in Studies
4. Input a completion code
At the end of the study, researchers provide a completion code. You'll need to enter this code into Prolific to confirm your participation.
Some studies are set up to automatically register your submission when you finish, redirecting you back to the Prolific website.
If you encounter issues with the completion code or URL, don't worry - you'll still get paid as long as you've made a valid submission.
What if I haven't received a completion code?
- Click "Complete" or "I didn't receive a completion code" to complete your submission
- Check that your submission status shows "Awaiting Review" on your submissions page
- Consider contacting the researcher to inform them about the completion code issue, and that your submission needs review
If you've completed these steps and still can't see your completed study in your submissions, contact our support team via the link below.
In some cases, you can enter a NOCODE. Read more on this here: Submitting NOCODE
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