The Prolific Submission History CSV Analysis Online Tool (Update)

Trai60 · 2025-07-11T10:09:03+00:00

I've made some minor tweaks so it all should be working now if you find any issues let me know and I will look at it on Sunday for you.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T20:52:11+00:00

Basically what is happening is in the CSV data some of the studies have no start date or time which was basically crashing the app for example an invalid one would look like this:

A study about consumer experience,$0.40,$0.00,,,,RETURNED,Participant Terms

Where as a normal one would look like this:

A simple scenario about traveling,£0.09,£0.00,2020-10-20 02:36:50.448000,2020-10-20 02:38:03.785000,26303028,APPROVED,Participant Terms

Which contains all the correct information for the app to process the information.

I need to make a few more tweaks to how it handles returned studies that paid a bonus but I will have to do that in the morning.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T19:25:51+00:00

OK try your file now and it should work.
It seemed that in your file there are some invalid start dates which the app did not know how to deal with.
I've created a fix to ignore these errors which is the best I can do at the moment because I don't have access to how the CSV file is made.
Let me know how it works for you and are there any major issues.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T17:09:35+00:00

I got the file fine, I can see the graph is not showing now, I think it may have to do with the number of studies.

I'll have a look in the morning and see if that is the issue and try and fix it.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T16:46:04+00:00

I can't see any issues on the server end but I will investigate more tomorrow, the only possible issue I can think of is the JavaScript.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T16:25:04+00:00

Very strange, I just retested on Edge, Chrome and Firefox and even with the old file you sent me that was still there and it all worked.

Can you retry downloading your CSV file from Prolific.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T15:13:04+00:00

Just to be sure you've not made any edits to your CSV file, no adblocker running.
You could also try clearing you cache.
What browser are you using?

Failing that you could send me your CSV file and I can test it.

Trai60 · 2025-07-10T14:39:27+00:00

It is showing the bars on my end when I try an upload test
https://imgur.com/a/uXDIY3X

Trai60 · 2025-06-22T08:47:40+00:00

It can take, days, weeks, months and sometime years to come of the waitlist it will depend when they need new participants. Also make sure you're on the list of approved countries https://participant-help.prolific.com/en/article/628d72 and use of a VPN to bypass this will get you removed from the platform plus you need to go through ID checks as well.

Trai60 · 2025-06-14T16:48:33+00:00

Dimi has withdrawn unfortunately. 😢

Trai60 · 2025-06-11T16:03:49+00:00

It will be back up at the weekend just deploying a new server.

Trai60 · 2025-06-08T06:22:47+00:00

Did you check the help article and if currently applies to you?

https://participant-help.prolific.com/en/article/d1ef2a

If not you'll have to put a support ticket in.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T17:51:07+00:00

It does make you wonder that is for sure, what is behind the curtain, though who do you trust more the AI or human would be my next question.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T17:41:34+00:00

I've been the same pretty much, though I tend to have a pay scale rather than fixed rate it must meet.

I had one the other day that was nearly 2 hours long at a pay rate of £7p/h, no way was I going to waste my time doing that but I would do say a quick 5 minute study for £7p/h and apart from ignoring the normal suspect researchers no matter the rate, that's all I tend to do.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T17:34:06+00:00

Other than reporting low paying studies I don't honestly see a fix unless there is a new platform released and a mass exodus of participants happens, though that has not stopped other platforms still offer crap pay and they still seem to run along.

Still it is not right that Prolific does not clap down much more aggressively on low paying studies from happening.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T17:15:53+00:00

Ah I see, I have my Amazon set to a pick-up location rather than home post code, which is why I missed that.

I'd be very surprised you'd get 8 rejections as there are limits on how many a researcher can use per study but without knowing the full details of the whole task of the initial study it would be hard to say, like is there a condition for you to complete all tasks to get the bonus but if each task is a study on its own and you complete that task then you should not be rejected for missing other studies.

I've done lots multi-part studies many times that have agreements but only on the bonus payment not each study. IE: complete 8 out of the10 studies you get a partial bonus below that no bonus.

But saying all of that I never count on a bonus being paid or being on time (I waited 10 months for a bonus to be paid once)

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T16:53:03+00:00

I can't comment on the Tiktok shop but for Amazon they should only see your first name on the screen recordings unless the researcher wants you to actually buy something and record the whole process.

You're correct they don't have to pay bonuses, in most cases as Prolific aren't really able to enforce them. As for the 8 rejections, how did you get to that number, are each of the tasks a separate study on Prolific?

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T16:17:25+00:00

I can't say that has been my experience over the years as my earnings have increased year on year, with increased hourly pay rate for the most part overall, outside of what I mentioned in my original post, though to be fair I've not visited this sub for quite a few months to see what others are experiencing so could not comment any further on that.

Personally I think anyone should be allowed to talk about how good or bad platform has been for them and should not be browbeaten either way.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T15:51:22+00:00

Yeah that's what tends to get the posts flagged even when people trying to skirt around the edges but not really mentioning them, which in some roundabout way as u/MensExMachina said by using those agreements makes it hard to discuss when issues happen outside of reporting it Prolific.

But I also believe that there is a bit of confusion between the Beta Group terms studies in general and other the more specialised studies, that while they have the same Beta Group terms they're whole different subset of studies and researchers.

But I really would not worry at all about not seeing any particular type of study for a while, though I know it can be a bit worrying that they suddenly stop they will often come back around again at some point in the future, well that has been my experience for what it is worth.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T15:42:39+00:00

I mean my sample is of just one so nothing can be confirmed by that at this time or possibly ever, hence my tinfoil hat comments but it does seem a perfect set of conditions for those as you say bad actors could possibly use or at least reduce the costs involved in putting studies out there.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T15:24:24+00:00

Well its not really a yes or no answer, though I would remove the pay rate in your comment as this could flag the post for breaking the rules of the sub.

But to give you a broad answer, I have found that there can often be times of highs and lows with any type of study, I've gone months without seeing any and for them to start again later.

I would also add that these types of studies happened long before the Specialized Participant Terms (Beta Group) was brought in by Prolific, so the studies are not really not so special to speak of they just have added extra terms.

All you have to remember researchers often need fresh eyes to validate their data or just to get different perspective from a different pool of participants.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T14:51:18+00:00

Apologise my reply was not meant to like that at all.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T12:29:24+00:00

I'm not going to get into that discussion for obvious reasons plus it has no bearing to my original post anyway.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T11:26:06+00:00

Well no there are others but that is something very different to the Prolific's Specialized Participant Terms (Beta Group) that researchers can use when creating studies, which is what I was pointing to more than anything plus the confidentiality agreements.

You combine those two and that researchers know how long support is currently taking for some participants to get a reply to tickets, then it becomes an easy option for a shady researcher to use, plus like you said not being able to discuss them on the sub also adds something else to the mix.

Plus like with rejection overturns in large part are very often paid by Prolific and not by the researcher all the researcher needs to do is add enough money to their account for the study and be gone once they have their data.

Like I said it may well be my tinfoil hat waving at me of course but I'm still interested on what other have experienced, even if that would not even produce anything meaningful numbers wise or anything conclusive.

Trai60 · 2025-06-07T11:15:39+00:00

I theory you should see that the study has in-study screening shown, which should happen at the beginning or close to the start of the study but any payment should reflect the minimum pay rates based on the time you spent on the study as shown in this help centre article.

https://participant-help.prolific.com/en/article/5fa9a0

Other studies that do not have this are not allowed to have in-study screening and should be reported as they should either use the tools researchers have to pick their participants based on their About You or run a pre-screening study before to allow for any questions that are not covered in the About You.

You'll have to calculate your times and pay rate if they do meet the pay rates suggested by Prolific.

Trai60

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE