Contents:
1. When should I approve submissions and pay participants?
2. What are manual approvals?
3. What are auto-approvals?
4. What happens if my study has auto-approvals switched off?
5. Top tips
When should I approve submissions and pay participants?
After you’ve checked your participants’ submissions, you should approve and pay them as soon as possible. Ideally, you’d reward them within 24-48 hours after they’ve completed your study.
Although we ask that you action submissions as soon as possible, please don’t rush this process. Ensure that you’re happy with your decision and have read our guidelines before taking action.
What are manual approvals?
Manual review and payment is the most common way submissions are processed - this is when you personally check and approve a participant's study. For instructions on how to manually approve submissions and pay participants, click here.
What are auto-approvals?
All submissions on Prolific are set to automatically approve on the 21st day (just after midnight GMT) from when they’re made. This is to ensure that all participants receive their payment in a timely manner. Auto-approval involves a scheduled check of unapproved submissions that runs periodically.
If a submission has not been reviewed within 21 days after the submission is received, the submission will automatically be approved and paid at **the median completion time/reward.
You’ll receive an email seven days before the auto-approval to let you know that this will happen, unless reviews are completed beforehand.
Please note, auto-approval times are based on GMT, this means that submissions may be approved after 20 days in some US timezones.
What happens if my study has auto-approvals switched off?
Even when your study has auto-approvals switched off/is set to manual approval, the system still monitors submissions awaiting review. To ensure fairness for participants who completed your study correctly, submissions that remain pending for an extended period will eventually be automatically approved. In these cases, participants will receive payment based on the median completion time/reward.
You'll receive an email notification seven days before any approval takes place.
Top tips
- We ask that participants are given seven days to return a submission once requested, so please make sure to request any returns at least seven days before the 21 day deadline
- For interview related studies, we recommend scheduling your interviews well within the 21 day window to give yourself plenty of time to review submissions
- If you 'unreject' a submission after 21 days, the submission status will return to 'awaiting review'. It would then be automatically approved within 24 hours, or you can approve it manually before then
If you experience any issues with a study or with reviewing submissions, we encourage you to reach out to support through the button at the bottom of this article.
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