We provide 150+ screeners free of charge on our platform. But, we know that some of you still can’t find your target audiences for your studies
So, we’re introducing a way for you to suggest audiences of interest.
We’ll be asking you to suggest the audience you’d most like to target on Prolific, then we’ll use those suggestions to create a poll of options. Our community will be able to vote on them, and the screener with the most votes will be created.
Thank you to everyone who submitted such great suggestions for new screeners. We’ve shortlisted the most suitable ones for a community vote below. (To be shortlisted, the suggested screeners had to be suitable for the platform, feasible to implement, and different to existing screeners)
The screener with most votes will be added to the platform for all researchers to use!
The vote closes at the end of the day on Friday (24/09/21)
Vote For New Screeners
People who have withheld consumption (e.g. boycotted a product or service)
People who have been diagnosed with sensory disorders
People with a specified length of residence in their current country of residence
You can use this space to suggest and vote for new screeners. Simply leave a suggestion below, and give your favourite suggestions a like!
Some Guidance
Please check whether your suggestion is already on the platform, or if it is related to any screener already on the platform
We can’t create screeners that are the negation of current screeners. But, don’t worry, we’re working on ways to incorporate OR functionality into the screening process.
Check out our poll above to get a feel for the type of screeners we can create
An issue I have encountered is outdated/expired screener information from participants. Would it be possible to screen based on how recently participants answered/updated the screeners?
My most recent example involves the COVID-19 screeners. Since the situation is changing so rapidly, I ended up having to exclude some responses because their answers in my study did not match the criteria I needed.
@Josh_Siegel that’s a cool idea! I think the most suitable place for talking about this is the 💠Ideas & Feedback - Prolific Researcher Community. Related to this, @Gillian_Pepper created a thread (see below) where she suggested to add a column to the Prolific export with the date when the info was last updated. You can jump in the conversation there and put forward your - slightly different - suggestion, that is basically to make the information available ex ante (i.e., being able to filter out people based on it) rather than ex post (i.e, being able to control for it once all data have been collected)!
Anyway, I know this doesn’t solve your problem, but just to let you know: based on my personal experience, COVID-related questions already seem to be the most up to date. Indeed, from my participant account I have been asked to review those answers quite more often than others, for example related to more general demographic or social aspects.
The results are in! Since it’s virtually a tie, we’ll make both screeners available on the platform:
People with a specified length of residence in their current country of residence
People who have a cochlear implant
These screeners should be live within the next 2 weeks, but be aware that they won’t be useable straight away as it will take some time to gather answers from participants.
Pleased to say that that screeners are now live and are collecting responses. Once we get answers from at least 20% of our participant pool, we’ll release it for use. I’m not sure how long that will take, but it’s in progress!
People with a specified length of residence in their current country of residence
People who have a cochlear implant
So, we did! And we’re doing it again…
Add more screeners to the platform!
Here’s how you can:
Suggest a screener by replying below between now (Dec 2nd) and next Thursday (Dec 9th). Make sure you include the following:
Describe the audience you want to screen for (please be as specific as possible) Example: People who have travelled on a plane before
How would you phrase the question that would screen for your desired audience? (Please also include answer options) Example: Have you ever travelled by plane? Answer options: [1] Never [2] 1 to 10 times [3] >10 times
How often should the response be updated?
We’ll create a shortlist of the options that are suitable for the platform
You’ll be able to vote on your faves
(Please check through our existing screeners to ensure that we don’t offer what you need, before making a suggestion.)
Thanks for this initiative! My suggestion is electric vehicle ownership
Do you or anyone in your household own an electric vehicle? Answer options: Yes, electric car or van; Yes, electric motorcycle; Yes, electric bike; Yes, other electric vehicle; No
(could be asked at either individual or household level)
The response should be updated as regularly as other questions relating to modes of transport.
