Make Money and Help University Researchers with Prolific Academic

Nick Making Money 4 Comments

Today I’m sharing a sideline-earning opportunity that will give your brain cells a workout as well 🙂

Prolific Academic is a website that provides a platform for academic researchers across the world to conduct online studies of all types. And the best thing is that participants get paid for taking part.

Anyone is welcome to sign up, and you are then shown studies you are eligible for. They are typically in the fields of business, science, psychology, and social science. Payments range from a few pence to £5.00 or more. Obviously, the longer the study, the higher the payment tends to be.

I guess for most people the money will be the chief attraction, but the studies themselves are interesting and varied. One I did involved injecting virtual mice with a virtual chemical, and then using a virtual loupe (magnifying glass) to see which ones “expressed a gene” (or more prosaically changed colour). You then had to answer some questions about what conclusions you could draw from each experiment.

Another one I enjoyed involved reading a transcript of an unfair dismissal hearing (I assume an imaginary one). You then had to decide whether the complainant had indeed been unfairly dismissed, based on legal information provided. This one took me back to the long-ago days when I worked for a while in a Citizens Advice Bureau and represented several people at tribunals myself.

Payment is made via the online payment platform PayPal. There is a low withdrawal threshold of just £5. At one time if you wanted to withdraw less than £20 they charged a fee, but you can now withdraw any amount from £5 upwards free of charge. As a matter of interest, I have just reached £350 in total earnings from Prolific.

Prolific Academic is based in Oxford, England, but as far as I know anyone from anywhere in the world is welcome to join.

Top Tips for Making the Most of Prolific Academic

Here are a few top tips based on my experiences as a PA participant…

1. Select and copy your PA identity code at the start of the study. You can then simply paste it into the box at the end, to ensure you get paid.
2. Watch out for attention-checkers. Many studies include these to ensure that you read the instructions carefully. Typically, the instructions may tell you to answer a question in a certain way and ignore the other options.
3. Unlike consumer surveys, PA studies do generally require your undivided attention. Doing one while watching TV isn’t the best idea.
4. Studies fill up quickly, so check on the site regularly throughout the day. Sometimes you will receive an email notifying you of a new study for which you are eligible, but by no means always.
5. The box at the start tells you how long on average people take to complete a study (and how much this is as an hourly rate). This is important information, as you aren’t allowed to break off in the middle of a study and return to it later.
6. Sometimes when you log in you will be asked questions on subjects such as your health, hobbies, beliefs, and so on. Although you won’t be paid for these, it’s always worth taking a moment to answer them, as they may qualify you to participate in additional studies.

If you have any questions or comments about Prolific Academic, please do post them below.

Note: This is a fully updated version of my original article about Prolific Academic dated December 2016.