Introduction

Prolific is a participant recruitment and management tool similar to SONA or Amazon MTurk.

Availability, Support and Use-case

Note that below information is provided ‘as is’, without any guarantee. Currently we offer no support or policy for the use of Prolific. For information on how to pay for Prolific, please contact the FSSC instead.

Before running a study on Prolific, researchers have to add money to their workspace. To allow smooth processing with FSSC, you should follow these steps:

1. Add a new workspace (e.g., current project name)
   
2. In the new workspace, go to “Workspace Settings”
   
3. Fill in the “Organisation details” (your name, and the billing address of the university). Importantly, also add the “VAT number”. This is not optional but necessary for the FSSC! Relevant information about the billing address and VAT (BTW) number can be found here.
4. Under “Finance”, chose “add money” > Bank transfer
   
5. Fill in the amount necessary for your study (in GBP)
6. As approval reference, add your BAS/AFAS project code or cost centre.

Once you have confirmed the bank transfer, you should see a confirmation code with additional information. Additionally, Prolific will send you a separate confirmation email with the invoice attached. You forward this invoice to FSSC (via facturen@assc.leidenuniv.nl). Within 2 working days your invoice should be in the system and ready to be approved via BAS InSite. Thus, check your BAS regularly! Within a few working days, your claim should be fully approved and the money transferred to your Prolific workspace. As this can take a few days, please make sure to set up your study well in advance.

If you have already added money to your Prolific workspace (e.g., via your personal credit card), you can make a declaration for costs on the BAS InSite. You need the Prolific Invoice and a confirmation of payment (e.g., your bank statement)

You need to upload these documents to the BAS InSite vis “MyInsite” > Declarations. Dependent on your situation, you file a claim by project or cost centre.

• Projects: You can directly choose “Trials and tests expenses” listed in the other expenses section.
• Cost centres: You have to specify “Other claims”
• Don’t forget to attach the Prolific invoice and your confirmation of payment.

Important: Adding the VAT will effectively save you 6% of costs as it removes the 20% VAT on the 33% platform fees.