Integrate with Prolific

This page describes how to configure a new Batch of slots for participants that will be recruited through the Prolific recruitment service. Meadows has partnered with Prolific to make this process as straightforward as possible, while providing a smooth experience for participants. Start here for a more general introduction on recruitment.

Example New Batch form configured for integration with your Prolific study

Step by step

1. Use the button Create a new Batch.. in your experiment version to open the Batch form.
2. Switch the template dropdown from Share Link to Prolific. This will pre-configure your batch with settings relevant for Prolific.
3. On Prolific, add a new study or open your draft study.
4. Under Device requirements, untick all the options except Desktop.
5. For Recording Prolific IDs, select "URL Parameters"
6. From Completion paths, copy the completion URL, and paste it into the Exit URL field of your Meadows batch.
7. Select the number of slots on your Meadows Batch, and press Create
8. Back on Prolific, under Data Collection > What's the URL of your study paste the Meadows Entry URL. You can copy this with the button on the Batch panel.
9. You can now start your Prolific study.

Tip

Add at at least 50% more slots on Meadows than on Prolific

Some potential participants may just open the link to have a brief look, then decide against taking part (a "return" on Prolific). They have then taken up one slot on Meadows. Therefore it's recommended to always create extra slots on Meadows compared to the number of places in your Prolific study. Note that we don't charge by slots but by actual time spent by participants.

Tip

To get an overview of participant sessions and whether they have fulfilled your criteria for compensation, you can use the metadata table.

Batch configuration

Entry URL

After having configured and comfirmed your batch, you'll enter this on Prolific as the Study URL.

Entry variables

With these so-called query parameters you can store metadata about your participant from Prolific with your Meadows data. This is not required but can help to link the participants identities.

PROLIFIC_PID

Add this variable to store the participant's Prolific ID on Meadows.

STUDY_ID

This is the ID of your Prolific "Study".

SESSION_ID

This value denotes one specific instance when this person took part in your study, as opposed to the PROLIFIC_PID which will be the same for any study the participant with that Prolific account takes part in.

Exit URL

Here you should paste the Completion URL from Prolific, including the "cc" (completion code) if you wish participants' contributions to automatically be accepted on Prolific. If you wish to review their contributions first, you can set the cc value to NOCODE.

Exit page

These are features of the final page on Meadows that the participant will see when they finish your experiment:

display exit link

This will show a large green button that links back to Prolific.

display completion code

This displays the CC part of the Completion URL. This only serves to give participants a sense of extra security, as the code is also supplied automatically through the Completion URL.

display meadows alias

This will display the Meadows nickname (of the form adjective-animal) on the final page, which may further help in your troubleshooting communication with the participant.

automatically forward to exit link

If this is selected, after 4 seconds on the "thank you" page, the participant's browser will take them back to Prolific.