Your first data collection
Let’s set up your first data collection through the Prolific API - create a study, find your participants, and launch it programmatically.
This guide assumes you have already created a prolific account and generated an API token. If you haven’t done this yet, please follow the steps in Getting started with Prolific’s API.
You will also need to top up your wallet in order to complete this guide. The default settings will cost $1.50/£1.50.
With that done, you’re ready to start your first data collection!
Get your researcher ID
To create Prolific surveys you need to know your researcher ID. You can get this by making a call to the user endpoint.
Make a note of the user id from the response as you will need this in the next step.
Create the survey
Next let’s create a survey. This survey will host the multiple choice questions you want to ask your participants.
You will need to provide your researcher id from step 1 in the researcher_id field.
You can find more details on Prolific Surveys in the Surveys documentation.
Make a note of the _id from the response as this is the identifier of the survey; you’ll need this in the
following steps.
Create the study
Next, create a study to select the participants you’d like to take the study.
The external_study_url on the study will be https://prolific.com/surveys/{survey_id}, using survey _id from
step 1.
There are many filters you can use to find your participants. In the example above we are selecting participants
who are between 18 and 35 years old using the filter_id age.
When a participant completes your study, you will need to review and approve their submission to ensure they get paid. You are able to automate this process using completion paths - see the study object documentation for more details.
Make a note of the id from the response as this is the identifier of the study; you’ll need this in the following
steps.
Publish the study
Next, publish the study to start recruiting participants.
Once the study has successfully published, the study’s status will be ACTIVE.
When the expected number of submissions have been completed, the study’s status will move to AWAITING REVIEW, you
will need to review and approve the submissions to complete the study.
If you are using completion paths to automate this process, the study will move to COMPLETED once all submissions
have been automatically approved.
Monitor the study’s status
Check the status of your study, using study id from step 2.
Again, using the study id, check on how many submissions are in progress or have been completed.
Get the study’s results
Once the study has received enough responses, you can get the results using the export endpoint.
Reviewing Submissions
To complete a study and pay participants, you will need to review the submissions. You can get a list of submissions
for your study using the study id from step 3.
Now you have the submissions you can process these as needed. To approve a submission, use the submission id from
the response above and transition each submission to APPROVED.
You can find more information on reviewing submissions in the submissions guide.
And that’s it! You have successfully collected data using Prolific’s API 🎉
Help & support
Prolific’s researcher help center has detailed guides on the core Prolific concepts.
For questions and requests specific to using Prolific’s API, you can reach our support team through this form.
