Our ‘Test study as a participant’ feature is currently in a limited beta release. To be notified when this feature becomes more widely available, you can register your interest here.

Contents:
1. What is the ‘Test study as a participant’ feature?
2. Why should I test my study?
3. What should I know before creating a test account and testing my study end-to-end?
4. How can I create a test participant account?
5. How can I create a test participant account via API?
6. How can I test my study end-to-end?
7. How can I create a test participant account via API?
8. What should I do once i’ve completed testing my study?

What is the ‘Test study as a participant’ feature?

With this new feature you can do more than just preview your study - you can run a complete end-to-end test including the payment process using a test participant account.

Why should I test my study?

Testing helps you gain confidence in setting up studies on Prolific by allowing you to experience the entire process from a participant's perspective. You can verify your study configuration works exactly as intended before launching to real participants.

What should I know before creating a test account and testing my study end-to-end?

  • Only 1 participant account can be created/attached to one researcher account. The test participant is only able to access test studies that were published from the workspace the account was created on.
  • Your wallet will be charged when testing a study. Funds will be automatically refunded to your wallet within 24 hours after completing or closing the test study

Tips for setting up your study:

For testing alone:

• Set your study to 1 participant to ensure a smooth testing experience

For workspace collaboration:
• Any other participants created in your workspace can access and collaborate in testing your studies, as each researcher in the workspace can create their own test participant account and access the test study

• Note: Creating multiple test participants for a single researcher is only possible through the API - through the regular interface, you can only create one test participant account per researcher

Multi-submissions:

• If you’d like to test multi-submission studies, you can use the same test participant account to complete multiple submissions

How can I create a test participant account?

  1. Once you’ve created, and built your study click ‘Save as draft’
  2. Next, click the ‘Test as a participant’ button on the right-hand menu
  3. Enter your participant email (use an email address that doesn't already exist on Prolific)
  4. Click ‘Create account’
  5. Sign out of your researcher account or open a private/incognito tab where you're not logged into Prolific
  6. On the login page, click the ‘Forgot password’ link and enter your test email to "recover" your account
  7. You'll receive a recovery email at your researcher account's email address. Click the link in the email and create your "new" password (minimum 10 characters)
  8. Once logged in, your test study will appear on your dashboard under the Studies tab. This typically takes up to 5 minutes to activate

Important: While you can create a test participant account without funds in your wallet, you'll need to add money to complete the end-to-end experience.

If you cannot access your test account and think you may have entered it incorrectly, please reach out to support. They’ll be able to help you with the test participant email address connected to your researcher account.

How can I create a test participant account via API?

You’ll find all our API documentation and instructions, here.

How can I test my study end-to-end?

Once you have created your test participant account, you’ll receive an email with the test study flow link in your researcher account email address.

Note: If you're logged in to Prolific as a researcher when clicking the study link, you'll be directed to the researcher study page instead.

  1. Log in using your test participant account credentials
  2. Navigate to your dashboard under the ‘Studies’ tab and locate your test study (this may take up to 5 minutes to appear)
  3. Click 'Take part in this study'
  4. On the right side of the screen, find the 'Start study'' button located below your Prolific ID and Prolific email
  5. When the confirmation window appears, confirm by clicking 'Start study'’
  6. Complete your study in the new tab that opens
  7. Return to Prolific and click 'I'm finished'. Enter your completion code if you received one, or select 'I didn't receive a completion code''
  8. Complete the process by clicking 'Yes, I understand''

What should I do once i’ve completed my end-to-end test study?

  1. Head to your Projects tab to find the test study. You'll see its status as Awaiting review
  2. Open the study and approve the submission. This will trigger a refund of funds to your workspace wallet within 24 hours
    1. For unapproved studies, the funds will be released when the study is closed, following the same 24-hour timeframe.

How can I test my study end-to-end via API?

You can find all our API documentation and instructions, here.