If you log in to Prolific and see that your account has been placed on hold, it usually means that a study run from your account may have breached our Researcher Terms & Conditions.
While your account is on hold, some account features and actions will be temporarily restricted until the hold has been resolved. It's a separate status from an account ban, a hold is temporary and reviewable, and many get resolved once we've talked it through with you.
How do I know if my account is on hold?
If your account is on hold, you’ll see a notification banner at the top of your account after logging in:
Why would my account be on hold?
Check your account against these first, it may point to what's going on before needing to contact us:
Underpaying studies: does any published study pay below our minimum £6 / $8 hourly rate?
Screening within studies: does your screening setup match our screening rules?
Invalid rejections: do your recent rejections follow our rejection guidelines?
Collecting personal data: does your study ask for Personally Identifiable Information you haven't been approved to collect?
Requiring external downloads: does your study ask participants to download any software or files?
Inappropriate study content: has your study drawn complaints or distress from participants?
We couldn't reach you: check your inbox, including spam, for an email from us you may have missed
Technical study issues: does your study have a bug or setup issue affecting data collection?
None of these match, or you're not sure? Contact us using the chatbot icon in the bottom right of your screen, we'll pull up your account and tell you exactly what triggered it.
What can’t I do while my account is on hold?
Whilst your account is on hold, you will be unable to perform the following actions:
Publish new studies
Resume data collection on paused studies
Reject submissions
Increase study places
Stop studies
How can I remove the hold status on my account?
Contact us using the chatbot icon in the bottom right of your screen. We'll walk you through why the hold happened and what it'll take to lift it.
For some accounts, an explanation is really all it takes. For others, you might need to top up participants with an adjustment payment or unreject some submissions first, see resolving underpaid studies for how that works.