Custom completion codes make it easier to manage submissions by allowing you to generate multiple completion codes for a single study. Each code can represent a different participant outcome, helping you automate actions and process submissions more efficiently.
What are custom completion codes?
Instead of using a single completion code for every participant, you can create multiple codes that are unique to your study. Each code can represent a different outcome or participant group.
For example, you can create completion codes for participants who:
Complete your survey successfully
Fail an attention check
Qualify for a specific bonus payment
Match a particular participant criterion
Reach a specific point in your survey based on custom survey logic
You can create as many completion codes as your study requires and give each one a clear description so it's easy to identify what it represents.
How to set up custom completion codes
Step 1: Create your completion codes in Prolific
In your study setup, create the completion codes you'll need and assign a meaningful label to each one:
On the study set up page, scroll to Completion paths.
Click + Add a completion path to create a custom completion codes.
This will generate a custom completion code for that particular code.
Step 2: Configure your survey software
Next, configure your external survey software so participants are redirected to the appropriate completion code based on your survey logic.
For example, you might redirect participants to different completion codes depending on whether they:
Passed or failed an attention check
Qualified for a follow-up study
Should receive a bonus payment
Were screened out at a particular stage
If you need help setting this up, see our integration guides for instructions on configuring redirect URLs in the most common survey platforms.
Automate submission management
You can associate automated actions with each completion code to reduce the amount of manual work required after your study finishes.
Depending on the completion code received, you can automatically:
Approve submissions
Reject submissions
Award bonus payments
This can significantly speed up submission processing, especially for studies with multiple participant outcomes.
Important information about screenouts
If you use completion codes for screened-out participants, remember that any screenout submissions that have not been approved within 21 days will be automatically approved. These submissions will be paid at the median completion time and corresponding reward.
To avoid unexpected approvals, make sure you review and process any screenout submissions before the 21-day deadline.
Reviewing submissions
Once your study is complete, you can filter submissions by completion code to quickly find participants with a particular outcome.
You can also create custom participant lists from these filtered groups, making it easy to recruit the same participants again in future studies.