On your Submissions page, you'll see we use a few different statuses to tell you what's currently happening with your submission. This article explains the status Rejected.

There are seven main reasons why your submission might get rejected, though please note this isn't exhaustive:

1. Finished the study too quickly/slowly
2. Failed attention check questions
3. Gave intentionally low-effort responses
4. Gave no study data or NOCODE
5. Screened out
6. Technical issue
7. Failed authenticity check
8. Didn’t answer essential questions
9. I don’t feel my rejection was fair

Finished the study too quickly/slowly

Researchers estimate how long their study should take, and Prolific calculates the average completion time as the study progresses. If your completion time is significantly faster than the average, this suggests you didn't fully engage with the study. We allow rejections for submissions completed more than 3 standard deviations below the average time.

If you take too long on a study, you'll be timed out. Researchers cannot reject you for being too slow - instead, your submission will automatically time out rather than remain "awaiting review."

If your submission was rejected for either completing too quickly or timing out, please contact the researcher to discuss the situation.

✋ For studies labeled as "ongoing," you can check the maximum time allowed for completion, which may be several hours or days. As long as you complete the study within this maximum time limit, you won't be penalized for your completion speed.

Failed attention check questions

Researchers use attention checks to ensure participants are actively engaging with study instructions. Missing or failing these checks suggests you haven't carefully read the questions or instructions.

We have guidelines on 'Using attention checks as a measure of data quality' to ensure these checks are fair and straightforward. If you believe an attention check was unfair, you're welcome to discuss it with the researcher.

Gave intentionally low-effort responses

To provide our researchers with high-quality data, it's essential that you actively engage in their study. Engagement means paying close attention to instructions, providing thoughtful responses, and avoiding distractions while participating. If you're not sufficiently engaged, your data may be unusable for the researcher's specific research question.

For example, low engagement would be writing only a few words when asked to write a full paragraph.

Gave no study data or NOCODE

Researchers cannot reject your submission solely for providing NOCODE or an incorrect completion code. If your submission was rejected for "No data" and/or NOCODE, and you believe this is incorrect, please message the researcher to discuss the situation.

Screened out

We allow researchers to validate the prescreening criteria they applied by letting them ask the same questions again in their survey, using the exact wording from before. If your answers don't match those in your 'About you' section, you may be directed to return your submission.

If you complete a pre-screening study successfully, you must be paid for your time, even if you don't qualify for the follow-up study.

We do not allow within-study screening for criteria not included in Prolific's prescreening. If you are screened out, please return your submission and report the study to us through the link at the bottom of this article instead of submitting with NOCODE.

If you've been unfairly rejected after being screened out, contact the researcher to have your rejection overturned. You can request to return your submission instead, and you may be eligible for partial payment.

Technical issue

If you experience a technical issue during a study, contact the researcher and return the study right away. Don't wait for the issue to be resolved - you won't be compensated for waiting time.

If you submit the study as complete instead of returning it, the researcher may reject your submission since they won't be aware of your technical difficulties.

At that point, you'll need to contact the researcher to resolve the situation.

When a technical issue occurs in a study, we cannot provide financial compensation. However, if you've been rejected, we can return your submission so the rejection won't count against your record.

If your study has been rejected, or if the researcher has agreed to pay, please contact us, and we'll ensure this doesn't affect your account standing.

Failed authenticity check

Researchers will check whether free-text responses are genuinely written by you, rather than generated using AI tools (like ChatGPT) or copied from external sources.

If a researcher determines that you used AI tools or similar methods to complete your answers, they will reject your submission.

If you believe your study was incorrectly flagged for failing authenticity checks, contact the researcher to explain your situation.

Didn’t answer essential questions

Studies should be set up to make essential questions mandatory. Researchers should not reject submissions when participants fail to answer questions that weren't marked as required.

If you have been rejected for this reason, please message the researcher to discuss the situation.

I don't feel my rejection was fair

If you've read this article and believe your submission was rejected in error or unfairly, you need to contact the researcher directly. Provide the researcher with detailed information about your issue and allow them up to seven days to respond.

If you haven't received a response after a week, or if you're unsatisfied with their resolution, contact us. Be sure to include screenshots of your correspondence with the researcher to help us determine the next steps.

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