- Finding Research Participants
Finding research participants for your studies has never been easier. If you are a researcher needing to conduct quantitative, or qualitative research studies, FindParticipants can immediately connect you with your participants; allowing extensive filtering using 13 different search parameters, and it couldn’t be easier!
There are two primary methods of contacting participants, and this article will cover only using the “Search for Participants” search form:
- Use the search form to filter by profiles
- Use your own list: this functionality requires that you have an imported/manually added list of your own email addresses which have activated their membership to your list from a message sent to them at the time of their email being added to your list
Prior to getting started, we advise researchers to carefully prepare their recruitment messages, as well as having direct links to any external survey services that may be used for data collection for the study. A well prepared recruitment message is critical to the success of your message, and will encourage greater numbers of participants to take action.
Once you’re ready to recruit potential participants for your study, navigate to the “Find Participants” page , where you may begin filtering for your specific recruitment criteria by:
- Regions (dependent on countries being selected)
- Cities (dependent on regions and countries being selected)
- Educational levels
- Employment statuses
- Employment industries
- Ethnicities
- Marital statuses
- Income range
- Personal interests and hobbies
- And the number of desired participants to contact
The number of participants matching your search criteria will be shown above the “Search” button at the bottom of the search form in real-time as your selections are changed, and you can always save your search for later using the “Save Search” option on the bottom right of the screen.
Sending your message
Once your search criteria have been populated, and you are satisfied with your selections, you’ll be presented with the number of available respondents and an option to “Send message now?”.
Clicking the “Send message now” button will take you to the message compose page where you’ll prepare your final message to be sent!
If you haven’t already registered for a researcher account, head to our Researcher Registration page and register as an academic researcher (do note that an active subscription is required to send messages to participants).
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Frequently Asked Questions
- You would like to be a research participant.
- You are an academic researcher, or a student performing academic research studies.
Q. How can I use FindParticipants if I do not fall into either of the groups above? A. Companies and other research organizations may register to use our Enterprise services here .
Research Participants:
Q. How do I sign up? A. Just head over to the research participant registration page , and fill out the form.
Q. What information do you need from me? A. Just a username, email address, and a password to register (or you may register using Facebook or Google). We recommend that participants complete the short demographic and interest profile on the user settings page from the logged in user area which allows researchers to send messages only to those research participants who meet their specific criteria, making sure that if you aren't needed for a study- you aren't getting a message about it.
Q. How do I know that I won't start getting heaps of emails? A. We randomize, count, track, screen, and just generally go out of our way to make sure that messages are evenly distributed between research participants, and messages are targeted toward your specific demographic information.
Q. I don't want to reveal who I am, is that possible? A. Yes! We do not ask any identifying information from you, and your (already non-personal) information is encrypted just to be sure. FindParticipants at no point releases your information to researchers, third parties, or any other outside entity. The only time your information (including basics such as email address) are available to researchers is when you participate in a study outside the FindParticipants system, or voluntarily provide your information directly to researchers.
- Research participants are often compensated with things such as cash, gift cards, electronics, and more (see below)!
- You'll be contributing to academic research that improves things for you! Researchers are often requesting your input, ideas, and feelings on things that you use- to make them better, or to create new and innovative projects, products, and classes
- Registration is free, and you get the chance to get paid (see below).
Q. How do I get paid? A. Doing your part to assist researchers by participating in research studies takes time and energy, so we feel that you should be paid or compensated for this. Amount or type of payment for your participation in research studies should be clearly detailed in all participation request emails sent to you, and it's up to you if it's worthwhile to participate.
Payments to participants are made directly to research participants (you) by researchers. Payments are not sent by FindParticipants, however we do strongly encourage researchers to compensate all research participants. Pay for your participation is typically in the form of cash payments, however researchers often enroll participants in contests- selecting some lucky individuals for things such as: iPads, laptop computers, gift cards, and other assorted goodies.
Do note that graduate students often pay out of pocket for their research expenses (including this service), so try to help them out regardless of compensation.
Q. How much does it cost to register as a participant? A. Exactly $0.00. It's completely free to register as a research participant. Why should you pay for your time and ideas?
Q. What will I have to do to participate in these studies? A. Many research studies ask participants to complete simple surveys taking anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, some research studies are more involved. The kinds of studies you'll be asked to participate in vary; we ask that researchers be as clear as possible when sending messages.
Academic Researchers:
Q. How do I register as an academic researcher? A. Just head over to our academic researcher registration page , fill out the short form, and a member of the FindParticipants team will confirm your academic researcher status- after which you will receive an email confirming your account.
Q. Why should I register? A. You should register because you've had quite enough of spending enormous amounts of energy and time trying to recruit research participants for your research studies. You should register because you are researching topics for which convenience sampling is no longer acceptable or useful. You should register because it is difficult or time consuming to find the specific demographic group that you are trying to reach.
- Register as an academic researcher here
- Select a subscription plan that fits your needs and budget
- Choose the demographic and ethnographic criteria for your research participants
- Send a message to participants matching your search criteria requesting their participation. You send only one message — we group the participants for you so you don't have to send, say 1,000 individual messages.
- You... focus on your research study- you're done getting research participants!
Q. Can you assist with the IRB approval process? A. Yes- we provide a boilerplate IRB document here .
Q. What costs are associated with using FindParticipants to contact research participants? A. An academic researcher subscription ( subscription details may be found on our Pricing page ), and normal compensation for research participants. That's it.
Q. How much does a research subscription cost? A. Head over to our pricing page for subscription plans and details. We like cost in terms of coffee, and our most expensive subscription (Premium) costs the same as 4 cups of delicious coffee a week.
Q. Are participants required to participate in my study? A. No. All participation is "at-will" similar to in-person research studies.
Enterprise Researchers:
Q. How do I register as an enterprise researcher? A. Just head over to our enterprise researcher registration page , fill out the short form and you will receive an email confirming your account.
Q. What costs are associated with using FindParticipants Enterprise to contact research participants? A. An enterprise researcher subscription ( subscription details may be found on our Pricing page ), and compensation for research participants. That's it.
Q. How much does a research subscription cost? A. Head over to our pricing page for subscription plans and details.
