Prolific Integration
Prolific is the participant recruitment platform that connects the TABS survey with a diverse, pre-screened pool of organizational leaders. Unlike general-purpose survey panels, Prolific specializes in high-quality academic research, offering participant screening by job seniority, industry sector, and other professional criteria.
This page explains how Prolific integrates with Qualtrics, how participant data flows between the two platforms, and how automated workflows keep the data pipeline running.
Why Prolific
- Research-grade participants — Prolific's pool is verified and rated for data quality, with built-in attention checks and approval mechanisms.
- Pre-screening — We can target participants by industry, company size, seniority level, and geographic region, ensuring the survey reaches decision-makers who actually experience technology adoption barriers.
- Ethical recruitment — Participants are fairly compensated and informed about study purposes, aligning with academic research ethics standards.
- API access — Prolific's REST API enables automated data collection, study management, and submission tracking.
The Qualtrics–Prolific Bridge
Participant Flow
When a Prolific participant starts the TABS study, Prolific opens the Qualtrics survey URL and appends three URL parameters:
PROLIFIC_PID— The participant's unique Prolific identifierSTUDY_ID— The Prolific study identifierSESSION_ID— The specific session identifier
Qualtrics captures these as Embedded Data fields in the Survey Flow, which links each survey response back to the Prolific submission. At the end of the survey, the respondent is redirected to the appropriate destination based on the Survey Flow logic.
Two-Channel Design
The TABS survey accepts respondents from two channels simultaneously:
Website visitors
Click a button on technologyadoptionbarriers.org, which opens the survey with SOURCE=TABS_Website. After completion, they're redirected to the site's thank-you page.
Prolific participants
Launched by Prolific with PROLIFIC_PID, STUDY_ID, and SESSION_ID. After completion, the Survey Flow decides the redirect destination based on the presence of these parameters.
See the Qualtrics Integration page for the full two-branch Survey Flow architecture, including the redirect lockdown pattern.
Automated Data Collection
Weekly Pipeline
A GitHub Actions workflow (prolific.yml) runs every Monday at 9:00 AM UTC. It uses a TypeScript client library (src/lib/prolific-api.ts) to query the Prolific API and collect:
- Study metadata and status
- Submission counts and completion rates
- Approval and rejection statistics
- Participant demographic summaries
The workflow can also be triggered manually for on-demand checks. All Prolific API calls use a token stored in the prolific-prod GitHub environment.
API Integration
The TypeScript client wraps the Prolific REST API v1. Key functions include:
| Function | Purpose |
|---|---|
| getCurrentUser() | Verify API token validity |
| listStudies() | List all studies in the workspace |
| getStudy(id) | Get study details and status |
| listStudySubmissions(id) | Get all submissions for a study |
| exportSubmissionsCSV(id) | Export submission data as CSV |
Cross-Platform Verification
A dedicated workflow (qualtrics-prolific-verify.yml) validates the integration between both platforms. It checks:
- The Qualtrics Survey Flow contains the expected Embedded Data fields (
PROLIFIC_PID,STUDY_ID,SESSION_ID,SOURCE) - The two conditional branches exist with the correct redirect URLs
- The Prolific study's external URL points to the correct Qualtrics survey
- Both API tokens are valid and have the required permissions
This verification is part of the annual rollover checklist — after copying a survey and re-applying the Prolific integration, the verify workflow confirms everything is wired correctly before the study goes live.
Data Privacy & Ethics
The Prolific integration is designed with privacy in mind:
- No PII in code — Prolific participant IDs are anonymous identifiers. No names, emails, or other personally identifiable information flows through the automation.
- Secrets management — API tokens are stored as GitHub Actions environment secrets, encrypted at rest, and never exposed in logs or source code.
- Minimal data retention — Automated workflows collect aggregate statistics only. Individual submission data is accessed on-demand for research purposes and is not stored in the repository.
- Fair compensation — All Prolific participants are compensated at or above the platform's recommended rates.
Related
- Technical Integrations overview
- Qualtrics Integration — survey engine and Survey Flow architecture
- Google Analytics Integration — impact measurement and verified visitors
This page documents the Prolific integration as of February 2026. For the complete setup guide and annual rollover checklist, see PROLIFIC_INTEGRATION.md in the project repository.