Prolific put my researcher account on hold and my active studies are now completely paused
>I'm currently conducting research for my Master's thesis, and Prolific placed my researcher account on hold, automatically pausing all of my active studies.
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>The most frustrating part has been the support process. I contacted Support specifically to find out why my account had been restricted, and the first response was basically: “What do you need help with?” I explained the situation again, and then received no further response.
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>After following up, another support agent finally reviewed my account and identified the reason: their security system had flagged it because I had registered as an academic researcher using a non-institutional email address.
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>They asked me to change it to my institutional email. I tried to do exactly that following their instructions, but the system would not allow me to make the change. I informed them of this and provided all the information they requested for a manual verification.
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>Since then, I still haven't received any response explaining how the process will continue or when the hold will be removed, while my studies remain paused and my Master's thesis deadlines keep running.
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>I completely understand that Prolific needs security checks. What I don't understand is the support process: if there is time to respond to a ticket, why not use that interaction to check why their own system restricted the account and actually move the case forward?
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>Has any other researcher experienced something similar? How long did it take Prolific to resolve it?