Recruitment Status Options
You can control your entire recruitment process by changing the status at the top of your Participant Recruitment page. There are three status options:
- Recruiting: Your study is actively accepting new participants. Participants can fill out screeners and new participants will continue to be sourced.
- Paused: Recruitment is temporarily stopped. Participants can no longer fill out your screener and no new participants will be sourced. You can resume recruitment at any time.
- Ended: Recruitment is permanently closed. No new participants can be recruited and the study is considered complete.
How Status Changes Affect Participants
When Recruiting
- New participants can discover and apply to your study
- Screener responses continue to be collected
- You can continue qualifying and inviting participants
When Paused
- No new participants can fill out your screener
- Existing qualified participants can still be invited and scheduled
- You can resume recruiting whenever you're ready
When Ended
- Recruitment is permanently closed
- No new participant activity is possible
- Study is marked as complete
Automatic Recruitment Ending
Projects will automatically end after 30 days of inactivity. This helps keep the participant pool fresh and prevents abandoned studies from staying open indefinitely.
Credit Refunds When Ending Recruitment
When you end your recruitment, you'll receive a refund to your Research Wallet for:
- Unused participant credits from your original purchase
- Credits for no-show participants who were scheduled but didn't attend
Important: This is why it's crucial to update participant status to "Attended" or "No Show" after each session. Only participants properly marked as "No Show" will trigger credit refunds when you end recruitment.
Best Practices
- Use "Paused" if you need to temporarily stop recruitment while maintaining the option to resume
- Update all participant attendance status before ending recruitment to ensure proper credit refunds
- Monitor your recruitment progress regularly to avoid automatic ending due to inactivity
Next Steps
Have questions? Check our comprehensive FAQ for quick answers to common questions.
Next: Participant Recruitment FAQ →