Terms of use
These terms apply to everyone who uses Populiva: researchers who run studies and participants who take part in them. They took effect on October 31, 2026. By creating an account, you agree to them. Participants also agree to the Participant Agreement.
Your account
You must be 18 or older. Give us accurate information and keep it up to date. You're responsible for what happens in your account, so keep your email and your authenticator app secure.
One account per person. Participants may have only one participant account; using several, or someone else's identity, is fraud.
If you run studies
You confirm you have the approvals your research needs, such as from an Institutional Review Board or ethics committee, and that participants give informed consent within your study.
Describe each study honestly, including how long it takes. Pay at least the published minimum of $10 an hour based on your estimated time.
Don't ask participants for names, email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact details, and don't try to identify or contact them outside Populiva.
Review submissions fairly and promptly. Reject only for one of our listed reasons. Submissions you don't review in time are approved automatically.
Everyone in your lab acts for the lab. Owners and admins control members and funds.
Fees and payments
Our platform fee is published on our home page and shown before you launch a study. It's charged on top of participant pay, never taken from it.
You add funds through PayPal. PayPal's processing fee is shown separately; we credit your balance with what we receive after it.
Launching a study reserves the full cost of its places. Closing a study returns any unused amount to your balance. You can ask us to refund an unused balance; we return it through PayPal, less any processing fees PayPal keeps.
If we confirm a participant was fraudulent, we refund the reward and fee for their submissions in the past 90 days to your balance automatically.
If you take part in studies
The Participant Agreement explains how studies, pay, quality checks, and cash-outs work. Take part honestly and follow each study's instructions.
What you can't do
Don't break the law, harass anyone, or use Populiva to deceive participants beyond what an approved study design requires.
Don't use bots, scripts, or AI tools to take studies, and don't try to get around our quality, device, or payment checks.
Don't interfere with or try to break into Populiva, and don't scrape it.
Research data and your content
Researchers own the data their studies collect. Populiva doesn't claim it and doesn't sell it.
We handle personal information as our privacy policy describes. Researchers see a random participant ID and only the profile answers their study screened on.
Suspending or closing accounts
You can stop using Populiva at any time. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, put participants or researchers at risk, or appear fraudulent. Where we can, we'll tell you why.
Disclaimers and liability
We work hard to keep Populiva running and accurate, but we provide it as is. We don't guarantee that studies will fill, that every fraudulent response will be caught, or that the service will never be interrupted.
To the extent the law allows, Populiva isn't liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability to you is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (for participants, the amount we owe you).
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We'll post the new version here with its date and, for significant changes, email you before they take effect.
Contact
Questions about these terms? Email us: