CloudResearch at Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech has partnered with CloudResearch to provide university researchers with an efficient and cost-effective solution for recruiting and compensating participants in online studies. The platform is accessible through Single Sign-On via OneCampus.

CloudResearch provides access to a global pool of verified participants, with options to select participants using detailed profile information. Participant payments are managed through the platform, reducing the need for petty cash accounts or out-of-pocket payments.

What Can Researchers do with CloudResearch?

Getting Started

Virtual Wallet

CloudResearch uses an electronic “wallet” system to fund participant payments. Users have the ability to request an invoice within the system to provide to their department’s fiscal staff.

A purchase order should be created within HokieMart and the invoice forwarded to Virginia Tech Accounts Payable for processing. Payment will then be issued to Cloud Research for the amount on the invoice.

Note: funds are loaded into the “wallet” and are available for use at the time of request, not upon receipt of payment. Any unused funds may be withdrawn from the system and returned to the university.

For additional information on the funding process, contact acctpay@vt.edu

Reporting

All spending activity is tracked, and financial reports can be generated as required by the department upon request

Cost

There is no subscription cost and no minimum. The cost of a study is the participant payment plus a platform fee of 25% of that payment.

• Researchers set participant payment rate; a suggested minimum is at least $10 per hour.
• Researchers review responses before approving payment. Rejected responses incur no participant payment charge.

Data Quality

CloudResearch screens participants before admitting them to the pool and uses additional checks designed to identify bots, duplicate accounts, inattentive responses, and AI-generated answers in studies conducted on the platform. An independent study published in Nature Human Behavior evaluated data quality across online research platforms, including CloudResearch's CR Toolkit (see Fig. 1: Variation in response validity across samples. | Nature Human Behaviour).

Researchers retain control over response review and can reject responses that do not meet their study requirements without paying for those responses.

IRB and Consent

Recruitment is anonymous. Participants are identified only by a platform ID, and the research team determines what personal information, if any, to collect. Sample protocol and consent language addressing the platform, participant payments, and data handling is available. Researchers should adapt the templates to their study; use of the templates does not replace any required IRB review or approval.

Training and Support