My experience with a study with a bad reputation
> ⚠️ Just to be clear: I’m not here to dismiss all the bad experiences other people in this subreddit have had. I just want my post to be a record of hope for those who are thinking about giving it a chance.
I saw a lot of negative posts here about Shalu Punjabi and the study titled "Keyword Collection." However, $10.50 is a lot of money in my country, and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. I completed the study at the beginning of the month and waited for the right moment to share my final thoughts. Today, I woke up to the notification that the study had been approved and the payment had been credited to my Prolific account, so I’d like to give some honest opinions and tips based on my experience:
##Is this a scam?
Well, I never say with 100% certainty whether something online is or isn’t a scam. I prefer to check the available information, see if a company is legitimate, and decide for myself whether it’s worth it or not.
That being said, Shalu Punjabi is a real person. The company behind this study (Shaip) is also real. If you search on Google, you’ll understand how the company uses voice data for AI training. You can also find the researcher’s LinkedIn profile connected to the company, which shows that they really work there.
##Providing data
This study asks for a LOT of sensitive information and biometric data. If you’re uncomfortable sharing your exact location while using their app and using your voice to record the requested phrases, then this study probably isn’t for you.
That said, you don’t have to provide 100% of your real data. The form itself tells you not to use your real email address. I used the email addresses provided by Prolific and by the study itself in some of the registration fields inside the app.
##Unclear instructions about pronunciation and accent
I’m from Brazil, which is an extremely large country with many very distinct regional accents. The study only said they wanted native speakers living in Brazil, so I gave it a try, even though I wasn’t sure my accent was what they wanted.
During the study, they made it clear that “singing” the phrases was forbidden. That made me nervous, because I have an accent that’s known for “sounding like the person is singing". It’s hard to explain, but it really can sound melodic to non-native speakers. Anyway, I submitted my recordings and hoped for the best.
To my surprise, they accepted my naturally “melodic” way of speaking, but they rejected the way I pronounced “Hey.” Honestly, I’ve never met a Brazilian who naturally says “Hey” the same way a native English speaker would. In Portuguese, the letter H is completely silent when it appears at the beginning of words. I really wish they had made it clear from the start how they wanted that interjection pronounced, because rerecording so many audios is frustrating and a huge waste of time.
##App login credentials
Please, SAVE YOUR LOGIN CREDENTIALS!
As soon as you fill the form, a unique login and password are generated for you to use in the app you need to download. These credentials appear on the study page inside Prolific.
Obviously, the researcher doesn’t have time to review the audios before the study timer on Prolific expires, so you’re forced to mark the study as completed and hope for approval.
The problem is that the email and password created for your app access disappear as soon as you confirm the study is complete. So make sure to take a screenshot, copy them somewhere, do anything necessary so you don’t lose them. You won’t stay logged into the app forever, so if you lose the login info, r.i.p.
##How do I know if my submission was approved?
As I said before, you need to save your app login details. Inside the study’s app itself, you’ll receive notifications if your submission was accepted. If it was rejected, you can check each rejected recording individually and see the reason why. You don’t need to rerecord everything again, only the rejected audios. You can rerecord as many times as needed until all your audios are 100% accepted. Just be careful not to miss the resubmission deadline (if I remember correctly, you get up to 2 days to rerecord each rejected job after receiving the rejection notice).
They usually respond fairly quickly (around 1–2 days), so check the app daily if you’re not receiving approval or rejection notifications.
I didn’t receive a notification when my recordings were finally 100% approved, I had to check myself, so I’m not exactly sure when that happened. I only know it still took several more days to get paid even after approval.
##My conclusion
It’s a legitimate study that really does pay, but there are a lot of “gotchas,” so I’d recommend doing it carefully and cautiously to avoid frustration (and wasting a lot of time rerecording audios like I did).