Rules & Regulations

Everything that governs taking part in studies on CorpusLab, in one place. Researchers reserve time and equipment for every participant, so these rules keep sessions reliable and fair for everyone.

Version of 4 August 2026.

Who can take part

You must be 18 or older to sign up.
Keep your profile accurate. Some studies only accept certain profiles (age, language, handedness, gender, education), and we use your profile to check you're eligible.
Some studies set extra entry conditions: a minimum reliability score (your attendance rate), or whether or not you've already taken part in a related study.

Booking a session

You can hold one slot per study, and never two sessions that overlap. Each study can also be participated in once, ever: after you have attended it, it is permanently closed to you (a study needs distinct participants).
For group sessions your place starts out PROVISIONAL — it's held for you until the group fills. For pre-screening studies you first send a request; once the researcher approves you, you book a confirmed place.
Some studies send a confirmation email the day before. If you don't click to confirm, your booking is cancelled automatically 6 hours before the start.
For group sessions this is all-or-nothing: if the group hasn't filled, or any member hasn't confirmed, by 6 hours before the start, the whole session is cancelled for everyone — including members who did confirm.

Cancelling in time (no penalty)

You can cancel without penalty up to 24 hours before the session.
Cancel as early as you can, so someone else (or the waitlist) can take your place.

Cancelling late — excused no-shows

If you can no longer attend after the no-penalty deadline (24 hours before) has passed, you can still withdraw by giving a short reason, as long as the session is more than 6 hours away. This is recorded as an excused no-show, and each one pauses your booking for a little longer:
Your first excused no-show pauses your booking for 7 days.
The next one pauses it for 14 days, the one after for 21, and so on — seven more days each time.
However many you build up, this never deactivates your account.
Attending a session lowers your level by one step, so as long as you keep showing up between late withdrawals your pause shrinks back down toward zero.
Instead of withdrawing you can also move your booking to another slot of the same study. The move itself carries no penalty — but a move made after the free-cancellation deadline carries your commitment with it: the new booking can no longer be cancelled free of charge, however far away it is.
Within 6 hours of the session you can no longer withdraw online. Tell the researcher directly — simply not turning up is then treated as a no-show.

Not showing up — no-shows

Not turning up to a confirmed session, without withdrawing first, is an unexcused no-show. On sessions that verify attendance, staying completely silent on the day — doing nothing at all — counts the same way. The penalty is applied automatically, with no admin step in between.
Arriving 15 minutes late or more can be treated as a no-show — that's up to the researcher.
Each no-show pauses your booking for longer: the first for 30 days, the second for 60, the third for 90, and so on — thirty more days each time.
A no-show also cancels any other upcoming sessions you've booked, freeing those seats for someone else.
However many add up, a no-show never closes your account on its own.
Good attendance earns it back: every 10 sessions you attend in a row, with no unexcused no-show in between, lowers your no-show level by one step.
If a no-show was recorded by mistake, you can appeal it from the support page — a person reviews it and can reverse it.

Proving you attended

On the day of the session you confirm you're there from your own phone: scan the code on the researcher's screen — it rotates every few seconds — or type its 8 digits by hand.
If you've given location consent in the app and the venue has a registered location, an optional arrival check can run alongside the code — your own extra proof you were on site. It is never required: declining location access doesn't block anything, and the scan alone always suffices.
If anything goes wrong — the code won't scan, the arrival check won't confirm, you're running late — use "Report a problem" rather than just leaving. Any action you take routes your case to a person who will sort it out; only doing absolutely nothing is automatically recorded as a no-show.

Excused by the researcher

A researcher can mark an absence as excused — for instance a genuine emergency you told them about.
An excused absence carries no penalty, doesn't lower your reliability score, and counts toward neither penalty ladder.

Reliability score

Your reliability is your attendance rate: attended ÷ (attended + no-shows + excused no-shows).
Both unexcused no-shows and excused no-shows (late withdrawals) lower this score. Only an absence a researcher forgives doesn't affect it.
Some studies need a minimum reliability before you can book.

Ratings

After a session, you and the researcher can rate each other.
Be fair: five stars means a normal, problem-free session. Three stars or lower requires a short explanation.
Once submitted, a rating is final: neither participant nor researcher can edit or delete it. An administrator can hide an abusive or junk rating so it no longer counts in the published averages — but never rewrite its scores.

Suspensions & deactivation

A temporary suspension stops you booking new sessions until a set date; you can still log in. A late cancellation or excused withdrawal leaves your other bookings in place, but an unexcused no-show also cancels your upcoming sessions (see above). Every attendance penalty is a temporary pause of this kind — missing sessions never closes your account on its own.
Deactivation is separate: only an administrator applies it, for serious or repeated misconduct — never as an automatic consequence of a missed session. If your account is ever deactivated you can still log in to appeal — explain what happened and an administrator can reactivate you. While you're deactivated, your upcoming bookings are released to others or the waitlist.
Deleting your account while a penalty is active doesn't wipe the penalty — you can't re-register with the same email to start fresh.

Your safety at sessions

Sessions happen in person, usually at university venues. If anything at a session makes you feel unsafe, leave — your safety always comes before any attendance rule.
An absence recorded because you left for your safety is corrected, not penalised: report what happened from “My bookings” (the “I felt unsafe” link is available on every session, before or after it, whatever its status) and an administrator is alerted immediately and treats it with priority.
In an emergency, contact the emergency services (112) first. The platform is never the right channel for immediate danger.

Messaging privacy

Messages between a participant and a researcher are end-to-end encrypted: the two of you are the only ones who can read them — not even an administrator.
A conversation only reaches an administrator if one of the two people reports it, and even then only that person's copy is shared.

Your data & appeals

You can export your data and delete your account at any time from your profile, in line with GDPR.
Eligibility and reliability checks are automated. If a decision seems wrong, you can ask a person to review it from the support page.

For researchers

Publish a study only once it has at least one upcoming session, and keep your session times and locations accurate.
You can cancel a session freely more than 24 hours before it starts. Cancelling a booked session between 6 and 24 hours before is a late cancellation — allowed, but it temporarily blocks you from adding new time slots: 7 days the first time, then 14, then 21 (counted at most once a day). Within 6 hours you can't cancel online; contact the participants directly.
You can't unpublish a study while one of its booked sessions is less than 24 hours away — cancel that session first (which notifies the participants) or wait until it has passed.
Record attendance honestly and promptly after each session. A no-show applies an automatic penalty to the participant, so only record one for a genuine absence; if you record it by mistake, use the "recorded in error" option to ask an administrator to correct it.
Open the attendance screen on the day and run the check-in. If you do nothing at all — never open it, and never record anyone as present yourself — nobody can check in, and that counts as a session no-show on your side: it blocks you from adding new time slots for 30 days, then 60, then 90. Both this and a late cancellation ease by one step after a clean calendar month — at least one session actually run, with no new infraction.