Cash Handling and Banking Services has a Human Subject Prepaid Card (HSPC) program to compensate human subjects. The prepaid card is a reloadable Visa debit card that can be used everywhere Visa products are accepted.
For more information, please reference the Human Subjects Prepaid Card Program website.
Human subject testing can only happen if prior approval has been granted through the research Institutional Review Boards – IRB’s.
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk or similar online service providers:
Amazon Mechanical Turk ("MTurk") is a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables researchers to recruit subjects for social science and educational research.
MTurk can be used for:
- Surveys; provided that the surveys/human subject testing was approved through Research IRB’s and as long as the data is privacy level 1(de-identified data)
Can not be used for:
- Hiring independent contractors for ordinary services that could be performed on/off campus
Special Considerations:
- Data types: these service providers should not be used to collect or store any data above Privacy level 1
- Data ownership (survey formats as well as responses) should not be used to collect or store any personally identifiable financial or health information from participants
- Should not collect survey participant information (locations, recurring participation, identifiable information collected)
- The account names, addresses, email addresses for the account managers (who established and accepted terms for the accounts)
- Potential Financial controls/tax details for participants. Requesting department may be liable for any tax liabilities that are incurred as described in BFB-G-41.
How to place an order using MTurk or similar vendors:
- The preferred purchasing method is setting up an Amazon Mechanical Turk’s business account, then request funds to be added using the “Blu Card Tracking” feature in BearBUY on a non-catalog form.
- If using a “TurkPrime.com” account, please pay with a Purchase Order on a Service Request Form using the Supplier "Prime Research Solutions, LLC."
The department should attach the following Required PO Documents to the Form as directed in BearBUY:
Required documents from the Department:
- Proof of Price Reasonableness & Source Justification (if order is more than $4,999.99)
- Statement of Work
Required documents from the Supplier:
Related Policies BFB-BUS-49 Cash and Cash Equivalents Received, BFB-G-41 Non-cash awards and other gifts and BFB-BUS-43 Purchases of Goods and Services; Supply Chain Management
Return to the Methods for Purchasing Goods and Services page