Research Integrity & Participant Selection Guidelines

Stage One: The Suitability Screener (Pre-Qualification)

When an individual is contacted by a member of the Polar Insight research team—or receives an invitation from our Managing Director, James Tattersfield—to participate in a global research study, they are first directed to a preliminary qualification form (typically hosted via secure platforms like Typeform).

• The Scope of the Form. This initial “short form” or “survey” is exclusively a pre-qualification instrument. It is designed to verify specialised academic credentials, specific methodology alignment, and geographic suitability.
• Data Minimisation (UK GDPR). In strict accordance with UK data protection laws and data minimisation principles, no actionable research data, proprietary insights, or intellectual property are captured during this stage.
• Cohort Capacity & Selection Limits. Because our specialised research studies operate with strict sample sizes and cohort caps, the completion of a preliminary suitability screener does not guarantee selection for the final study phase. If a study experiences an exceptionally high volume of responses from the academic or professional community, capacity may be reached quickly. Candidates who do not match the immediate parameters or whose cohort capacity has been filled will not be advanced to the interview stage.

Stage Two: The Strategic Consultation & Honorarium Allocation

Once a respondent's suitability is verified and matched to an active project cohort, our team contacts them directly to schedule the formal, deep-dive Research Interview (typically a 60-minute online video session).

• Incentive & Reward Processing. Competitive honorariums and micro-grants (administered securely through our corporate gifting partner, Tremendous) are allocated exclusively to participants who are formally selected for, schedule, and successfully complete the formal 60-minute interview phase.
• Fair Compensation Boundaries. No honorariums or gift card rewards are issued for unselected pre-qualification screeners. Because no consulting services are rendered and no research data is utilised from unselected screeners, no transactional compensation is triggered.

1. Informed Consent & Transparent Workflows

We ensure all initial communications explicitly outline the conditional, multi-stage nature of the research workflow: Screener → Cohort Selection → Paid Interview → Reward Distribution.

2. Proportional Data Governance

If an applicant completes a screener but is not selected for a final consultation panel, their screening data is systematically depreciated and deleted. It is never packaged, sold, or utilised as a standalone research product.

3. Mutual Respect with the Academic Community

We deeply value the intellectual contributions of PhD students, post-doctorates, and independent researchers. We are fully committed to preventing economic deception or ambiguous terms in commercial research, ensuring clear and direct notification when project capacities are reached.