Recruitment or access is taking much longer than I planned
Find where recruitment or access is actually stalling, widen your routes within your approval, and set a date to switch to a fallback.
In short
Start here, today. Draw your recruitment funnel on one page with real numbers: how many people or organisations you've contacted, how many replied, how many were eligible, how many agreed, how many completed. If you're waiting on access rather than participants, list each permission, who holds it and when you last heard from them. The biggest drop or the oldest silence is your bottleneck. This takes about 30 minutes.
After that, work through these steps. Choose one to jump to it.
Step by step
Tick each step as you finish it. Open a step for the how.
0 of 6 steps done
Find where it's leaking
People who never see your invitation need a different fix from people who see it and say no, or who agree and never turn up. Low awareness calls for new channels. Low uptake usually points to the ask itself: too long, too vague, badly timed, or with nothing in it for them. Drop-off after consent often means taking part is harder than it looked on paper.
Work with the gatekeepers
Clinic managers, teachers, community leaders, archivists and site managers decide what reaches the people or material you need. Ask one of them for 15 minutes and find out what would make this easier for them: a shorter information sheet, a poster for the waiting room, a quieter time of year. Offer something back where you can, such as a summary of findings or a short talk for their staff, and follow up on a schedule rather than whenever you remember.
Widen your channels inside your approval
Check you're using every route your ethics approval already covers. Then list new ones worth trying: another organisation, social media groups, snowball sampling, a second site, translated materials, an online option. Most of these need an amendment to your approval before you use them. Amendments are usually routine, though how long they take varies, so submit early and don't start a new channel until it's approved.
Look at the burden and the incentive
Ask honestly whether taking part is worth it from the participant's side. A shorter interview, an evening or online option, or a modest honorarium can do more than any new channel. Incentives need ethics approval and have to fit your funding rules, and some communities and institutions have their own norms about payment, so check before changing anything.
Set a decision date and a fallback
Agree with your supervisor a date, perhaps six to eight weeks away, and the number you need by then. Agree at the same time what happens if you don't reach it: a smaller sample with a clear justification, an added or different site, a change of design such as fewer participants in more depth, or existing data you could use instead. Choosing the fallback while you're calm is far easier than choosing it in a panic.
Log what you tried and what you decided
Record the date, the numbers, every change you made and the agreed fallback in your Decision Log. Examiners do ask why a sample is smaller than planned, and a dated record of what you tried makes that a straightforward answer. The same record becomes a paragraph in your methods chapter.
Words you can use
Is this you? Signs to look for
- You're weeks into recruitment and have a fraction of the participants, sites or samples you planned for.
- A gatekeeper said yes in principle and hasn't answered your last two emails.
- An archive, permit office or partner organisation has had your request for months.
- You keep sending the same invitation through the same channels and hoping this week will be different.
- You've started to wonder whether the study can happen at all, and you haven't said so to your supervisor.
Why this happens
Recruitment and access are almost always slower than the proposal assumed. The timeline was written before you knew how busy clinics are in winter, how long a school board takes to reply, how many people open a survey link and close it, or how long a collaborator takes to send samples. Archives close for renovation, permits sit on someone's desk, and community partners have their own priorities. None of this means your project is badly designed.
What usually does the damage is drift rather than the slowness itself. Each week might be the week things pick up, so nobody decides anything, and months pass on a plan that stopped working. The way out is to find exactly where people or permissions are dropping off, try a few targeted changes, and agree a date by which you'll switch to a fallback if the numbers haven't moved.
Worth a look (2)
- Sage Research MethodsBooks, case studies, videos and practice data sets on research methods, from interviews to regression. Your library usually provides access.
- PRISMAThe reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, with the checklist, flow diagram templates and extensions for scoping and other reviews. Many journals expect you to follow it.
When to bring someone in
Talk to your research ethics office before trying any new recruitment route, incentive or site; they can tell you whether you need an amendment and how long it usually takes. If a partner organisation has gone quiet, your supervisor or a committee member may have a contact who can help. If the delay will push you past a funding or program deadline, tell your graduate coordinator early.
Find the right person, or talk to Ify