Research Incentives
Updated: Aug. 4, 2026
Introduction
Any payments made to human subjects as an incentive to participate in research should follow this process. There are separate processes for payments given directly by researchers to subjects and payments given through survey platforms.
All research with human subjects, including the process for providing incentives to research subjects, must be approved by the NC State Institutional Review Board (IRB) before starting the study.
General Guidance
- Refer to this page each time you start a new study, because processes can change.
- Review the IRB guidance.
- Researchers must have IRB approval for the specific project for which research incentives will be provided before payments may be arranged or gift cards are purchased.
- Payment for research incentives can never be charged to state-appropriated funds. If funding authority allows, payments may be charged to F&A, ledger 5, ledger 6, or ledger 7 accounts.
- Incentives can be distributed in cash, by physical or electronic gift card, or through an online platform such as Prolific.
- Researchers may request a cash advance or may use personal funds and seek reimbursement.
- Reimbursements will be allowed for reasonable and customary payment amounts.
- Payments for research incentives cannot be charged to University P-Cards or Marketplace, per college policy.
- Payments made to NC State employees may be taxable. This may have implications for tracking human subjects that may need to be discussed with the IRB.
- Payments to non-US citizens may have tax consequences. Researchers must ask if human subjects are US or non-US citizens.
What kind of project are you leading?
I will provide incentives directly to human subjects in the form of cash or gift card:
I will make payments through a third-party survey platform (like Prolific):
Frequently Asked Questions
How are confidentiality and privacy concerns related to compensation handled?
All research projects must have IRB approval before providing research incentives to human subjects. The IRB protocol should communicate how the researcher will handle confidentiality and privacy in general and related to compensation.
NC State is a public university subject to the NC Public Records Law and in some cases the Freedom of Information Act. It is thus possible that payment records could be required to be shared in some circumstances. To that end, the NC State IRB urges researchers to collect the minimum information necessary and to store the information needed for compensation separately from the research data.
In rare circumstances, NC State researchers complete research activities with human subjects who could be put at increased risk due to their association with the research project. In these cases, if the IRB determines that collecting or providing identifiable information to anyone outside the research team increases the risks to human subjects, the IRB office will provide an official letter stating that the IRB prohibits the sharing of this information.
Do we collect personal information from human subjects?
When payments totaling $2,000 or more are made to the same person in a calendar year, the researcher must have the human subjects registered in PaymentWorks so that the university can collect information in order to issue a Form 1099. However, the 1099 will not indicate that the human subject was a research subject.
Can I hold a drawing as a research incentive?
Random drawings may be allowable with IRB approval. Do not use the terms “lottery” or “raffle,” as these terms suggest that the human subjects pay into a fund in exchange for a chance to get a larger payout. In contrast, a “drawing” requires no money from the human subject.
How much can I pay as an incentive?
Incentive payments should be reasonable and customary, should not be so large as to be coercive, and should be based in sound and defensible research practices.