Close or Pause Survey Collection

Closing or pausing a research survey should protect participants and preserve clean data. Before changing a live survey, decide whether you need to stop sharing links, close a quota cell, update an end screen, push a revised version, or unpublish the public link entirely.

Most collection controls are in Deploy. The Published card contains the public link, Push changes, and Unpublish. Quota controls and respondent structure settings are also reviewed from Deploy before you make a fielding change.

1. Step 1: Download current data. Open Export and download a backup before changing a live study.

   Step 1: Download Export

2. Step 2: Check active links. Open Deploy and review which public or personal links have been shared.

   Step 2: Check Active Links

3. Step 3: Update recruitment instructions. Stop distributing links through panels, email, course systems, QR codes, social posts, and lab webpages before you change the survey itself.

   Step 3: Update Recruitment

4. Step 4: Use quotas when a cell is full. If only one arm or group should close, review Set Survey Quotas before changing the whole survey.

   Step 4: Quota Controls

5. Step 5: Update end screens if needed. Use End Screens and Debriefing for Surveys when respondents need a closure or quota-full message.

   Step 5: Update End Screens

6. Step 6: Publish any change deliberately. If you edit a live survey, use Publish and Share a Research Survey to make the current version active.

   Step 6: Publish Changes

• Pause recruitment only: stop sending the link but leave the survey published, useful when a panel or class roster will resume later.
• Close one quota cell: adjust the relevant quota or route quota-full respondents to a dedicated end screen instead of taking down the whole study.
• Fix a live typo or instruction: edit the survey, then return to Deploy and click Push changes so the published version matches the editor.
• Stop all public access: click Unpublish in the Published card after exporting a backup and recording the fielding status.
• Close after completion codes: verify that completion code or redirect behavior still works before the final respondents leave the survey.

These settings in Deploy → Data & Privacy control what happens to a participant who never reaches the end screen, separate from the closure actions above:

• When a participant leaves before finishing: whether their answers so far are kept in their browser. Keep Answers on Reload Only (the default) survives a refresh in the same tab and clears once the tab closes. Let Them Resume Later saves answers in that browser for up to 30 days, so reopening the link picks up on the same page — useful for long instruments, but anyone sharing that browser can see the saved answers. Start Over Every Time saves nothing, so a refresh or return visit begins from the first page. If a saved response was already auto-submitted (by the settings below), the saved copy is cleared when the participant returns and they start a new response. A response that is in the middle of being submitted is never cleared — even with Start Over Every Time, a refresh during submission finishes sending it. Changes reach participants once you push them.
• Submit when the tab closes: captures a participant's in-progress answers as a response if they close the tab or navigate away before finishing. Refreshing the page doesn't count as closing it. It is turned off while participants can resume later, since leaving no longer ends their response.
• Auto-submit after N days: captures an in-progress response automatically a set number of days after the participant started, whether or not they return.
• Close deadline: on a chosen date, collects every in-progress response for the survey and unpublishes it automatically — useful for a fielding window with a hard end date.

When you turn on Close this survey on a date, you also choose what people see if they open the link after it closes:

• Show a Message: the link shows the survey title and your closed message — for example, where to find results or who to contact. Leave the message blank to use a standard "this survey is closed" note.
• Redirect to Another Page: the link sends people straight to a web address you enter, such as your lab's study page. You can pass along a value from the link the same way end-screen redirects do — https://example.org/closed?pid={{PROLIFIC_PID}} — and if that value is missing, the closed message is shown instead.
• Retire the link after: how long the message or redirect stays up — 1 week, 30 days, 90 days (the default), 180 days, or 1 year, counted from when the survey closes. After that the link is fully retired and shows a not-found page, as if no survey were ever there.

Once the survey has closed, the card shows the date it closed and the date its link retires, and you can still change the message, redirect, or retirement window. Publishing the survey again reopens it and stops the retirement clock.

A newly created survey starts with none of these turned on — partial or abandoned attempts aren't captured as responses unless you turn one on. This keeps a fresh survey's data collection lightweight by default; turn on whichever policy fits your study from the Unfinished responses section of Deploy.

Record the exact date and time collection paused or closed, which links were active, how many responses were collected, which quota cells were open, and whether any mid-field wording, quota, Flow, or end screen changes occurred. Add that note to your codebook so later analysis can separate design changes from respondent behavior.

If the connection drops while checking whether a saved attempt was already submitted, Domandata retries the check. An attempt already submitted automatically cannot silently accept a second set of answers: the participant is told to reload and start a new attempt.

• Panel Recruitment for Surveys
• Survey Incentives and Completion Codes
• Survey Data Quality Checks