Reviewing Work
The approval workflow for evaluating participant submissions, including manual review, screening review, and quality controls.
Reviewing submissions is how you ensure the quality of participant work. Terac provides multiple review methods to match different opportunity needs.
Review Methods
| Method | Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Manual review | Every submission lands in your queue and you decide each one | Complex or nuanced work |
| Auto-approve | Submissions that complete the task cleanly are approved without a queue | High-volume, low-ambiguity tasks |
| Self-report | The participant reports completion and that report advances the work | Off-platform work you verify another way |
Your review method is set per opportunity. If you are not sure which you are on, or you want to change it, ask your Terac contact.
Manual Review Workflow
Open the submission
Navigate to the Submissions tab and open the Work review stage, then click a submission.
Review the work
Examine the participant's submission:
- Survey responses
- Uploaded files
- Interview recordings and transcripts
Make a decision
Choose one of three actions:
- Approve - the work meets your standards; the participant is paid
- Reject - the work does not meet standards; optionally provide a reason
- Strike - flag serious quality issues (repeated low effort, dishonesty)
Screening Review
If your opportunity routes applicants to you rather than auto-inviting them, screening responses land in a review queue. For each applicant you can:
- Approve screening - the participant advances to the task
- Reject screening - the participant is screened out
AI-Assisted Screening Review
For screening, Terac can evaluate an applicant's interview responses against the screening policy attached to your research guide and return a recommendation of approve, needs review, or reject. Applicants the policy is confident about are resolved automatically; the rest are routed to a human. See Research Guides.
This applies to screening decisions. Post-task work review follows the review method set on the opportunity.
Auto-Review for External Tasks
When your task runs on a third-party tool and you have configured redirect URLs, submissions are reviewed automatically from the result your tool sends back:
- A
completedcallback approves the submission and triggers the payout. - A
screened_out,quota_full, orrejectedcallback closes the submission without charging you.
If redirect URLs are enabled but no callback arrives, the submission stays in Work review and is auto-rejected after 6 hours. This is why configuring the completion redirect matters: without it, qualified participants are rejected automatically.
Participant Ratings
After reviewing a submission, you can rate the participant on a quality scale. Ratings are visible in the participant's profile and influence their standing for future opportunities. High-quality participants are more likely to be recommended for your next opportunity.
Kick Out
If a participant is problematic (unresponsive, submitting spam), you can remove them from the opportunity using the Kick Out action. This cancels their submission and frees the participant slot.
Reset Participation
In rare cases where a participant needs to restart (e.g., technical issues during a task), you can reset their participation. This returns their submission to the beginning of the task phase.
Resetting participation cannot be undone. Only use this when a genuine technical issue prevented the participant from completing their work fairly.