When should you plan for reserve participants?

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Even when participants have confirmed, circumstances can change. Someone becomes unwell, loses their internet connection or encounters a travel problem on the way to the venue.

Reserve participants give you an agreed option if a confirmed participant cannot take part. The useful question is what arrangement would suit your study and the people involved.

Consider the impact of an absence

• Start with what a missing participant would mean for the research.
• A group discussion may still work with one fewer person, depending on its design. A tightly scheduled individual session could leave a researcher and test station unused. A multi-day study may be harder to recover if someone withdraws after the first day.
• These situations call for different decisions. The research team should determine how much flexibility the study allows, with recruitment advice informing the practical options.

Define what “reserve” means

• The term can describe several arrangements.
• Someone might remain available at home during a particular window. They might attend the venue and wait to see whether they are needed. Alternatively, a suitable person might agree to be contacted if a place becomes available, without committing to immediate attendance.
• Those arrangements offer different levels of cover. A person who might answer a call is not equivalent to someone who has set aside the time and is ready to join.

Agree availability and payment

• Reserves need clear information about what they are accepting.
• That includes when they must be available, whether they need to travel or complete preparation, how they will be contacted and when they can consider their commitment finished.
• Payment should reflect the arrangement and be agreed before they commit. Explain what they will receive for reserve availability and what happens if they are asked to participate.

Check what a replacement needs to match

• A reserve may need to meet a specific quota rather than simply qualify for the study overall.
• If someone withdraws, bringing in another eligible player may still change the intended sample. Agree which characteristics must be matched and where the research team can accept flexibility.
• For longer studies, also consider whether a new participant could meaningfully join after missing earlier sessions.

Decide who makes the call

• During fieldwork, someone needs to know whether to wait, contact a reserve or proceed with the available participants.
• Agree the decision-maker, contact route and timing in advance. That gives the team a practical plan when a session is approaching.
• At Gromotion, we discuss reserve arrangements alongside recruitment and fieldwork support, so clients and participants understand the commitment.

Planning your next study? Get in touch to discuss whether reserves would be useful and how to arrange them.