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Work From Home Doing Internet Research: 12 Jobs to Explore

Author: Holly Reisem Hanna

May 30, 2024 39 Comments

If you’re great at finding the proverbial needle in the haystack, keep reading! We have what you need to know about how to become an online researcher and find work from home internet research jobs!

How to Become an Online Researcher

To work from home as a web researcher, you’ll need excellent internet research skills, superb organizational skills, a high level of attention to detail, and tech savviness. You’ll also need proficiency with applications like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, as these are often used to store research results.

If you’re looking for a full-time research job as a W2 employee, you will likely need a bachelor’s degree in your desired area of expertise. For instance, if you want to work as a remote clinical research associate (CRA) running clinical trials, you need a degree in nursing or another scientific field like biology.

Or, if you want to be an academic researcher, you’ll need a master’s degree or Ph.D. in a specified area of expertise. Or, if you want to do research in the legal field and already have a degree, you can obtain a  paralegal  certificate. If you want a research career that focuses more on editing and fact-checking, you’ll likely need a degree in communications, journalism, or marketing; however, this is not always the case.

Don’t want to get a degree or go back to college? No problem. There are ways for you to work on more generalized research tasks. Options for this route include freelancing, starting your own business, and working as a virtual assistant or data entry clerk, where internet research is a small part of what you do.

Where to Find Internet Research Jobs

You can try searching for internet research jobs on traditional job sites like Indeed or LinkedIn, but these sites are so big that it can be challenging to find these positions. You’ll also have to thoroughly research each job posting, as there tend to be a lot of fake and scammy job listings.

Here are some other sites that I recommend using to find online research jobs.

1. FlexJobs

FlexJobs is a paid online job board that caters to flexible work arrangements. I like FlexJobs because they screen every job for legitimacy, so you never have to worry about falling prey to a scam. They also have great sorting options, so it’s easy to locate what you’re searching for on their website. You can sort jobs by type, schedule, job category, career level, job title, location, or combination. Some keywords you’ll want to explore include internet research, online researcher, web researcher, and research assistant.

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace where you can list and sell your internet research services. When Fiverr first came on the market, the premise was individuals would sell their freelance services for $5 (hence the name). Freelancers would keep $4, and Fiverr would take a $1 administrative fee. Today, freelancers sell their services for anywhere from $5-$10,000 a pop, and Fiverr takes a 20% administrative fee. Fiverr is free to join, and it’s an easy way for you to list your freelance research assistant skills and the niches you specialize in.

3. Robert Half

Robert Half is a staffing agency that is an excellent place for finding those one-off research jobs! When writing this article, they had 110 remote research jobs. Some positions include UX researchers, research administrators, information specialists, paralegals, data entry clerks, and more. On Robert Half, you can find permanent, temporary, and temporary-to-hire positions. Positions are location-dependent, but Robert Half has a remote job search button that makes finding their virtual jobs a snap!

Upwork is a   freelance job board containing different tasks for freelancers to complete. Register for an account (it’s free), search for Internet Research positions, and submit your bid. If your bid is accepted, you’ll complete the work and get paid through the platform, minus a small fee (5% to 20% based on the total sale amount). While many freelancers complain of the low rates on these sites — it can be an excellent way for you to establish yourself in the field and to work with repeat clients. Also, check out this article from Danny Margulies and how he was able to earn six figures from Upwork — he has a smart strategy for using the platform!

Companies That Hire Internet Researchers

5. cannabiz media.

Cannabiz Media hires part-time virtual data researchers to collect, fact-check, and analyze license information in the cannabis industry. Applicants must have a strong business or legal research background, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work 20 hours per week.

• Cannabiz Media gets a 4-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

6. Clickworker

Clickworker is a short task platform and smartphone app where you can make money by completing microtasks like text creation, categorization, copy editing, proofreading, internet research, and more. You won’t be able to earn a full-time income using this platform, but it is a nice way to bring in a little extra money. Sign up for a free account, fill out your profile, complete short skills assessments, complete work, and get paid weekly or monthly via SEPA or PayPal. Before you join Clickworker, be sure to read reviews. Some people have had a great experience with them, others not so much.

• Clickworker gets a 3.4-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

7. DataAnnotation Tech

DataAnnotation Tech hires independent contractors from the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia to help shape AI tools. In these part-time positions, you’ll work on tasks like data collection, data annotation, interacting with chatbots, fact-checking info, writing short-form content, and more. These are entry-level roles; however, you will need to pass an initial assessment and quality test to begin working. But once you’re approved, you’ll have a flexible work schedule, and you’ll earn $20 per hour, which is paid via PayPal.

• DataAnnotation Tech gets a 3.9-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

8. Fancy Hands

Fancy Hands hires independent contractors to provide virtual assistant services to individuals and small business owners. In this position, you’ll work on tasks like scheduling appointments, internet research, data entry, and making phone calls (so it’s not just research). Assistants are paid $3-$7 per task, and payments are distributed every other Tuesday via Dwolla. This is another site that gets mixed reviews, so be sure to do your due diligence before joining. For more companies that hire virtual assistants, check out this post .

• Fancy Hands gets a 3.3-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

BOLD , which owns FlexJobs, is a great place to find legitimate work from home positions. However, they also hire part-time freelance job researchers to research and source legitimate jobs, companies, and opportunities for possible publication on their websites. Pay is $15 per hour, and you must reside in one of the following states: CO, CT, FL, IL, KY, MA, MD, ME, MN, NC, OR, PA, TN, TX, or VA.

• BOLD gets a 4.1-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

10. TELUS International

TELUS International hires online data analysts, sometimes called search engine evaluators , to conduct research on search engine results. In this role, you’ll perform search queries on various terms to verify the relevancy of the provided search engine results. To qualify for these jobs, you must have good research skills and a strong understanding of local and national events and trends. With these positions, you have a flexible schedule, and they hire worldwide, but you’ll be working as an independent contractor, so you’ll need to set aside money for self-employment taxes.

• TELUS International gets a 3.6-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

11. Welocalize

Welocalize is a crowdsourcing company that hires workers for a wide variety of AI services, such as data annotation, data validation, localization, research content writers, translation, video editing, and more. They hire for full-time, part-time, and freelance roles from all around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, the UK, the US, and more! Each position has different qualifying criteria; however, some positions don’t require any prior experience. You can search their current selection of job openings by location, team, or work type.

• Welocalize gets a 3.6-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

12. Wonder Research

One company that hires internet researchers to gather information and find credible sources is Wonder Research . In this role, you’ll work as an independent contractor, earning $8 to $35 per question answered. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and prior research experience. As of right now, they are NOT taking new applicants. However, you can bookmark their career page and check back periodically for openings.

• Wonder Research gets a 3.8-star rating out of 5 on Glassdoor.com.

Start Your Own Internet Research Business

If the above options aren’t what you’re dreaming of, you can always start your own internet research business in the niche of your choosing. Here are some simple steps to get you started.

1. Educate Yourself on Running an Internet Research Business

No matter what type of business you’re starting, you need to educate yourself on the best business practices. Here are a couple of resources that can help you understand and implement the basics for starting and running an Internet research-based business.

• Start & Run an Internet Research Business (Start & Run Business Series)
• Secrets of Becoming an Internet Research Specialist: How to Surf the Web for Freedom and Profit

2. Write Your Business Plan

Once you understand the basics of running a business, you’ll need to write your business plan. Your business plan doesn’t have to be a formal document, but you will want to create a list of steps to take. If you need a business plan template, grab our free template here .

Here are some common questions you’ll need to address:

• How will you structure your business ?
• What should you name your company?
• How will you accept payments?
• Do you need any license or insurance?
• What office equipment do you need?
• How will you handle self-employment taxes and bookkeeping?
• What marketing methods will you use?
• How will you determine your prices?

3. Set Up Shop

After you have the preliminary framework in place, you need to set up your digital footprint, which will include your website and social media profiles. You should also think about which communication, marketing, and organizational tools you’ll need to run your business.

Here are some helpful articles and resources:

• How to Build a Website For Your Home Business
• A HUGE List of Free Resources to Help Run Your Home-Based Business

4. Get Clients

There are many ways to get new clients , but probably the fastest way is to reach out to family, friends, and past colleagues and let them know you started a new business. Just think, if you send an email to 100 contacts, you’ll likely have at least one person who needs or knows of someone who needs your services!

When I started my blog, here is the email I sent out. This is how I was able to build my blogging audience so quickly. Oh, and feel free to use this template and modify it for your business.

Hello Friends & Family,   As many of you know, for the past 16 months, I’ve been researching, writing, and working with a graphic designer to launch a website for women and mothers who would like to work from home.    As of today, all of my hard work has finally paid off, and I’m proud to announce the official launch of The Work at Home Woman! An online resource for women who wish to work from home or become self-employed.   Please visit my site and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions!   I would greatly appreciate it if you could forward this link to anyone you know who could benefit from this site.   Feel free to keep up with The Work at Home Woman, and follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks for your support, Holly

Internet Research Jobs Wrapup

There are many different routes you can take to becoming an internet researcher! Whether you want to freelance, find a telecommuting position, or start your own business, there are many viable options available. Choosing a niche where you have experience will help you hone in on the opportunities that are best suited for your skills.

Originally published January 9, 2015. Content updated May 2024.

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About the Author

Holly Reisem Hanna

Holly Reisem Hanna is a former nurse who decided to start a blog to make money from home while caring for her daughter. Since its inception in 2009, The Work at Home Woman has helped millions of readers find legitimate work at home jobs and business ideas. Under Holly's guidance, The Work at Home Woman was named one of the best websites for your career by Forbes two years in a row. Holly graduated from the University of Texas and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Woman’s World Magazine, CNN, and many others.

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Reader Interactions

39 comments.

March 31, 2023 at 2:46 pm

Hi Holly, your website is excellent and over the top. I am a retired teacher of 35 years and just relocated to another state. I myself am looking for something part time and to work from home. I kind of want to not work with tutoring companies and want to go into a different direction. I was thinking of and enjoyed your article on internet research and I would love to do that maybe with an academic institutions. Can you give me any insight on companies maybe to apply for. I appreciate all you do and I am eager to start something from home partime. Best, Jackie

April 1, 2023 at 9:48 am

Try searching Pearson, Amplify, Stride, Cambium, IXL Learning, Robert Half, Adecco, Flex Professionals, and The Mom Project. You can also explore different colleges and universities.

All the best and keep me posted!

September 26, 2019 at 5:07 am

I would like to be able to work from home and maintain a steady reliable source of income and not worry whether I am going to make rent or not. Please point me in the right direction and who to contact to make this possible for me. Thank you.

September 26, 2019 at 6:34 am

These articles will give you a great place to start your WAH job search:

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/right-job/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/wah-jobs/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/best-work-from-home-jobs/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/work-home-jobs-location/

If you have more specific questions, let me know, I’ll be happy to help.

Good luck with your job hunt!

August 4, 2019 at 11:39 pm

I have Degree in Anthropology and so would like to do Anthropological Research. The idea of freelancing sounds wonderful.

After graduating from college in 2015, I went into Banking, I am currently working as a Learning & Development Officer.

I do not have any field experience aside from the papers I wrote in college.

How can I be credible?

June 1, 2022 at 7:09 am

I have an anthropology degree too! To do academic research, you’ll likely need to go back to school and get a master’s degree or Ph.D. in anthropology. You can try volunteering, to see if you can get your foot in the door. Conducting informational interviews too, can be helpful.

April 18, 2019 at 10:57 am

Hi, I’m interested in learning about online earning. I’ve completed my graduation in English literature. Can you help me how am I doing online making money at home? I have very poor knowledge about this site. How am I increasing my understanding of this site? Please help me…

April 19, 2019 at 6:30 am

The Work at Home Woman is a resource for job leads, ideas, and information.

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/jobs-for-english-majors/

November 1, 2018 at 12:54 pm

I have a political science degree and so would like to do political research and I love the idea of freelancing–working for myself!! But I am most interested in international issues, and I don’t have any experience in government or anything. How can I be credible?

November 2, 2018 at 7:04 am

That’s a great question, Evelyn!

I would see if you could volunteer, intern, or somehow gain experience within this industry. Also, informational interviews (talking to people who are doing what you’d like to do) is a great way to network and build relationships within the niche. Of course, reading and learning everything you can about this area.

Also, check out NextWave: http://nextwaveathome.com/ They have freelance writing (and calling) positions for political and advocacy campaigns — may be a good way to gain some experience.

January 10, 2017 at 6:55 am

Again, I am an SHS graduate in Ghana who couldn’t further my education at the tertiary level but still wants work and ern something little for a living

January 10, 2017 at 9:23 am

The Work at Home Woman is geared toward U.S. residents.

Please check out this post for international listings: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/worldwide-work-from-home-jobs/

November 13, 2016 at 12:53 am

Thanks A lot Holly. As a researcher it’s always good to read something like this.

November 13, 2016 at 4:13 pm

Glad you enjoyed it, Rob! What sort of research do you specialize in?

November 9, 2016 at 12:20 pm

Hi Holly, I am very interested in finding ways to make a steady income online. I have viewed a few sites and even joined some of them. My question is how do I bid, quote, and write a proposal for a job that I’m interested in? I am new to this. Please help!!!

November 10, 2016 at 7:39 am

Hi Vanessa,

There are a couple of ways you can go about it. First, you can go after a list of dream clients, where you search for companies that you want to pitch. Once you have your dream list of clients, you can send them a prospecting email. If you don’t hear back from them, send a follow-up. Once you hear back from them, you can either proceed with additional details and a proposal.

Here is an article for writing a pitch and another for a proposal:

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/write-business-proposal/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/proposal-worth-price/

The second option you have is using a third-party platform like Upwork to search for projects and bid for work. Here is a great article on how to utilize these sorts of sites: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-money-freelancing/

Good luck and keep me posted!

October 19, 2016 at 1:41 pm

Be careful with Wonder. I had a bad experience with them. If you make it through their tests, you have a trial period, where your first five questions are reviewed by an experienced researcher, before your answer is approved and sent to the client. This is supposed to be a supportive learning experience. My first answer experience went great. However, my second answer experience was awful. I worked for two hours on my answer and submitted for review. Instead of the reviewer sending it back to me for updates, it was sent back to the dashboard (it is supposed to go back to the original person that answered, for updates – per Wonder policy), which means that I could not re-claim that question, and I did NOT get paid. It was only my second question!! I was treated completely unfairly, and chose not to work with Wonder anymore. I don’t want any association with any company that treats people in an unfair manner (especially when I was told very clearly, about the trial period – five questions, when applying for the job).

October 19, 2016 at 3:10 pm

Hi Janie, I’m sorry to hear that, but I appreciate you sharing your experience. Up to this point, Wonder has had great reviews. I’ll be sure to keep tabs on them.

February 14, 2017 at 8:27 pm

I believe wonder is a bad place to work for. Janie is right, there is no feedback at all and mostly you loose your time working on projects without getting payed. I sourced a project on money laundry strategies and i found many articles on Clinton’s Foundation and their corrupt business. As soon as I submitted my work I was excluded from the email list, they even changed thecwhole system where youbare asigned topics on a dashboard that you have to claim before reading them, then if you decline them they threaten to penalize with a ban. They claim they still have the email system with project offers running but that is completely disconected from the dashboard and you can claim a project as much as you want from your email list, it is not going to correspond with the dashboard and you basically are losing your time. Then of course , the censorship of the sources….you have to cite only the political correct sources if you source/research on topics that do not focuse on technology and solicit your critical thinking. In other words if you want to really earn money doing research wonder is not the place for you.

January 4, 2020 at 3:02 am

Well we know just how corrupt how practically all of these politicians and their familes can be!!!! They may have some stake in Wonder?

September 11, 2016 at 11:31 pm

I also would love some help as I am very interest in starting a research business from home as I am now disabled and have to work from home. So any help would be greatly appreciated. Tiernanbr3@ gmail.com

September 12, 2016 at 8:51 am

Hi Bonnie, This article shares some preliminary steps to get started: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/10-steps-to-setting-up-your-new-home-based-business/ Good luck and keep us posted.

August 13, 2016 at 11:02 am

My Name is Mary Ann Sheppard and it was great to see this today. I am in the process if starting my second Marketing business. I have worked previously as a Marketing Research Analyst in the Financial Services field for over 15 years. I loved my job. I even set up a corporate library in house and placed info on the corporate Internet that way anyone within the corporation worldwide could obtain info at anytime. Plover bad was 35,000 and I was the only one in house that did the research. I also followed all the banks worldwide. There are many places that need researchers and it is a perfect business to run for home.

I am willing to help anyone in learning how to term their search criteria. It can be frustrating at times but very rewarding. I left when my job transferred from Pennsylvania to Arizona As I Gad 2 teenagers who wanted to graduate with their friends.

August 20, 2016 at 7:36 pm

Good evening Mary, my name is Eva and I am looking for internet research work from home. I’m a stay at home mom of four, two which are still at home, and wife to a truck driver. I feel being a full time stay at home mom/wife qualifies me to work on internet researcher, so if you are offering to help someone learn and/or get into it, I would love to be that person. I’ll let you know though, that I have no extra money for any training, equipment, etc. I can be personally contacted at [email protected] , thank you and have a great rest of your weekend.

October 2, 2016 at 1:59 am

I would be most greatful for help and direction for researcher position. I have been in the finance industry for over 20 years. I would love the flexibility and freedom to work from home or abroad.

Thank you so much

October 20, 2016 at 5:59 am

Dear Mary, I would be most interested in working with you I hope we could establish a work relationship and researching…I’m new to this so I would be grateful for your guidance.

Thanking you in advance.

November 1, 2016 at 6:37 pm

I am interested in learning and maybe start working from home. Please, if you can help me in any way, it will be greatly appreciated.

November 7, 2016 at 11:16 pm

It was nice to read answer. Do contact me at [email protected]

March 11, 2017 at 11:04 am

Hello Mary, I am working at Article one partners as patent and article researcher. I will be able to earn some 50 to 100 dollars monthly as so many are working and our submitted study become duplicate and will not get any reward. I enjoy the search and highlight work, but looking for more compensated kind of work. If anything is available from from your side, please let me know. I am very much interested. I have tried zursh, but I could not earn anything from that site. My email id is [email protected]

April 17, 2017 at 5:28 pm

Good Evening,

I would love any guidance as I have also been in the financial field for many years. [email protected]

Thanks so much! Amy

July 8, 2017 at 12:43 pm

This article his amazing and educative. I have an account with Elance which is currently Upwork but I never got a chance to do any job online, I thought I qualified for one only to realise the client wanted just to get some information from me but anyway I haven’t lost hope.

Thanks alot for the help you are willing to give. I would like to do some research work online and become an expert but no idea on how to go about it. please help

July 10, 2017 at 6:56 am

Glad you’re enjoying the site, Sally. Good luck!

June 4, 2019 at 7:27 pm

How are you? I am interested to learn that how to term search criteria, please email me more details on [email protected]

July 29, 2016 at 9:27 pm

Thanks A lot Holly I really found your article useful.

July 31, 2016 at 10:38 am

Glad you enjoyed it, Jamira!

April 26, 2016 at 3:02 pm

Its really helpful to me..!thanx Holly expecting more detail in next…

April 27, 2016 at 12:56 pm

Glad you enjoyed the article, Hiren.

January 11, 2016 at 5:43 am

a great article

January 11, 2016 at 7:51 am

Glad you enjoyed it, Ken!

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The Work at Home Wife

Helping you work at home and make money online

11 Awesome Online Research Jobs: Get Paid For Being A Know-It-All

March 13, 2019

Online Research Jobs

One form of being a know-it-all is a Serial Researcher. If you’ve always enjoyed learning everything you could – whether by reading an entire encyclopedia or reading a bunch of nonfiction articles on any subject that interests you – you can make your endless curiosity work for you by turning it into a job! Countless industries and jobs depend on research, much of which can be done online: put your skills to work as an industry researcher, expert, or consultant.

Some online research jobs from home are entry-level and require no previous experience in research; however, some better-paying opportunities that are industry-specific may need either formal education or at least formal experience to land. For example, a court researcher should have some background in legal work – or an expert in nutrition might need to demonstrate an education in nutrition or a related subject.

10EQS hires Subject Matter Experts in specific industries, technologies, or functions – to qualify for this position, you should have extensive practical experience with your particular subject. You’ll join their database of prospective experts and have the opportunity to get assigned to live research projects with their clients. You may also have the option to complete these projects over the phone or in person.

IT-Boss Research works with independent contractors (such as yourself!) to complete court research for their clients. This does involve going to local courthouses to find the data required by IT-Boss Research’s clients, but you still have the flexibility to do so on your schedule (within limits imposed by the courthouse’s open hours). They say the average researcher can earn between $10 and $15 hourly, while more experienced court research can pull $25.

Answering Questions  

Of course, maybe it’s not the thrill of internet research that drives you – maybe you just love having the answer to every question! If that’s the case, that know-it-all drive can create an income for you as well. There are several companies online today that sell just such a question-answering service to their clients – whether their questions are complex (companies needing to know if an idea has been done before) or simpler (a student needing help with their homework assignments).

In these cases, it does pay to have a particular area of expertise – but you can still find work even if most of your know-it-all vibe is based on being a skilled practitioner of Google-fu.

Wonder is one of the most popular companies to answer questions for – you’ll see them mentioned quite often. They invite their clients to submit questions, and then their researchers spend a little time finding at least five quality sources that answer that question. Then synthesizing that information into an answer for their clients. You must pass a quiz and complete a sample assignment to work with them.

Rachael Granby, the Director of Research, was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the work-at-home job. Wonder is a marketplace where each research question is priced differently, depending on a variety of factors including how quickly the client needs the research back and how challenging the research question is. Each researcher sets his or her own schedule, chooses which requests to work on and chooses which price points to accept. That’s a long way of saying that each researcher’s earning potential varies based on how much time s/he wants to spend researching each week and which types of requests s/he accepts. Top researchers can earn as much as $35+ per hour, and make up to $2K per month. In addition to the payment, researchers also get the opportunity to work on interesting new projects every day, to learn about new fields, to network with peers all across the world, and to build up a portfolio of research. The two most important criteria are: excellent writing skills and a love of learning. Creative problem solving helps too, as sometimes clients ask for information that isn’t immediately available and then we need to come up with a creative way to guesstimate the answer. For example, a client might ask “How many songs are currently listed on the SoundCloud website?” SoundCloud hasn’t released this data, but there was an article from 6 months ago which had the number of SoundCloud songs at the time, and a separate article which highlighted the rate at which new songs were being added, so it was possible to guesstimate how many songs there are today by using the number of songs six months ago and the projected growth rate over the last six months. Researchers set their own schedules – they can work as often as they want, and as much as they want. A researcher will typically log onto our dashboard to see which requests are available, and then choose a specific request to start working on. Researchers also use Slack, a chat service, to talk to each other about what they’re working on, to ask questions and to share tips. We recommend that researchers answer a minimum of 1 request per week, to keep their skills sharp, and experienced researchers typically answer 5+ requests each week. However, there is no minimum requirement. Researchers are paid via PayPal, every two weeks. In addition to doing research, there are also earning opportunities for researchers who want to review the work completed by others. This involves reading through someone else’s completed research to make sure it fully answered the client’s question, that it’s clear and well-presented, and that it follows Wonder’s formatting guidelines. We pay reviewers $1 for each review they complete. What tips do you have for those wanting to become a Wonder Researcher? a) Read the instructions on the application! I know that seems like a silly one, but it’s amazing how many potentially strong candidates submit applications that make it clear they didn’t read the instructions. For example, we ask applicants to complete one piece of mock research and we include instructions for how to use the right formatting. If you’re interested in joining the Wonder Research Network, use the right formatting! b) There’s definitely a learning curve, so we provide a resource center for all researchers with information about how to tackle different kinds of requests, and we have a community support system where researchers regularly ask each other for advice on specific requests. But the biggest asset a researcher can bring in here is a good attitude – if your English writing is strong, and you’re willing to learn, and you’d like to be part of a collaborative environment with interesting fellow researchers from all over the world, then this is the right role for you.

StudyPool works with independent tutors to help students with their homework assignments – while working with them, you can browse questions in over 30 subjects and offer to help. The company acts somewhat as a facilitator since you get to set your own rates. You also set your schedule; payment is made when you’ve finished helping a given student.

Experts 123 provides a place for you to answer questions by writing articles that show off your expertise, although the pay is not always guaranteed. When writing their base level articles, what you make depends on how much traffic your article receives. You can graduate to higher levels of engagement that offer some guaranteed pay if your articles are amazing.

The answering-questions gig can also be good as a side hustle, with plenty of apps and sites offering cash or prizes in exchange for your answers regarding various companies and services (or even providing some mild technical assistance). Check out companies like Help Owl , FixYa , Weegy , etc .

Ask an Expert

If you’re an all-around expert on a given subject, you can earn an income by offering your services on an Ask an Expert platform. Requirements for these types of sites vary, but some may ask you to prove your expertise via a degree or proof of training. The amount of income you can expect to make in this role varies as well – from how in-demand your subject is to how many people you help. On the plus side, you can entirely set your schedule, and you can even arrange to take calls on the go.

Just Answer – Sign up to offer expert answers via JustAnswer, prove your credentials, and set your hours to get started! Any time a client has a question for your specialty – and you’ve marked yourself as available – you can speak with the client to provide answers. You’ll split the fee with Just Answer.

Maven refers to their experts as microconsulants and offers quick sign-up: just set your hourly rate and answer a few questions. Their system matches you up with their clients’ needs – you may answer questions via writing, talk on the phone, or participate in a project. You can also earn a commission from referrals.

Presto Experts connects you with their clients via chat, phone, or email (you can decide which) to answer questions in your areas of expertise – or perhaps even to provide tutoring. After registering, you’ll create your profile listing your credentials (education, qualifications, etc .) – potential clients can find you when you’re online when they search various categories. Set your own fees!

Clarity allows you to put your expertise to work answering questions for clients through one-on-one phone calls. They mainly deal with freelancers, executives, and entrepreneurs. They pay every two weeks, and you’re able to set your fees and availability through their platform. They take a cut of 15% for facilitating.

I hope I’ve shared a few things with you today you didn’t already know! Now get out there and find your perfect research job from home and answer questions to your heart’s content. I’d also love to hear about your experience with any of these companies – so drop me a note when and if you’ve worked with them!

Related at-home job ideas for a smartypants worker:

• Online Librarian Jobs: Opportunities You Won’t Want to Miss
• Everything You Need to Know About At-Home Paralegal Jobs

About Angie Nelson

Angie Nelson began working from home in 2007 when she figured out how to take her future into her own hands and escape the corporate cubicle farm. Angie’s goal is sharing her passion for home business, personal finance, telecommuting, and entrepreneurship, and her work has been featured on Recruiter, FlexJobs and Business News Daily.

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Home > Best Online Research Jobs For The Curious Mind

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Best Online Research Jobs For The Curious Mind

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: August 12, 2020

Are you looking for a rewarding online job that you can do from home? There are many online research jobs that you can do from the comfort of your own home. Research jobs come in different forms and are geared towards accomplishing different goals. Here’s everything you need to know about landing online research jobs from home.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

What is an online researcher.

Online researchers perform internet research for various companies and industries. They help to solve business problems and answer questions.

When it comes to online research, you can perform entry-level jobs with no prior experience. Or, you can apply for research jobs that are geared towards a specific niche market or interest.

The more specific the job, the more likely it will be that you need to have some particular experience. For example, if you are working as a court researcher, then you will probably need to have some legal experience.

How Does It Work?

Online researchers typically have flexible work schedules, especially if they are freelancers. The company that you work for will provide you with research questions, and you’ll have to search the web or databases for information. It could also be the case that you work for a research firm that will assign you to research projects.

Either way, it works much like any other job. You seek the position you are interested in attaining, apply, and if hired, fulfill the job description as outlined!

Skills Needed

While being an online researcher may not be optimal for every person, it is a great option for many.

However, there are some skills that you should possess if you want to be successful at the job. Some of these skills include:

• A natural inclination towards research
• The ability to assess information’s value
• Critical thinking to know what type of information to look for
• Internet skills
• The ability to clearly communicate information
• Time management

Types Of Research Positions And Where To Find Them

If you type “online research job” into any search, it will populate many different options. From various skill levels to employers, here’s a look at some research titles from the web:

• SEO Associate
• Customer Analytics Reporting
• Intelligence Research Specialist
• Internet Marketing Analyst
• Research Associate

If you wish to work for a specific company, it’s best to go on their website to find out about available positions. Or, you can check on various job boards and freelance networks. Here are a few to get started with:

• Clickworker

How Much Money Can I Make?

Earnings as an online researcher vary. It depends on your level of experience, the employer, type of research, and the overall demand for the area of research.

Some entry-level online researchers earn $10 an hour. With more experience under your belt, you can quickly work your way up to earning $20 an hour for general research projects. When it comes to more technical projects, researchers can earn upwards of $80 per hour.

Like any profession, the more experience you have, the higher pay you can demand. While it’s not mandatory to have a degree to perform online research, it does make you a more qualified candidate for the role.

Additionally, as mentioned before, if the research is subject-specific, then it could require a degree or specific experience within the field.

Photo by Adam Nowakowski on Unsplash

Start your own internet research business.

If you’re an entrepreneurial type or just want the most flexibility possible, then it could be a good idea to start your own internet research business.

One way to go about this is to gain some experience while working from an agency. Then, as you network and hone your skills, you can start to acquire projects on your own.

Once your business feels sustainable enough, you can move to just working for yourself. If need be and your business expands quickly, you can always hire other online researchers to work under your company.

The Bottom Line

Are you an endlessly curious person who loves to learn and share new information? If you want to earn extra cash or even make a living from home, online research jobs might be the perfect fit!

Another good thing about online research jobs is their flexibility. The flexibility is similar to that of attending online college , like the University of the People. You could earn your degree tuition-free online, while also making income online with your research job!

In this article

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone.

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12 Online Research Jobs You Can Apply For Today

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1. What was the first quarter of 2012 revenues for Sturm Ruger?

2. How much did the average U.S. wedding cost in 2019?

If you answered $112 million (surprisingly, NOT the wedding cost) and $33,900, then you may have a bright future as an online researcher.

In this article, learn more about being an online researcher, what it involves, and where you can find online research jobs to apply for.

What Does an Online Researcher Do?

Many publications are moving from print to digital format, placing a significant amount of information online for users to sift through and try to make sense of.

However, despite the rise of powerful search engines such as Google, online information is not always readily accessible.

This is particularly true of technical and scientific data that are often restricted to subscription-based journals and esoteric publications that aren’t listed on page one of Google’s search results.

Likewise, finding correct and relevant information takes time, a luxury that many companies and businesses do not have.

Here are some scenarios that require the job of online researchers:

• A law firm may wish to provide its readers with an article documenting traffic accident statistics per state but not have the time to research every state.
• A debt consolidation company may wish to know about the most common sources of unsecured debt so that it can offer services tailored to those debts.

The solution to such dilemmas has been to hire online researchers who are adept at finding information on a wide variety of topics.

To qualify for online research jobs , you need to be highly skilled in using various search engines (that is, not just Google).

Your goal is to find legitimate peer-reviewed scientific research, industry-specific publications, and various other research materials to gather the information you need.

More than finding and accessing information, online researchers must also have:

• advanced comprehension skills to be able to understand the information gathered,
• exceptional analytical skills to be able to interpret the information, and
• strong communication skills to be able to present the information to those who need it.

How Much Can You Make as an Online Researcher?

At the start, when you’re probably doing more generic online research, $10 an hour is the usual rate.

The pay in this field varies depending mainly on one’s research skills.

But experience and specialized knowledge can be additional factors.

When you eventually get more experience and gain positive feedback from clients, your pay can increase up to $20 per hour.

If you have a master’s or doctoral degree, and advanced or even expert-level on specific, in-demand subjects such as those in the scientific, legal, or financial fields, you can potentially earn $50 to $80 per hour.

How do you get started as an Online Researcher?

You actually don’t need to be a professional researcher to begin this career. The job doesn’t involve

Here’s the basic process online researchers

• Just visit various third-party answer sites. (Don’t worry, I’ll list the legitimate ones below)
• Perform generic Internet research online on a requested topic.
• Submit your results.
• Wait to get paid by the client.

Unfortunately, such work is often low-paid because it is considered unspecialized.

The tasks also usually require a significant amount of time to complete because the subject matter may not be familiar to you and thus involves a steep learning curve.

However, the benefit of such work is that it’s not hard to obtain clients.

12 Places to Find Online Research Jobs

Here are a few sites that offer online research jobs:

Wonder is a resource site for researchers in need of instant feedback for their studies and it’s easily the most prolific site on this list.

As part of the Wonder team, you’ll receive questions directly from customers and your job will be to find the best available information on the topic.

Jobs typically take around 3 hours to complete, making pay range around $15 to $25 per hour, depending on your speed and expertise.

Wonder prides itself on answering questions within 24 hours.

However, be prepared to work under tight deadlines.

Maven allows you to advertise your services as a so-called “micro-consultant” in the fields of your choosing.

You will receive contracts to answer questions and provide insights from all over the world and from all walks of life: from college students doing homework to CEOs making high-impact decisions.

Executives from some of the world’s most prestigious companies, like Boeing or Intel, have used this site.

3. JustAnswer

JustAnswer offers subject matter expert positions in the fields of medicine, law, veterinary science, etc.

To become a subject matter expert, you must show proof of a relevant degree (e.g., M.D.) and/or professional experience. Verification will take a few days.

If you’re admitted, you’ll get started by meeting with JustAnswer experts to learn how to navigate the platform.​

4. Experts123

Experts123 is constantly looking for online researchers and article writers who will create content on their site about topics that users want to know more about.

This site operates on a revenue-share platform where page views amount to a specified amount of money; for example, you might earn $1.50 for each PPM (i.e., thousand page views).

Experts123 does offer upfront payments of $10 to $20 per approved article for more seasoned researchers.

5. PrestoExperts

This company also serves as a platform for those in need of answers to questions in the field of medicine, business, technology, social media, law, and so on.

When invited to join, freelance experts are given a profile where their education, work experience, specialization, and rates are displayed.

Clients could then contact experts directly (via phone, email, or online chat) for a job.

You are in control of your fees, so you may set it by the hour, per project, or so on.

6. Studypool

Studypool invites students around the world to submit questions about every type of subject imaginable so that online researchers (or so-called micro-tutors) can see them, bid on them, and answer them.

You’ll get paid when your answers are accepted.

There are StudyPool volunteers who earn up to $7,500 USD monthly working from home tutoring students.

7. Answeree

Earn rewards by answering questions, which you can exchange for actual dollars.

Earning here takes a bit of time because:

• 1 answer = 10 points
• 10 points = 1cent

You can request payment via PayPal or Binance once you reach $2.

You can make additional money by getting more users to like your answer best of all.

10EQS prides itself on providing on-demand insights and expertise to leaders and decision-makers in different industries.

To qualify as an Industry Expert, you’ll need to have extensive experience with your particular subject.

In other words, this opportunity isn’t for beginners.

That’s also a huge perk if you’re starting an online research career with decades-long experience in marketing, business, accounting, or any other industry.

It’s a perfect side hustle for retirement .

myLot is an enormous discussion board, blogging community, questions and answers hub, social network and online hangout that pays you for your valuable time.

On top earning from answering questions, you also get to earn cash when you participate in discussions.

You can make a payout once your wallet reaches $5.

Anyone can join, as long as you’re 18 years and older.

Anyone can join Weegy, but experts are rated better whenever they contribute excellent answers.

Newbies can keep up by improving their research and written communication skills.

All you need to do is create an account and pass a small True-or-False questionnaire, and you’re good to go.

There also aren’t any limits to the number of questions you want to answer. Just be accurate to earn points, which you can withdraw as PayPal cash once you earn enough to equal $20.

I like the simple interface of Weegy – no busy ads. Just questions and answers directly from the main page.

With over 19 million products, it’s easy to find information about whatever needs fixing.

If you love DIY-ing and fixing appliance and gadgets in your spare time, you can join over 20 million Fixya users in helping others who need quick answers.

Do note that you aren’t paid for answers initially. But if you level up to “Premium Expert Level,” you can be sent special requests for reviews and be paid between $3 and $5 a pop.

You can even help customers on live sessions, which bags higher rates.

12. HelpOwl

There’s competition involved in HelpOwl, so you have to be at the top of your game.

Whenever someone posts a question, HelpOwl experts can then provide the correct answer. The poster will then decide whose answer is correct.

The one picked to have the right answer gets 100 points, while the first answer accepted gets an extra 1,000 points.

There are deductions too! For example, if you added a misleading answer, your profile gets deducted 10 points.

Save points and exchange them into gift cards (Amazon/Walmart/iCard) once you reach 50,000 points.

BONUS Resource: Online Research Jobs Posted on Job Boards

Sites such as FlexJobs , Indeed, LinkedIn, and other job sites list plenty of online research jobs.

Use keywords such as:

• “internet research jobs,”
• “online researcher,”
• “work at home research jobs,”
• “web researcher,”
• “remote research assistant”
• “virtual researcher”
• and other similar keywords to find online research jobs.

The benefit of going this route is that these opportunities are usually full-time or part-time work paid on an hourly basis. Instead of just minimal earnings from get-paid-to sites.

Make extra money while you research

We’re big believers here at optimizing your earnings while you spend time online.

We highly recommend clicking here to create a free account at SwagBucks .

They pay you to use their search engine and the results are provided by Google.

It’s a great way to pull in a little extra cash while researching without changing any of your online habits.

Start Your Own Online Research Business

What if you want to strike out on your own because you don’t want to give up a portion of your earnings to a third party site?

Although it is more challenging, you can start your own Internet research business.

• For example, Carol Tice offers her own freelance writing research and expertise through The Freelance Writers Den as well as private mentoring and coaching .
• Todd Tresidder offers personal finance and investment coaching via his website FinancialMentor .

In both of these cases, Internet researchers who could have continued to sell their services through third-party sites decided to start their own businesses- and reap all the profits (and risks) as a result.

Getting new clients will probably be the trickiest part of starting your own Internet research business.

You will need to create a professional-looking website and business cards.

You will also need to network heavily.

Google Ads and Facebook ads may spark initial interest but in this line of work, a personal approach works best.

Consider joining your local chamber of commerce or civic association and marketing your services to local businesses.

Attend some professional happy hours in your chosen area(s) of expertise. Cold calling may also succeed if you’re comfortable speaking on the phone to business owners who could use your services.

You simply can’t be shy about tooting your own horn in this line of work- and putting an actual face on your business.

If you still find yourself stuck, The Association of Internet Researchers offers plenty of useful advice and networking opportunities for would-be Internet researchers. The AoIR also organizes several yearly conferences that enable you to hone your skills and make vital contacts.

For example, you could benefit by partnering with other AoIR members, gaining their client lists, and expanding your business offerings through them.

An Online Research Job is What You Make of It

You know that saying “you only get out what you put in”? This is certainly true of online research as a career and eventually as a business.

The more expertise and experience you accumulate, the more money you will make as an Internet researcher.

The more you market your services, the more clients you will gain.

If you are satisfied with just making a few bucks by answering Yahoo! Answers questions, then that’s exactly where your online research business will remain even after several years.

On the other hand, if you like helping people and are willing to learn, grow, and sometimes even take a few hits to your self-esteem, then this line of work could eventually become your calling.

You may also want to consider looking into getting paid to answer questions online . It’s a very similar field, but with more opportunities and higher pay rates. Although, you do need a little more specialized knowledge to get the big bucks.

On the other hand, if you have a legal background and like hands-on, up-close-and-personal research, being a court researcher may be more up your alley.

READ THIS NEXT: The EASIEST ways to make money online. See how.

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20 thoughts on “12 Online Research Jobs You Can Apply For Today”

thank you. Im from fiji and a stay at home . This has been very helpful for someone like me . vinaka (means thank u in fijian)

I applied to Wonder three times and never got hired. This company asked you to answer a “rabbit hole” question! I researched, and researched, and got reliable sources. It took a very long time (about 24 hours spread over weeks) to find an answer-and it couldn’t be accurate because the answer probably changed every day-or at least every week! I hope the other companies you have posted are not like this. Because I love to research and it would be my dream job to get paid to do so. I suspect that Wonder used my well-researched answer. So, needless to say, I will not apply with them again.

Don’t work for them. I worked for them six months and then they basically have stupid reasons to not pay me after spending five hours in almost every job I had and they only pay $16 per job. They’re supposed to give you ones abusing to your expertise and I never got that and so I’m trying my hardest to answer the question with their exact format (which is a nightmare) and something would be incorrect and then I wouldn’t get paid anything at all sometimes. When I first started, it wasn’t bad, but it was always stressful.

This is the way that so many people are going in this day and time and that is getting involved in the online world. This is the first time that I have heard about research jobs but it seems to be a field that is worth the investment. I am sure that your readers will love what you are sharing.

I’ve been in Yahoo Answers for quite some time now since i first have my yahoo email during those yahoo messenger times and I didn’t even know that you could earn from there, wow! How do you earn from the page views though, do you mean the pageviews from the thread you create everytime we post a question?

This sounds like it could be a lucrative opportunity for the right people. I suppose the great thing about this sort of job is the fact it can be done globally. For many of us, this is the ideal solution to freeing up our precious time. If this paid slightly more than what you suggest here, I’d image many more people would take up researching jobs. Having said that, it could be the perfect balance for someone that loves researching. By the way Steve, who’d have thought there would be an Association of Internet Researchers!

This is actually the first time I’ve of an online research job, and honestly is sounds very boring lol.

I mean I get that companies will need people like this to help consolidate information for them — but personally I think I would fall asleep if I had to do this to make money.

Have you ever done this kind of work yourself? And if so how did it go?

Great article! The tips are valuable! Great information about making money online!

The right info at the right time can help a lot. Sometimes it is essential for having success, especially in a such a rapidly changing environment as the internet.

Knowing what is working and what not, finding the right program, becoming an affiliate with the right product to service, all this can help to gain success! There are literally thousands, millions of jobs available online today! Choosing the right now is not easy!

You will definitely help anyone to take the proper decision and to choose the right program, product or service!

Thanks for sharing such valuable info!

Best regards!

Hey Steve, nice post. I have to hand it to you, your post really does give people an opportunity to look into other avenues that will make them money. An online researcher isn’t a bad idea and here’s something I didn’t know, there were more companies hiring online researchers than I previously though. Are you an online researcher and if so, how long have you been doing it? I can tell you this, I think I might’ve found another monetary source of income. Thanks buddy.

Thanks Halina. First of all this is just great article. I just landed on this it and I am seriously thinking about to be internet researcher. I also have database querying skills. I can also read research paper along with blogs to read bloggers’ mind to produce some results. I want to start it today, any advice what would be the first step.

great article. i’ve been seriously considering beginning a internet researching service since i do a lot of surfing the internet just as a hobby because i love to learn new stuff, and i also had a job for several years that required me to perform research constantly. only difference was that it was a huge organization that had access to all the information free-of-charge to me. so i have determine which one-stop-shop subcription service to begin with that isn’t too pricey. thanks very much for this article

Really nice article and the information is realistic. Me being a web researcher I can attest to that.

Very well written article with the precise information I was looking for on how to get started as an Internet Researcher.

This is a great guide to making money as an online internet researcher. I have never really thought of this kind of work, but I am glad to be informed on it. If I can get big enough, I will definitely look into getting an internet researcher who can prove beneficial to my cause.

This post shows just how to start a career or even a freelance business as an internet researcher. Great work.

Is the internet research just to make online surveys and sell data to journals or corporates, or there another meaning is to search for information on the web and sell these information to a client who needs it? What is the name of this kind of work?

Yes and no. It could simply be online surveys or literature review for a research problem. Can be simple or complex, basic as well as detailed.

i love this article its very informative and i have learned a lot it will help me improve my job , thanks….

Imshopping does not offer any money for answering q’s. I was just on the site for half an hour and did not see anything claiming that.

Very well explained article. This was very helpful for me while I was writing job description for a researcher in my company. Thanks Regina

Love the article — just what I was looking for. Other articles I’ve read on becoming an internet researcher make it appear too simple or a get rich opportunity, however, your article gives me food for thought. Mentioning the use of subscription based websites and journals is lacking in a lot of the articles I have read on the subject. Thanks for your Insight – Regina

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• If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent .

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• Cite and fully reference all data, program code, and other methods in your article.
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• Follow appropriate international and national procedures with respect to data protection, rights to privacy and other ethical considerations, whenever you cite data. For further guidance please refer to our  research and publishing ethics guidelines . For an example on how to cite datasets, please refer to the references section below.

Prepare your submission

Manuscript support services.

We are pleased to partner with Editage, a platform that connects you with relevant experts in language support, translation, editing, visuals, consulting, and more. After you’ve agreed a fee, they will work with you to enhance your manuscript and get it submission-ready.

This is an optional service for authors who feel they need a little extra support. It does not guarantee your work will be accepted for review or publication.

Visit Editage

Manuscript requirements

Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below. You will also find some useful tips in our  structure your journal submission  how-to guide.

Submit your manuscript

There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.

Double check your manuscript

Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:

• Give the journal aims and scope a final read. Is your manuscript definitely a good fit? If it isn’t, the editor may decline it without peer review.
• Does your manuscript comply with our  research and publishing ethics guidelines ?
• Have you cleared any necessary  publishing permissions ?
• Have you followed all the formatting requirements laid out in these author guidelines?
• If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
• If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, don’t include this work in the reference list.
• Any acknowledgments or author biographies should be uploaded as separate files.
• Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.

You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website  Think.Check.Submit .

The submission process

All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.

The only way to submit to the journal is through the journal’s ScholarOne site as accessed via the Emerald website, and not by email or through any third-party agent/company, journal representative, or website. Submissions should be done directly by the author(s) through the ScholarOne site and not via a third-party proxy on their behalf.

A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the  Create an account  or  Register now  option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.

Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.

Don't forget to add your  ORCiD ID   during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.

Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to  register for a free ORCiD identifier .

Visit the  ScholarOne support centre  for further help and guidance.

What you can expect next

You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please  contact our Rights team .

Post submission

Review and decision process.

Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.

If they think it might be suitable for the publication, they will send it to at least two independent referees for double blind peer review.  Once these reviewers have provided their feedback, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline your work.

This journal offers an article transfer service. If the editor decides to decline your manuscript, either before or after peer review, they may offer to transfer it to a more relevant Emerald journal in this field. If you accept, your ScholarOne author account, and the accounts of your co-authors, will automatically transfer to the new journal, along with your manuscript and any accompanying peer review reports. However, you will still need to log in to ScholarOne to complete the submission process using your existing username and password. While accepting a transfer does not guarantee the receiving journal will publish your work, an editor will only suggest a transfer if they feel your article is a good fit with the new title.

While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.

During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper.  Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you email  [email protected] .

If your submission is accepted

Open access.

Once your paper is accepted, you will have the opportunity to indicate whether you would like to publish your paper via the gold open access route.

If you’ve chosen to publish gold open access, this is the point you will be asked to pay the APC (article processing charge).  This varies per journal and can be found on our  APC price list  or on the editorial system at the point of submission. Your article will be published with a  Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence , which outlines how readers can reuse your work.

All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form.  This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.

Proofing and typesetting

Once we have received your completed licence form, the article will pass directly into the production process. We will carry out editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting and then return proofs to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. This is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.

When the page proofs are finalised, the fully typeset and proofed version of record is published online. This is referred to as the  EarlyCite  version. While an EarlyCite article has yet to be assigned to a volume or issue, it does have a digital object identifier (DOI) and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the journal’s issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.

How to share your paper

Visit our author rights page  to find out how you can reuse and share your work.

To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about  how to promote your work .

Correcting inaccuracies in your published paper

Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our  article withdrawal and correction policies .

Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.

Frequently asked questions

• Christy M. K. Cheung Hong Kong Baptist University - Hong Kong, China [email protected]

Editors Emeriti

• 1995 – 1998: John Peters Emerald Publishing - UK
• 1998 – 2011: David G. Schwartz Bar-Ilan University - Israel
• 2011 – 2016: Bernard J. Jansen The Pennsylvania State University - USA and Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha - Qatar

Distinguished Board of Advisors

• Izak Benbasat The University of British Columbia - Canada
• Alexander Benlian Darmstadt University of Technology - Germany
• Andrew Burton-Jones The University of Queensland - Australia
• Carol Hsu The University of Sydney - Australia
• Bernard J. Jansen The Pennsylvania State University - USA and Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha - Qatar
• Atreyi Kankanhalli National University of Singapore - Singapore
• Matthew K.O. Lee City University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
• Lynne Markus Bentley University - USA
• Chee-Wee Tan Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Hong Kong, China
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Senior Editors

• Yang Chen Southwestern University of Finance and Economics - People's Republic of China
• Juho Hamari Tampere University - Finland
• Zach W. Y. Lee University of Leicester - UK
• Christian Maier University of Bamberg - Germany
• Christian Matt University of Bern - Switzerland
• Xiao-Liang Shen Wuhan University - People's Republic of China
• Ayoung Suh Sungkyunkwan University - Republic of Korea
• Manuel Trenz University of Göttingen - Germany
• Ofir Turel The University of Melbourne - Australia
• Kem Z. K. Zhang Lakehead University - Canada

Associate Editors

• Zhao Cai University of Nottingham Ningbo China - People's Republic of China
• Tommy K. H. Chan University of Manchester - UK
• Xusen Cheng Renmin University of China - China
• Ben Choi Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
• Raffaele Filieri Audencia Business School - France
• Maryam Ghasemaghaei McMaster University - Canada
• Xitong Guo Harbin Institute of Technology - People's Republic of China
• Yaniv Gvili Ono Academic College - Israel
• Nima Kordzadeh Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts - USA
• Satish Krishnan Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode - India
• Hongxiu Li Tampere University - Finland
• Eric T. K. Lim University of New South Wales - Australia
• Yong Liu Aalto University School of Business - Finland
• Jian Mou Pusan National University - Republic of Korea
• Fiona Nah City University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
• Tiago Oliveira New University of Lisbon - Portugal
• Hamed Qahri-Saremi Colorado State University - USA
• Marten Risius The University of Queensland - Australia
• Nick Roberts Oregon State University - USA
• Sebastian Schuetz Florida International University - USA
• Isabella Seeber Grenoble Ecole de Management - France
• Wen-Lung Shiau Chang Gung University - Taiwan
• Barney Tan University of New South Wales - Australia
• Christoph Weinert University of Bamberg - Germany
• Randy Wong The University of Auckland - New Zealand
• Zhijun Yan Beijing Institute of Technology - People's Republic of China
• Frederick Yim Hong Kong Baptist University - Hong Kong

Managing Editor for Marketing

• Grace Gao Hong Kong Baptist University - Hong Kong

Commissioning Editor

• Charlotte Eagles Emerald Publishing [email protected]

Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)

• Nikita Singh Emerald Publishing [email protected]

Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)

• Sivakeerthika Saravanan Emerald Publishing [email protected]

Editorial Review Board

• Muhammad Naseer Akhtar University of East London - UK
• Mamoun Akroush German Jordanian University - Jordan and American University of Madaba - Jordan
• Joonheui Bae The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Hong Kong
• Snehasish Banerjee University of York - UK
• Annika Baumann University of Potsdam - Germany
• Luis Vicente Casaló Ariño University of Zaragoza - Spain
• Hsiu-Hua Chang Feng Chia University - Taiwan
• Wei-Lun Chang National Taipei University of Technology - Taiwan
• Chongyang Chen Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics - People's Republic of China
• Meng Chen University of Science and Technology of China - People's Republic of China
• Xi Chen Zhejiang University - People's Republic of China
• Alton Y.K. Chua Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
• Francesca D’Errico University of Bari Aldo Moro - Italy
• Jie Fang University of Nottingham Ningbo China - People's Republic of China
• Samira Farivar Carleton University - Canada
• Steven M. Furnell University of Nottingham - UK
• Chunmian Ge South China University of Technology - People's Republic of China
• Xiang Gong Xi'an JiaoTong University - People's Republic of China
• Chong Guan Singapore University of Social Sciences - Singapore
• Chris Hand Kingston University - UK
• Maximilian Haug Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences - Germany
• Wei He Texas Tech University - USA
• Fangfang Hou Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University - People's Republic of China
• Kuo-Lun Hsiao National Taichung University of Science and Technology - Taiwan
• Echo Huang National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology - Taiwan
• Tseng-Lung Huang National Pingtung University - Taiwan
• Wendy Wan Yee Hui Singapore Institute of Technology - Singapore
• Lin Jia Beijing Institute of Technology - People's Republic of China
• Hyunjin Kang Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
• Ching-Jui Keng National Taipei University of Technology - Taiwan
• Hamid Khobzi University of Sussex - UK
• Austin Kwak Kent State University - USA
• Antonia Köster University of Potsdam - Germany
• Cong Li University of Miami - USA
• Wenwen Li Fudan University - People's Republic of China
• Yang-Jun Li Beijing Institute of Technology - People's Republic of China
• Yupeng Li Hong Kong Baptist University - Hong Kong
• Chih-Chin Liang National Formosa University - Taiwan
• Binshan Lin Louisiana State University in Shreveport - USA
• Hsiu-Fen Lin National Taiwan Ocean University - Taiwan
• Na Liu The University of Sydney - Australia
• Shan Liu Xi'an JiaoTong University - People's Republic of China
• William Maule Naval Postgraduate School - USA
• Felix Septianto The University of Queensland - Australia
• Rinat Shaanan-Satchi Open University of Israel - Israel
• Rong-An Shang Soochow University - Taiwan
• Chung-Chi Shen National Chiayi University - Taiwan
• Si Shi Southwestern University of Finance and Economics - People's Republic of China
• Donghee Don Shin Texas Tech University - USA
• Garry Wei Han Tan UCSI University - Malaysia
• Ching-I Teng Chang Gung University - Taiwan
• Leo R Vijayasarathy Colorado State University - USA
• Nianxin Wang Jiangsu University of Science and Technology - People's Republic of China
• Xiaohui Wang City University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
• Yi Wu Tianjin University - People's Republic of China
• Nannan Xi Tampere University - Finland
• Vignesh Yoganathan Queen Mary University of London - UK
• Jie Yu (Joseph) University of Nottingham Ningbo China - People's Republic of China
• Chian-Son Yu Shih Chien University - Taiwan
• Xiabing Zheng University of Science and Technology of China - People's Republic of China
• Hangjung Zo Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - Republic of Korea

Citation metrics

CiteScore 2023

Further information

CiteScore is a simple way of measuring the citation impact of sources, such as journals.

Calculating the CiteScore is based on the number of citations to documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, and data papers) by a journal over four years, divided by the number of the same document types indexed in Scopus and published in those same four years.

For more information and methodology visit the Scopus definition

CiteScore Tracker 2024

(updated monthly)

CiteScore Tracker is calculated in the same way as CiteScore, but for the current year rather than previous, complete years.

The CiteScore Tracker calculation is updated every month, as a current indication of a title's performance.

2023 Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor is published each year by Clarivate Analytics. It is a measure of the number of times an average paper in a particular journal is cited during the preceding two years.

For more information and methodology see Clarivate Analytics

5-year Impact Factor (2023)

A base of five years may be more appropriate for journals in certain fields because the body of citations may not be large enough to make reasonable comparisons, or it may take longer than two years to publish and distribute leading to a longer period before others cite the work.

Actual value is intentionally only displayed for the most recent year. Earlier values are available in the Journal Citation Reports from Clarivate Analytics .

Publication timeline

Time to first decision

Time to first decision , expressed in days, the "first decision" occurs when the journal’s editorial team reviews the peer reviewers’ comments and recommendations. Based on this feedback, they decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript.

Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024

Acceptance to publication

Acceptance to publication , expressed in days, is the average time between when the journal’s editorial team decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript and the date of publication in the journal. 

Data is taken from the previous 12 months (Last updated July 2024)

Acceptance rate

The acceptance rate is a measurement of how many manuscripts a journal accepts for publication compared to the total number of manuscripts submitted expressed as a percentage %

Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024 .

This figure is the total amount of downloads for all articles published early cite in the last 12 months

(Last updated: July 2024)

This journal is abstracted and indexed by

• ABI/INFORM Complete
• ABI/INFORM Global
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This journal is ranked by

• The Chartered Association of Business Schools' Academic Journal Guide: 3
• Australian Business Deans Council: A 
• BFI (Denmark): 2
• German Association for Business Research (VHB) Publication Media Rating: B
• The Publication Forum (Finland): 2

Reviewer information

Peer review process.

This journal engages in a double-anonymous peer review process, which strives to match the expertise of a reviewer with the submitted manuscript. Reviews are completed with evidence of thoughtful engagement with the manuscript, provide constructive feedback, and add value to the overall knowledge and information presented in the manuscript.

The mission of the peer review process is to achieve excellence and rigour in scholarly publications and research.

Our vision is to give voice to professionals in the subject area who contribute unique and diverse scholarly perspectives to the field.

The journal values diverse perspectives from the field and reviewers who provide critical, constructive, and respectful feedback to authors. Reviewers come from a variety of organizations, careers, and backgrounds from around the world.

All invitations to review, abstracts, manuscripts, and reviews should be kept confidential. Reviewers must not share their review or information about the review process with anyone without the agreement of the editors and authors involved, even after publication. This also applies to other reviewers’ “comments to author” which are shared with you on decision.

Resources to guide you through the review process

Discover practical tips and guidance on all aspects of peer review in our reviewers' section. See how being a reviewer could benefit your career, and discover what's involved in shaping a review.

More reviewer information

Calls for papers

Ai for a better future.

Click here to Submit! Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) is permeating individuals’ daily live...

Thank you to the 2022 Reviewers

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2022 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

Thank you to the 2021 Reviewers

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2021 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence 2021

We are pleased to announce the 2021 winners of the Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence. The awards celebrate and reward the outstanding contributions of our authors, reviewers, and editorial ...

Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence 2015-2020

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence in 2015 - 2020. The awards celebrate and reward the outstanding contributions of o...

Literati awards

Internet Research - Literati Award Winners 2023

We are pleased to announce our 2023 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper Laziness as an explanation for the privacy paradox: a longitudinal ...

Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence 2022

We are pleased to announce the 2022 winners of the Internet Research Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence. The awards celebrate and reward the outstanding contributions of our authors, reviewers, and editorial team....

Internet Research - Literati Award Winners 2021

We are pleased to announce our 2021 Literati Award winners.   Outstanding Paper Wang, X. and Song, Y. (2020), "Viral misinformation and echo chambers: the diffusion of rumors about genetically mo...

Internet Research - Literati Award Winners 2020

We are pleased to announce our 2020 Literati Award winners.   Outstanding paper Hornik, J., Shaanan Satchi, R. and Rachamim, M. (2019), "The joy of pain: A gloating account of negative electronic...

This wide-ranging interdisciplinary journal looks at the social, ethical, economic, managerial and political implications of the internet. Recent issues have focused on metaverse, interpretable AI, digital health, online and mobile gaming, the sharing economy, and the dark side of social media.

Aims and scope

Internet Research is an international, refereed journal that aims to describe, assess and foster understanding of the role of wide-area, multi-purpose computer networks such as the Internet.

The Internet continues to gather influence and momentum, and it becomes increasingly important to be aware of the potential applications of this powerful resource throughout professional, political, personal and academic life. We therefore strongly encourage research that develops theoretical insights and understanding on topics and issues addressing the potential social, ethical, economic, managerial and political implications which arise from mass public access to information resources.

Coverage includes but is not limited to:

• Societal and ethical issues (e.g., internet addiction, doxing, cyberbullying, misinformation, fear of missing out)
• Economic implications (e.g., electronic commerce, mobile commerce, and social commerce)
• Managerial and organisational issues (e.g., Internet use practices, cyberloafing, management policies and governance mechanisms)
• Political implications (e.g., civic engagement, collective action, Internet-related policy research) 

Latest articles

These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: July 2024)

Seeking Social Support on Social Media: A Coping Perspective

The role of omnichannel integration and digital value in building brand trust: a customer psychological perception perspective, platform control and multi-realized platform benefits: a meta-analysis, top downloaded articles.

These are the most downloaded articles over the last 12 months for this journal (Last updated: July 2024)

AI Governance: Themes, Knowledge Gaps, and Future Agendas

Personal use of smartphones in the workplace and work-life conflict: a natural quasi-experiment, examining technostress and its impact on worker wellbeing in the digital gig economy.

These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: July 2024)

Exploring the association between the Proteus effect and intention to play massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)

A review of the literature on the metaverse: definition, technologies, and user behaviors, enterprise social media usage and social cyberloafing: an empirical investigation using the jd-r model, related journals.

This journal is part of our Information & knowledge management collection. Explore our Information & knowledge management subject area to find out more.  

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More From Forbes

Beyond The Metaverse: Top Immersive Internet Trends For The Next Decade

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Do you remember what the internet of the past looked like? Static webpages that took an age to load, blurry JPG images and lots of garishly colored text and backgrounds, those were the days!

Well, the internet of 2035 will look as different from today’s internet as today’s internet looks from that.

In the twenty-plus years that it has dominated our lives, the internet has evolved to become more immersive, accessible, user-friendly and social. Although it’s difficult for anyone to predict anything as far as ten years into the future, one thing I’m sure of is that this evolution will continue.

Ten years ago, if you’d asked someone what the internet is, they would have been pretty sure it revolved around web pages viewed on a computer screen. Today, the online experience is built around apps, devices, streaming services and virtual worlds. Thanks to advances in augmented reality (AR), we even see it encroaching into the real world.

So, gazing into my long-distance crystal ball, here are five of the trends that I believe will define what it means to be “online” as we head toward the year 2035. And – spoiler alert – yes, there will probably still be cat memes.

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Over the next decade, we are only going to see the internet get more immersive and capable of filling more of our day-to-day needs. Whether that be working, relaxing, playing, shopping or socializing with friends. By 2035, the concept of “being offline” probably won’t mean a lot. Even if we aren’t staring at a screen (an interface that’s becoming less common ), we’re interacting with virtual and online environments through data flowing to us via a myriad of devices, possibly even including chips implanted into our brains .

It's no wonder that by this point, the distinction between the real, physical world and the digital, connected world is practically non-existent. Augmented reality interfaces will bring digital information to life in front of our eyes, overlaying computer-generated imagery no matter where we are or what we are doing. And the concept of logging or signing in to a virtual space will seem wildly outdated, as machines automatically authenticate us using biometrics without us even noticing. This will put to bed the idea that’s persisted for a few decades of humans becoming increasingly screen-bound, isolating inside darkened rooms or existing in virtual reality, Ready Player One style. The internet and the virtual world will be all around us, entwined with the real world – which is perhaps an even scarier concept!

An End To Ecosystems?

So Meta (formerly Facebook)’s attempt to annex the emerging virtual domain that we once referred to as “the metaverse” (although I never liked that term myself) seems to have stalled. In 2024, users want virtual worlds – not walled-in virtual gardens – and in 2035, that won’t be any different. Rather than be tied into any particular ecosystem – be that iPhones or Android, Xbox or Playstation – users will expect cross-platform compatibility and seamless connectivity, no matter what hardware or operating system is chugging away behind the scenes.

This means, for example, that users will be able to take their avatar from Fortnite, along with the trophies and rewards they’ve gained, and effortlessly manifest them into Roblox. For a slightly more grown-up example, think of your Slack or Zoom conversations and contacts seamlessly integrating into MS Teams – or whatever equivalent of these tools we're all using in 10 years' time.

This might all be facilitated by a move towards open, decentralized ecosystems – perhaps built on blockchain technology – as more of us become aware of the dangers of giving companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple ownership of our online lives and identities.

Virtual Healthcare

It is becoming increasingly common for us to go online to receive medical care or treatment. Contributing factors include the coronavirus pandemic, aging populations and the worldwide shortage of medical professionals.

All of this will mean that online healthcare will be a big part of our lives by 2035. Patients and healthcare providers will meet less frequently but be more closely connected than ever, thanks to the wealth of data that will be collected by devices we wear and even cameras in our homes (watching for declining activity levels in elderly people or falls in the home, for example.) Many more of us will experience time as patients in a virtual hospital, where we will be closely monitored and receive personalized care in the comfort of our homes.

At the same time, all of this data will be used to build increasingly sophisticated digital twins of our bodies, meaning that treatment will be personalized and targeted at our specific conditions. Questions around healthcare data and who owns the information about our condition and wellbeing will be more prescient than ever, but solutions based on blockchain and decentralized record keeping may help us retain control and stewardship.

One major benefit will be that we are no longer tied to receiving care from experts in our locality or making long and costly journeys to be treated by experts around the world. And VR or AR will mean we can be treated online for many of our pain management, mental wellness or physiotherapeutic needs.

Virtual Economies And Digital Ownership

By 2035, virtual products and goods will be just as desirable and in demand as the most limited edition sneakers or VIP Taylor Swift tickets are today. And why shouldn’t they be? To the teenagers of tomorrow, bragging rights will apply to possessions in the digital domain as much as they do in the physical.

From virtual real estate to digital certificates and collectibles, these assets will hold real-world value, creating new economies and transforming online business, gaming and socializing. This will foster the development of new business models, providing virtual goods and services as well as access to online events like virtual concerts and experiences. The creator economy that we are already seeing develop around platforms like Roblox will be a bigger part of our lives. Much of this will be thanks to the democratization of digital creativity enabled by generative AI and emerging low-code/no-code tools. This has the potential to increase access to opportunity, allowing individuals from diverse social and economic backgrounds to participate in building the future of online experience.

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Discover HKBU

Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy:, a transformative approach to mental health.

31 Jul 2024

While the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, it has put the world mental health situation in the spotlight. With rates of depression and anxiety rising, countless individuals are struggling to access the support and treatment they need. Amidst this sombre landscape, a digital transformation in mental healthcare is offering new hope.

An internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) programme developed by a research team led by Dr Pan Jiayan , Associate Professor of the Department of Social Work, has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in improving mental health of Hong Kong university students. The project was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science and the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has long been hailed as a highly effective first-line psychological treatment, particularly for depression and anxiety. In recent years, the advent of online platforms has made CBT even more accessible and convenient for individuals seeking support.

“CBT typically follows a structured format with a shorter duration and better effects compared to other therapies, which makes it more accessible, acceptable and cost-effective for clients,” explains Dr Pan.

The enduring effects of iCBT

Named “REST Online”, the 10-week guided iCBT programme is a goal-oriented psychotherapy that helps people cope with life challenges by adjusting their patterns of thinking or behaviour. It comprises eight online modules, featuring briefing and debriefing of CBT skills, case demonstration videos, online assignment and assessment. Each participant is paired with a therapist who conducts two face-to-face or online counselling sessions as well as gives feedback on participants’ assignment. The results show a significant alleviation of psychological distress, depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as negative thoughts and emotions, and a notable increase in positive thoughts and emotions for participants who completed the programme. Above all, the positive effects of the programme were sustained at the three-month follow-up assessment.

“These findings are extremely encouraging, because they show that iCBT isn’t just a short-term fix; it can produce a lasting change in people's mental well-being,” notes Dr Pan.

On her own professional journey, Dr Pan became interested in cognitive therapy when she took a CBT course in her Master of Social Science in Social Work Programme. Upon graduation, she furthered her studies with more advanced professional training courses organised by Institute of Cognitive Therapy in Hong Kong. Since then, she has been using CBT to work with Chinese clients in her research projects for 10 years.

“For the past five years, I’ve been leveraging innovative technology to develop iCBT and virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) in my work with Hong Kong university students and adults with symptoms of depression and social anxiety, to help them cope with their mental health issues,” Dr Pan says.

For students grappling with the challenges of higher education, or anyone struggling with depression or anxiety, the advent of iCBT couldn't have come soon enough. By harnessing the power of technology, programmes like REST Online are proving that life-changing psychological support can be delivered remotely, on-demand, and at scale - a breakthrough that is poised to transform the landscape of mental healthcare worldwide.

Dr Pan’s next steps will be to contact the counselling service teams in Hong Kong universities to explore the possibilities of integrating the REST Online programme in their current services.

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Social media can in fact be made better: Research shows it is possible to reward users for sharing accurate information instead of misinformation

Ph.D. Student in Social Psychology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Management, Yale University

Provost Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Business, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and University of Southern California provide funding as members of The Conversation US.

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Is social media designed to reward people for acting badly ?

The answer is clearly yes, given that the reward structure on social media platforms relies on popularity, as indicated by the number of responses – likes and comments – a post receives from other users. Black-box algorithms then further amplify the spread of posts that have attracted attention.

Sharing widely read content, by itself, isn’t a problem. But it becomes a problem when attention-getting, controversial content is prioritized by design. Given the design of social media sites, users form habits to automatically share the most engaging information regardless of its accuracy and potential harm. Offensive statements , attacks on out groups and false news are amplified, and misinformation often spreads further and faster than the truth .

We are two social psychologists and a marketing scholar . Our research , presented at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit , shows that social media actually has the ability to create user habits to share high-quality content. After a few tweaks to the reward structure of social media platforms, users begin to share information that is accurate and fact-based.

The problem with habit-driven misinformation-sharing is significant. Facebook’s own research shows that being able to share already shared content with a single click drives misinformation. Thirty-eight percent of views of text misinformation and 65% of views of photographic misinformation come from content that has been reshared twice, meaning a share of a share of a share of an original post. The biggest sources of misinformation, such as Steve Bannon’s War Room , exploit social media’s popularity optimization to promote controversy and misinformation beyond their immediate audience.

Re-targeting rewards

To investigate the effect of a new reward structure, we gave financial rewards to some users for sharing accurate content and not sharing misinformation. These financial rewards simulated the positive social feedback, such as likes, that users typically receive when they share content on platforms. In essence, we created a new reward structure based on accuracy instead of attention.

As on popular social media platforms, participants in our research learned what got rewarded by sharing information and observing the outcome, without being explicitly informed of the rewards beforehand. This means that the intervention did not change the users’ goals, just their online experiences. After the change in reward structure, participants shared significantly more content that was accurate. More remarkably, users continued to share accurate content even after we removed rewards for accuracy in a subsequent round of testing. These results show that users can be given incentives to share accurate information as a matter of habit.

A different group of users received rewards for sharing misinformation and for not sharing accurate content. Surprisingly, their sharing most resembled that of users who shared news as they normally would, without any financial reward. The striking similarity between these groups reveals that social media platforms encourage users to share attention-getting content that engages others at the expense of accuracy and safety.

Engagement and the bottom line

Maintaining high levels of user engagement is crucial for the financial model of social media platforms. Attention-getting content keeps users active on the platforms . This activity provides social media companies with valuable user data for their primary revenue source: targeted advertising.

In practice, social media companies might be concerned that changing user habits could reduce users’ engagement with their platforms . However, our experiments demonstrate that modifying users’ rewards does not reduce overall sharing. Thus, social media companies can build habits to share accurate content without compromising their user base.

Platforms that give incentives for spreading accurate content can foster trust and maintain or potentially increase engagement with social media. In our studies, users expressed concerns about the prevalence of fake content, leading some to reduce their sharing on social platforms. An accuracy-based reward structure could help restore waning user confidence .

Doing right and doing well

Our approach, using the existing rewards on social media to create incentives for accuracy, tackles misinformation spread without significantly disrupting the sites’ business model. This has the additional advantage of altering rewards instead of introducing content restrictions , which are often controversial and costly in financial and human terms .

Implementing our proposed reward system for news sharing carries minimal costs and can be easily integrated into existing platforms. The key idea is to provide users with rewards in the form of social recognition when they share accurate news content. This can be achieved by introducing response buttons to indicate trust and accuracy. By incorporating social recognition for accurate content, algorithms that amplify popular content can leverage crowdsourcing to identify and amplify truthful information.

Both sides of the political aisle now agree that social media has challenges, and our data pinpoints the root of the problem: the design of social media platforms.

• Social media
• Misinformation
• Social media algorithms
• Online misinformation

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University of Washington Information School

Boredom drives teens' Instagram use, research finds

Concern that social media is driving the teen mental health crisis has risen to such a pitch that the majority of states in the country have filed lawsuits against Meta (which owns Instagram and Facebook) and the U.S. surgeon general called last month for warning labels on platforms , similar to those on tobacco.

New research from the University of Washington finds, though, that while some teens do experience negative feelings when using Instagram, the dominant feeling they have around the platform is boredom. They open the app because they’re bored. Then they sift through largely irrelevant content, mostly feeling bored, while seeking interesting bits to share with their friends in direct messages — the most constant source of connection they found on the platform. Then, eventually bored with what researchers call a “content soup,” they log off.

The study tracked the experiences of 25 U.S. teens moment by moment as they used the app. Teens leaned on a few techniques to stabilize their experiences — such as using likes, follows and unfollows to curate their feeds, and racing past aggravating content. The researchers used these results to make a few design recommendations, including prompts to cue reflection while using the app or features that clarify and simplify how users can curate their feeds.

The team presented its research on June 18 at the ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference in Delft, Netherlands.

“A lot of the talk about social media is at the extremes,” said lead author Rotem Landesman , a UW doctoral student in the Information School. “You either hear about harassment or bullying — which are real phenomena — or this kind of techno-utopian view of things, where companies like Meta, among others, seem to say they are thinking about well-being constantly but we’ve yet to see concrete results of that. So we really wanted to study the mundane, daily experience of teens using Instagram.”

To capture this in-the-moment experience, the team first trained the participants in mindfulness techniques and had them download an app called AppMinder. The simple interface, which the researchers developed, would pop up five minutes after the teens started using Instagram and have them fill out a quick survey about how they were feeling emotionally and why. The pop-ups came once every three hours. Teens were supposed to use Instagram and fill out at least one response a day for seven days, though many submitted multiple responses each day.

Finally, researchers interviewed teens about their responses and had them open Instagram again and narrate how they were feeling in real time and explain how they were experiencing certain features.

“We saw teens turning to Instagram in moments of boredom, looking for some kind of stimulation,” said co-senior author Alexis Hiniker , a UW associate professor in the iSchool. “They were finding enough moments of closeness and connection with their friends on the app to keep them coming back. That value is definitely there, but it’s really buried in gimmicks, attention-grabbing features, content that’s sometimes upsetting or frustrating, and a ton of junk.”

Much of what Instagram’s algorithm served up was not what the teens were looking for. Yet they’d keep wading through hundreds of posts to find a single meme or piece of fashion inspiration to share with their friends. Overall, they found the most value in the app’s direct message function, not in this scrolling.

Because they found value in specific experiences, teens employed several mitigation strategies to focus their time on the app:

• Trying to curate their feeds to emphasize posts that made them feel good rather than bad or bored, by following, unfollowing, hiding and liking
• Scrolling quickly, skipping or logging off when content made them feel bad
• Toggling Instagram features — hiding like-counts, turning off certain notifications — to reduce negative emotions

“Instagram’s push notifications and algorithmically curated feeds forever hold out the promise of teens experiencing a meaningful interaction, while delivering on this promise only intermittently,” said co-senior author Katie Davis , a UW associate professor in the iSchool. “Unfortunately, it’s much easier to identify the problem than to fix it. The current business model of most social media platforms depends on keeping users scrolling as often and for as long as possible. Legislation is needed to compel platforms to change the status quo.”

Based on their findings, the researchers offered three design changes to improve teens’ experiences:

• Notifications, like those from AppMinder, that prompt teens to consider what they’re on Instagram to do and to reflect in the moment
• Features that make curating feeds easier, such as a “This is good for me” button that clearly highlights positive content
• The use of data to track signs of well-being and its opposite — for example, tracking when users skip past content or log off and pairing this with other data

This summer, the team will take the data from the study and examine it with a separate group of teens, aiming for further insights and recommendations.

“It is not and should not be the sole responsibility of teens to make their experiences better, to navigate these algorithms without knowing how they work, exactly,” Landesman said. “The responsibility also lies with companies running social media platforms.”

Additional co-authors include Jina Yoon , a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering; JaeWon Kim , a UW doctoral student in the iSchool; Daniela E. Muñoz Lopez , a UW doctoral student in psychology; and Lucía Magis-Weinberg , a UW assistant professor of psychology. This research was partially funded by the Oread Fund and the CERES network.

For more information, contact Landesman at [email protected] , Hiniker at [email protected] and Davis at [email protected] .

This story was first published by UW News.

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