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Getting Started

What is FindingFive?

FindingFive is a one-stop platform for running online behavioral research. You can design experiments, recruit participants, and collect data—all in one place.

We give you precise control over the details of your experiments without requiring you to be a programming expert. Randomization, counterbalancing, and other tricky design elements just work out of the box.

We also don't lock you into a specific way of recruiting participants—you can bring your own, use platforms like Prolific or Amazon Mechanical Turk, or tap into our in-house participant pool.

And here's something we're really proud of: FindingFive is a nonprofit run by researchers like you. That means we don't have shareholders pressuring us to prioritize profits over usability. Our only goal is to support the research community!

Why the name "FindingFive"?

Remember the big debates about the replication crisis around 2010? Back then, it became clear that running lots of statistical tests on the same dataset to fish for a p-value under 0.05 wasn't the best way to do science.

So what's a better approach? If a result is truly meaningful, it should hold up across multiple datasets. We built FindingFive to make it easier for researchers to collect more data and confirm their findings. The name is a little nod to that—helping researchers "find five" (p < 0.05) in a way that actually makes sense.

Is FindingFive free for researchers?

Testing out the platform, building experiments, and making sure FindingFive works for you? Totally free.

We're a nonprofit, but we still have bills to pay to keep things running. That's why we charge a small fee—but only when you're ready to launch studies and recruit participants.

We know research funding is tight, so we keep costs low. Our most affordable plan is just $20 a year. You can find more details here.

How does FindingFive compare to other research platforms?

We're different in a lot of ways, but what really sets us apart is our focus:

  • Nerdy (in a good way!): FindingFive is built for behavioral research, by behavioral researchers. Every feature is designed with research in mind—no distractions, just the tools you need.
  • Supportive: Switching to a new platform isn't always easy. Our support team is made up of fellow researchers who volunteer their time to help you get up and running.
Do I need coding experience to use FindingFive?

Not at all!

To build an experiment, you'll use our Study Grammar, a structured format designed specifically for research. Unlike traditional programming, it's based on experimental logic, not programming logic—which makes it much easier to reason through your study design without worrying about syntax or code structure.

For example, here's how you might define a trial template that generates three separate trials, pairing each stimulus with a specific response:

"trial_template_1": {
    "type": "basic",
    "stimuli": ["s1", "s2", "s3"],
    "responses": ["r1", "r2", "r3"]
}

If you've never done any programming before, this format might look a bit like coding (technically, it's a JSON format), but it's actually much more intuitive because it directly follows experimental logic.

And just to be clear—FindingFive's web app itself doesn't require any coding. Everything outside of experiment design works just as you'd expect from a modern web platform!