The screener

A screener is an optional set of questions shown before the study, used to qualify or disqualify participants and to manage quotas. Build it in the study's Screener tab. If you add no questions, participants go straight to the study.

Every study type has the same screener: card sort, pairwise, Best-Worst and findability studies all offer the same question types, the same qualifying rules, the same quotas and the same Graham import, and participants see the same form. Everything on this page applies to all four.

Question types

Each question can be marked Required, and choice/matrix questions can be set to Randomize option order (with specific options locked in place if you want, e.g. "Other").

Qualifying logic

On choice questions, give each option a role:

• No effect: just collects the answer.
• Qualifying: the participant must pick at least one qualifying option in that question, or they're screened out.
• Disqualify: picking this option screens them out.
• Must select: they must pick this specific option, or they're screened out.

Other controls:

• Mutually exclusive: selecting this option clears the others (e.g. "None of these").
• Number range: on number questions, set min and/or max; answers outside the range screen out. Leave both blank for no screening.
• Matrix Pass / Gate: mark scale columns as a Pass (acceptable answer) and mark statement rows as a Gate (must be answered with a Pass column, or screen out). A gated matrix needs at least one Pass column.
• Conditional display ("show if"): show a question only if a specific option was chosen on an earlier question. Hidden questions never affect qualification.

Quotas

Cap how many qualified participants can choose a given option.

• Set a quota on an option as a count (absolute number) or a percent (of your Target responses).
• When a quota fills, new participants who'd select that option get the "study full" outcome instead of proceeding.

Screeners and the price of bought responses

If you're buying responses from Sorted Research, your screener affects how many people qualify, and therefore the price. Every extra qualifying or disqualifying rule narrows who gets through, so fewer people match and the price per response can go up. A study with no screener (or a light one) qualifies almost everyone and stays cheaper; a strict screener that only a small slice of people pass costs more per response.

You don't need to estimate any of this, the qualify rate is worked out for you automatically, and the live reach and price per response on the Audience and Pre-launch steps update as you add or change screener questions. Whatever price you see is what you pay.

Import a screener with Graham

Already have a screener in a document? Use Import with Graham (a paid feature, Individual plan and up).

• Upload a .docx or .pdf (max 5 MB).
• Graham reads it and produces a draft: questions, types, qualifying/disqualify rules, ranges, quotas, matrix gating, conditional logic.
• You review the draft and apply it. Nothing is added until you confirm. If the document has multiple sections, you can tell it which one to use.

What participants see

The screener opens with "A few quick questions." Required questions are marked. Conditional questions appear/hide based on earlier answers. Qualifying is always re-checked on our servers, so the rules can't be bypassed.

Screener answers in your results

• Segments. The Segment control on the results and analysis views lets you compare people by the answer they gave to a single choice or multiple choice question. Typed answers, numbers and matrix grids are collected but do not make segments, because there is no one option to group on.
• Raw data. The raw data CSV (and the Excel workbook's raw sheet) carries every screener answer on every row: chosen options by label, several joined with " | ", typed text and numbers as typed, and a matrix as "row: column" for each row. The single-participant download for a GDPR request carries the same answers.

Outcomes

After the screener a participant is either qualified (continues to the study) or:

• Screened out: didn't match the criteria. The reason is recorded on every study type: disqualified option, missed a required option, no qualifying option, number out of range, or a failed matrix gate. The participant is told only that the study isn't the right fit, never which rule it was.
• Study full: a quota or your overall target was reached.