Information for Researchers
Join Us is a not-for-profit national research register providing researchers with access to a database of Australian volunteers aged 18 years and older who have pre-consented to be contacted about relevant health research opportunities.
Join Us can help researchers with Australian ethics committee approval to connect with suitable study participants. Participants are matched to research projects using information provided at registration, including demographic and health related information.
Learn more about the researcher application process and complete the online Researcher Access Form here.
Further information can be found on the researcher FAQs page. You can email the Join Us team at [email protected].
The Join Us Research Register is currently cost-free.
What do researchers need to know?
Join Us supports recruitment for all human research studies.
Any researcher with relevant ethics approval can request use of the Join Us database by completing an online Join Us Researcher Access Form.
A Researcher Access Request can take up to ten weeks to process.
Please note, this can be extended if there are changes to the initial request submission.
Note: Join Us is taking a short break and will resume processing research access requests at the end of January 2025. You are still able to submit a Researcher Access Form, however please be aware of the extended timeframe for processing. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
The Register Access Application Process
Following submission, Join Us will perform a feasibility test to determine if recruitment support can be provided. Join Us will then confirm the eligibility criteria to determine how many participants may be eligible to take part.
Join Us will also prepare an email invitation for potential participants to learn more about the study. This email will contain links to the study website, a description of the study and who can participate, and the contact details of the research team. A dedicated webpage for the research study will also be created. Following the research team’s approval of these documents, the email invitations will be distributed to all matched participants. This process can take up to 10 weeks.
Note: Join Us is unable to monitor participant behaviour following the distribution of email invitations due to ethics and privacy protocols. Once email invitations are sent out, participants contact the research team at their discretion. At this stage it is not possible for follow-up or reminder emails to be sent to matched participants
Research teams will be contacted within 4 to12 weeks of email invitation distribution for details on the number of participants recruited through the Join Us database, and any other feedback.
