Join Us supports recruitment for all human research study types from online surveys to clinical trials. As a disease-agnostic register, Join Us supports research for all disease types and conditions.  

For rare conditions, or for those studies with extensive selection criteria, Join Us will conduct a feasibility test to determine whether there are enough potential participants to be matched to a study. 

The Join Us research register can support recruitment for human research studies with ethics approval by an Australian Human Research Ethics Committee. 

If not already mentioned as a recruitment method in your Study Protocol, you might be required to make a general ethics amendment to include ‘Join Us’ as a potential recruitment method. You can choose to submit the ethics amendment after we have determined the request feasibility to identify a list of participants. 

There are currently no costs associated with the use of the Join Us register.

To ensure that the Join Us register can continue its crucial work in supporting the national research effort, all research teams that use our services are requested to track recruitment sources. Research teams will be contacted within 4 to 12 weeks of email invitation distribution for details on the number of participants recruited through our database.  

In order to register your study with Join Us, you will need to complete our online Researcher Access Form. As part of this application, you will need to provide:

• A confirmation of ethics approval for your study.
• The study protocol, which outlines the use of Join Us or third-party online recruitment platforms.
• A summary of your study in lay language, outlining the purpose of the study, eligibility criteria, what is involved, benefits (gift vouchers, etc.), study team contact information and name of study sponsors.
• The participant information statement and consent form for your study
• and any images that have been used to promote the study (if applicable)

Based on the eligibility criteria you provide us with, the Join Us Team will determine if the recruitment request is feasible and can proceed to the next stage.

Following confirmation of the eligibility criteria, the Join Us team will run a preliminary assessment on our database to create a list of potential participants who might be relevant to your study.

Once matched, Join Us sends out personalised invitations to eligible participants, informing them about the research opportunity and inviting them to apply directly to be part of the studies.

Participants have the autonomy to decide whether they want to connect with the research team and take part in the study.

Please note, Join Us can currently only match participants based on select demographics and health related information. Where necessary, Join Us recommends you perform further eligibility screening on participants who express interest in participating in your study. 

Based on the selection criteria which you have mentioned in the Researcher Access form, we will screen participants on the health conditions on the list and any other health conditions which the participants might have added in the ‘free text response field’ on the registration form.

We can also screen participants by age, gender, sex recorded at birth, country of birth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, residential postcode, COVID-19 vaccination status and language spoken at home.

As recruitment is ongoing, the size of the register continues to grow. Currently, there are over 6,850 participants registered.

Join Us has already supported more than 100 research projects from across Australia.

Note: this information is updated monthly.

To minimise the burden on participants, we do not currently send reminders to participants about study invitations. However, studies are also published on the Join Us website, through social media and a select number of studies currently recruiting are advertised through our quarterly Join Us participant newsletter.

People aged 18 years and above living in Australia can register with Join Us . The register has a diverse cohort:

• Around two-thirds of participants are female.
• ~47% are aged 50 years or older
• Participants include those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (~21%), and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (~3%)
• Participants who have recorded/reported health conditions in the ‘Mental and Behavioural Health Conditions and Cognitive Disabilities’ category (40%)
• Participants who have recorded/reported health conditions in the ‘Cardiovascular Conditions’ category (40%)
• Participants who have recorded/reported health conditions in the ‘Bones and Joints’ category (36%)

Note: These figures are not mutually exclusive, and participants may select conditions from several categories. This information is updated monthly.