Cross-cultural study on love and well-being
For collaborators
The study is run by a network of researchers who each collect data in their own country. Here are the terms, what the application asks, and the answers to the questions we get most often.
The terms
What you do
- Proof-read the survey translation in your language; the first draft is prepared for you.
- Obtain ethics approval at your institution, or confirm you can work under the approval granted in Wrocław.
- Collect data from at least 30 couples through a personal online link. Students, survey panels and your own networks are all fine.
- Comment on the manuscripts the core team drafts.
What you get
- One co-authorship slot for every 30 couples (60 participants).
- Data from 100 couples earns co-authorship on every paper the core team writes from the project.
- Early access to the full dataset for your own research questions, after pre-registration.
- Authorship order set by contribution, with the rules published in advance.
How long it takes
- Data collection starts in September 2026; the team is being formed now.
- From a few hours spread over several months to twenty or more, depending on how you recruit.
- First publications are planned 24 to 30 months after the start, with pre-prints earlier.
How many couples, how many papers
Move the slider to the number of couples you can realistically reach.
What the application asks
It takes about 10 minutes, in two steps, and you can save a draft and finish later. Your account is created when you submit, so you can follow the status of your application.
Applications are reviewed by the core team. You will hear back within two weeks, and the approval email sets out the next steps: your researcher code, the ethics protocol and the recruitment guide.
- 1About you
Name, country, ORCID if you have one, and a professional page.
- 2Your institution
University or institute, department, position, and an institutional email.
- 3Research background
The languages you can collect data in and your areas of interest.
- 4Participation
The roles you want to take on and how many couples you expect to reach.
- 5Agreements
Consent to the collaboration terms, data sharing and project communication.
Questions and answers
About the study
Well-being and love within romantic relationships, together with several related constructs that allow additional research questions. Data are collected at a single time point; some team members will also run a longitudinal component by recruiting the same participants twice over three months.
The core team consists of scholars experienced in large-scale cross-cultural research, including Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski and their team.
No more than 20 minutes.
At least five, in high-impact journals, with the final paper being a data descriptor.
Yes. The English survey is shared on request; write to the principal investigator at marta7kowal@gmail.com.
Authorship and contribution
That depends on you. The minimum for co-authorship is data from 30 couples (60 participants). To secure more slots, collect data from 100 couples (200 participants).
By collecting data. Every 30 couples earns one co-authorship slot: 60 couples for two papers, 90 for three. Data from 100 couples earns co-authorship on all future publications the core team writes from this project. You can also write your own paper using the collected data; see the question on your own research questions.
By contribution, under three rules. 1. The core team, which leads the project, takes the first and the last positions. 2. The number of couples collected determines the number of slots and the order. 3. Where numbers are similar (within about 100 participants), tiers apply: substantial contribution to revising the final manuscript; leading both the translation and the data collection team; leading the translation team; leading the data collection team; helping with translation and collecting data; collecting data.
As many as you want. The rule of 30 couples per slot applies to each individual scholar, so a team of three that wants one slot each must collect data from 90 couples (180 participants), or from 300 couples for all three to be co-authors on every publication.
Our previous cross-cultural projects were seen through to publication, for example Kowal et al. (2025) in Scientific Data with 117,293 participants from 175 countries, Kowal et al. (2024) in Human Nature across 90 countries, and the TLS-15 validation across 37 languages in Archives of Sexual Behavior. This project aims for at least five papers plus a data descriptor.
Data collection and method
By sending your participants the link to the online survey. If you need participant codes, redirection links or ID capture for panels such as Prolific or MTurk, that can be arranged. We ask for samples as diverse as possible in age, gender, residence and socioeconomic background, inside and outside academia.
In principle everyone uses the main online survey. The exception is a target population without internet access; contact us to discuss a protocol.
You receive detailed instructions. The initial translation is prepared with AI; your role is to proof-read it and make the necessary changes.
The main survey cannot take more questions. You are welcome to add your own questions at the very end of the survey link used by your participants.
No. You can collect data from several countries.
No problem. Those who collect data in Wave 2 are invited to co-author the longitudinal papers. If you do not, you remain fully eligible for all Wave 1 papers.
Ethics, funding and your own research
Each collaborator obtains ethics approval from their own institution, unless they can act under the approval granted to the principal investigator by the Ethics Committee at the Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław (approval no. 2025/AWWQO). All materials needed for an application are shared on request.
No. There is no funding for collaborators' work, ethics applications, data collection or participant compensation. Local costs are covered by the collaborator.
Yes. Collaborators have privileged access to the data before final publication. Write to Marta Kowal at marta7kowal@gmail.com to check that the idea does not overlap with planned papers. Then pre-register the hypotheses and analysis plan, receive the dataset, run the analyses and write the first draft. The co-authorship rules apply: team members who collected data and contributed substantially are invited to your paper.
Anything else? Write to the principal investigator at marta7kowal@gmail.com.