Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a tool that incorporates the human intelligence factor for the completion of significant projects. The system allows human intervention in tasks that cannot be completed by computers yet are time and labor intensive for humans.

Consider the research process which may seem daunting to novice researchers such as doctoral candidates or other individuals who are seeking to enter the research community. For example, conducting a literature review can be labor intensive. Using Mechanical Turk would allow the literature search to be contracted out to afford the researcher additional time. A primary researcher might also use Mechanical Turk to contract a statistician to manage the statistical computations and provide a preliminary analysis of the data. The primary researcher acting as a contractor is able to establish and review qualifications of the individual who will potentially perform the work to assure that appropriate credentials are possessed by the contracted individual.

As a tool for the researcher, Mechanical Turk can be a time-saving resource. It removes much of the manual labor from the work load of the primary researcher thus simplifying the research process for the primary researcher. However, there are drawbacks to this tool. Of greatest significance is the potentially lost understanding of the topic that comes from completing such tasks as the review of the literature and the analysis of data. While the use of statisticians to manage the numerical computations or to review the computations completed via software systems such as the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is common, the primary researcher is still ethically responsible for the accurate analysis of the data. So, using Mechanical Turk for statistical calculation and analysis doe s not preclude the researcher from having a working knowledge of statistical calculation and analysis.

While not free, the use of Mechanical Turk is a minimal investment when compared to the potential hours of savings. The researcher must make the ultimate determination of this value of this service, but it is certainly worth a further look.