Project: A research study in REDCap.
Instrument: An individual form for participants or Data Entry users to enter data ('Records') in response to questions. One project can have many instruments.
Survey: In REDCap this specifically refers to an instrument which is sent directly to participants to enter responses, rather than Data Entry staff recording participants' data.
Field: An individual data entry question on an instrument.
Field Label: The question text that will appear to participants entering data.
Variable: A brief name/ID for a field.
Identifier: A field in which the participant is being asked to provide a response about themselves which could reveal who they are (Name, date of birth, Medicare number etc)
Choices/Coding choices: In multiple choice fields, each possible response is coded a numeric value. Eg; participants see choices "blue, yellow, red", in the field these are coded "1, blue 2, yellow 3, red".
Record: A participant's responses on a project. Note that in a project with multiple instruments, one 'record' refers to the same participant's responses on all instruments, and in all 'events' in a longitudinal study.
Event: A specific time period or event at which participants answer survey instruments. For example, 1 month after participants begin taking a medication.
Arm: A way of designating cohorts of participants, used in conjunction with Events. Participants in one 'Arm' of a survey, might complete different 'Instruments' at each 'Event' than participants in another 'Arm'.
Login to REDCap at http://redcap.research.uwa.edu.au/
UWA staff members, research students, and honorary staff automatically have access to REDCap and can login using their UniID credentials.
Non-UWA users will require a UWA sponsor connected to the project (Project Coordinator) to complete a Digital Guest Access request on their behalf.
Please note only current UWA staff can access and complete the Digital Guest Access request form.
Preparation before using REDCap for data collection
Before beginning a REDCap project, you should formulate a general study design. Eg: Who or what are you planning to study? What kind of data are you measuring? Will your study be crosssectional or longitudinal? Have you discussed your study design with a statistician?
All research projects involving human participants require ethics approval.
Completing a Research Data Management Plan will assist you to consider all important aspects of gathering and storing research data before beginning your project. See the Research Data Management Toolkit for more information and a Data Management Plan form.
To request a new project in REDCap, log in to REDCap, click the New Project button and complete the New Project Request survey.
UWA REDCap administrators will approve your new project.
When creating a project in REDCap, the options for the 'Purpose' of a project are:
It's a good idea to create a practice project first to learn how to use REDCap. However please note that it is essential that NO real live patient data be entered into a Practice project.
When completing the initial REDCap Project Request Form, there is space to name up to five colleagues to have access to the project.
University staff members, research students, or honorary staff are eligible to use the UWA REDCap instance for HREC approved research projects.
Non-UWA research staff are eligible for a user account if sponsored by a UWA staff member related to the research project. Sponsors will need to apply for a Digital Guest Access on the researcher’s behalf.
Please note that non-UWA users can only have Data Entry roles.
User account security:
For security reasons, REDCap account invitations to new users expire after 72 hours.
If a user hasn’t set a security question, and forgets the password, the “forgot password” link will not work. The account will have to be deleted and a new account created. All the user’s old projects can then be re-assigned to the new account.
For security reasons, any account that is not active at least once in every 180 days is suspended automatically.
Passwords need to be changed every 150 days.
Data Access Groups
An optional feature in REDCap restricts which 'records' (participant responses) project users can access.
'Events' in REDCap indicate points in time at which one or more data entry instruments are used.
This is used in longitudinal research, where data is gathered from participants at multiple points in time (eg; pre-intervention, 1 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up).
Longitudinal Project (Video 3 min)
Create events in REDCap, create survey instruments, and then designate which instruments will be used at each event.
Some projects may also have multiple 'Arms', which are commonly used when a project involves distinct groups of participants, for example:
Defining Longitudinal Events (Video 5 min)
Designating Instruments for Events (Video 3 min)
Event names are treated as variables in data exports, etc., so need to be kept concise. Avoid the use of special characters in event names
External Modules are individual packages of software that can be downloaded and installed. Modules can extend REDCap's current functionality, and can provide customisations and enhancements for REDCap's existing behavior and appearance at the system level or project level. They can be developed by both the REDCap Consortium and by individual users, varying in quality and levels of support.
External modules can be enabled by request. Before enabling a module, UWA IT will assess if:
After a module is enabled it is important to note:
Step 1 Ensure you have enabled the use of surveys in your project:
Step 2 Go to the Data Collection menu and select Survey Distribution Tools:
Step 3 Click on the Copy to Clipboard icon next to Public Survey URL
The Online Designer in REDCap is where fields for data entry are created. (ie; writing survey questions and selecting the type of data that can be entered in response)
Instruments in REDCap can either require project team members to enter data, or be distributed to research participants to respond to survey questions.
Instrument names (like event names in longitudinal projects) are treated as variables in data exports, etc., so need to be kept concise. Avoid the use of special characters in their names.
Overview of Project Types (Video 3 min)
Once you have created an instrument in REDCap, add "fields" (questions) to your instrument, to gather the data required for your project.
For example, questions can be multi-choice selection, or text entry. Fields can be mandatory, and can have data validation so that only certain characters can be entered in response (eg; a date).
For data security and participant confidentiality, fields containing personal identity information can be marked as identifiers.
Once you have designed your project and created survey instruments, it's essential to test your survey instruments to make sure they are working as expected and will gather the data needed from participants.
Important aspects to test:
To test your project, click on Add/Edit Records to add Records. The first few minutes of the following video demonstrate this:
Basic Data Entry (Video 19 mins)
Please be aware if the names of variables are changed during testing, this results in data loss. Please see the FAQ on changing variable names.
Do NOT add any real live participant data to a survey until it has been moved to Production.
Once survey instruments in a REDCap project are complete and fully tested, the project can move to Production to commence data gathering.
Projects in Production go through an additional check to ensure that data in your records is not modified, deleted, or overwritten unintentionally.
Before you move your REDCap project to Production, please ensure you have:
Once a project is in Production, to avoid loss of data ideally do not make any further edits to the project, especially:
Do NOT add any real live participant data to a survey until it has been moved to Production.
The UWA REDCap server is backed up by University IT, but it is highly recommended that research teams conduct their own backups of the project and project data at certain points throughout the project.
Important items to back up include:
All backups should be stored in secure storage supported and recommended by UWA. Please see the Storage page of the UWA Library Research Data Management Toolkit.
Examples of backups the research team should consider are:
Trigger for backup | Reason for backup | What to back up | Who is responsible |
---|---|---|---|
Weekly | Routine for data recovery purposes | - Full data export for each project (.csv format) - data dictionary download (.csv) - data import template (as rows) (.csv) - log file - zip of uploaded files, PDF archive of eConsents, etc. |
PI/Project Coordinator |
Pre/Post changes to instruments: Development phase |
In case roll back of instrument is required | - data dictionary download (.csv) | Project member making changes |
Pre/Post changes to instruments: in Production* | In case roll back of instrument is required OR in case data is lost | - data dictionary download (.csv) - Full data export for each project (.csv format) - data import template (as rows) (.csv) - log file |
Project member making changes |
Pre/Post data import | In case roll back is required e.g. existing records changed unintentionally | - data dictionary download (.csv) - Full data export for each project (.csv format) - data import template (as rows) (.csv) - log file (NB: post-import log is very important) |
PI/Project Coordinator |
Project Archive | Archive all data upon completion of project (including all analysis) | - data dictionary download (.csv) - Full data export for each project (.csv format) - data import template (as rows) (.csv) - log file - zip of uploaded files, PDF archive of eConsents, etc. (It may be prudent to make a copy of the complete project, in xml format also, AND export metadata, data as separate xml files.) |
PI/Project Coordinator |
*Note: making changes to instruments once a project is in Production and data gathering has commenced is strongly discouraged due to the potential for data loss or corruption.
From 6 minutes onwards this video explains how to export data from REDCap. Applications Overview (Video, 16 minutes)
Especially when working with data from human participants, effective data management is essential. Ensure the responsible conduct of research by considering the following in regards to data gathered in REDCap:
Store the data in a secure location, and/or destroy it if required
Benefits Researchers | Benefits Study Participants | Benefits Society |
---|---|---|
Avoids data loss | Avoids data loss (participants do not wish for their valuable contributions to be lost and wasted) and ensures confidentiality | Research maintains reputation for respecting participant confidentiality - future research is not impeded |
Name and organise data, so that it is clear what the data is.
Benefits Researchers | Benefits Study Participants | Benefits Society |
---|---|---|
Efficient to locate and work with the data during the project | eg; if a participant requests destruction of their data, the relevant data can be reliably located | The data could be used again in future, as it is clear what the data is, it's significance and how it can be used |
Share the deidentified data where possible
Benefits Researchers | Benefits Study Participants | Benefits Society |
---|---|---|
Increased reputation, potential data citation | Less duplication of effort - if data is available for reuse, this potentially limits the need for repeating the research. Thus fewer participants are required overall. | The data can be verified and re-used by other researchers to further human knowledge |
See UWA Library's Research Data Management Toolkit for more information.
REDCap is only intended for data capture and collection, not ongoing storage and archiving. Once a project is completed, data should be moved to reliable long-term storage, or destroyed, whichever is required. See the Storage and Retention page of the UWA Library's Research Data Management Toolkit for storage options and how long data must be retained.
Data from ongoing longitudinal studies will necessarily remain in REDCap for extended periods of time, as long as the study is still actively gathering data (ie; has a future milestone at which participants will respond).
Users who no longer require access to the project and project data should be removed from the project by the Principal Investigator or Project Coordinator.
To export project data from REDCap, for analysis in statistical programs and long-term storage, from 6 minutes onwards this video explains how to export data from REDCap. Applications Overview (Video, 16 minutes)
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