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:

• Practice/Just for fun
• Operational Support
• Research
• Quality Improvement
• Other

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.

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.

Data Access Groups (Video 7 mins)

'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:

• Control group
• Intervention A
• Intervention B

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:

• the module is actively supported and functional.
• the module will continue to work with known future versions of REDCap.

After a module is enabled it is important to note:

• modules are not part of the core REDCap system and may not work after REDCap or it's underlying infrastructure is upgraded.
• REDCap will be upgraded to the most recent version on a regular basis for security and integrity of the system.
• if an external module stops working, UWA IT will disable it from the projects and it will be retired.

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).

Introduction to Instrument Development (Video 6 min)  

The Online Designer (Video 5 min)

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)

Traditional Project (Video 3 min)

Single Survey Project (Video 5 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 multiple-choice or free-text entry. Fields can be made 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.

 Project Field Types (Video 4mins)

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:

• Branching logic - if fields are set to appear only under certain conditions, is this working correctly?
• Validation - does any validation ensure participants enter useful data, without accidentally disallowing a valid response? For example, if you have set minimum and maximum values for a question requiring numerical data, are you certain that a participant would not wish to enter a valid response outside that range?
• Is the survey logical and easy to use? Consider that participants may be tired, under time pressure, or not paying full attention while entering data. Would they still be able to enter accurate data under those circumstances? Does the survey design prevent common/easy errors where possible?

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:

• Reviewed the Purpose for your project under ‘Modify Project Settings’. For example, you may need to change the Purpose from Practice/Just for Fun to Research.
• Obtained any necessary approvals, ie, ethics clearance.
• Thoroughly tested your project as once you are in Production you can no longer edit the project fields in real time. Moving back to Development from Production can also result in data loss. 'End-to-end' testing includes:
  • Entering data for multiple test records in all instruments
  • Verifying all piping, branching logic, calculations, Alerts and Notifications, automated survey invitations, randomisation, etc
  • Verifying all field embedding, action tags and external modules working successfully.
  • Running Data Quality Rules.
• Tested a data import.
• Completed the REDCap 'Move to Production' checklist
• Exported all data and the data dictionary, then deleted all test records.

Once a project is in Production, to avoid loss of data ideally do not make any further edits to the project, especially:

• Do not rename variables
• Avoid modifying events
• Avoid inserting new response choices, and if doing so, do not alter the numeric code/value assigned to existing choices

Do NOT add any real live participant data to a survey until it has been moved to Production.

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:

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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)