Study Design: Before beginning a REDCap project, you should formulate a general study design. Ex: Who or what are you planning to study? What kind of data are you measuring? Will your study be cross-sectional or longitudinal? Have you discussed your study design with a statistician?

IRB Approval: If your study is a research project with human subjects, you likely need the documented approval of your Institutional Review Board. For more information, see the IRB-relevant sections of this guide.

Request New Project: In order to manage the volume of projects being hosted by our servers, you must submit a request to us via REDCap in order to begin a new project. The approval process generally takes less than 2 business days (48 hours).

Design Data Forms: In order to effectively collect and order your data, you must first design the data collection forms to do so. This step is the highlight feature of REDCap: immensely customizable, expandable, fluid data forms.

Testing: You should test data collection forms to verify all needed data are collected correctly before committing to production mode. If possible, designate one person to perform the build and another to perform the testing.

Active Study Data Collection: Once your study enters Production Mode, you may enter, review, and analyze real data. In Production Mode, it is more difficult and risky to make major changes to your data entry forms, which is why thorough testing is strongly encouraged.

Draft Mode: If you enter production and find that you do need to modify an element of your data entry forms, you may enter Draft Mode and submit changes to be approved by a REDCap Administrator. Data activities can continue during this mode.

Inactive Mode: No data entry or update may take place in this mode, although you may view and analyze data. You can initiate this mode if you want to ensure that no new data entry will occur, but you would still like to access all of your data easily.

Archived Mode: If you have completed data analysis, moved your project to indefinite hiatus, or simply decided you no longer wish to use it, you may move the project to archived status as an alternative to full deletion. You can un-archive your project at any time.


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