Manage your research projects online
REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. It is specifically geared to support online data capture for research studies, including those requiring Health Canada and Good Clinical Practice compliant environments. It also aids compliance with federal and provincial privacy legislation such as Alberta’s Health Information Act.
REDCap’s streamlined process for rapidly creating and designing projects offers a vast array of tools that can be tailored to virtually any data collection strategy. It provides automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to Excel and common statistical packages (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R). REDCap also offers a built-in project calendar, a scheduling module, ad hoc reporting tools and advanced features, such as branching logic, file uploading and calculated fields. It can also be used for online consents.
Using REDCap significantly improves data quality and security. It also eliminates the need to develop other project databases, which can be expensive and time consuming.
Key features:
- Secure and web-based
- Simple form designer
- Downloadable data dictionary
- Data export with support for multiple file formats (SPSS, STATA, SAS, Excel, etc.)
- Built-in data quality tools, including data resolution (query) workflow
- Project calendar and participant scheduling
- Reporting tools
- Support for participant randomization
- Support for collaborative, multi-centre studies
- Locally hosted within the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry’s secure data centre
- Support for participant randomization
- Support for collaborative, multi-centre studies
- Web based surveys (one time and longitudinal) with automated invitations and reminders.
- Electronic, online consent (eConsent)
Training and support
WCHRI provides regular training sessions free of charge and maintains a support site for University of Alberta users.
Please note: REDCap training sessions and support services are provided by the Women & Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta for the benefit of WCHRI members, University of Alberta researchers, and our collaborators. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide support for REDCap users who are not affiliated with one of these groups.
Setting up REDCap
Initial setup of an empty project is free of charge. Researchers with available funding can request a quotation for WCHRI’s data coordinating centre to build and/or manage the project database on their behalf.
To request a free REDCap project, please complete this REDCap request form.
To request a quote for fee based services, please complete the research support request form.
Citing REDCap
As a condition of WCHRI’s REDCap licensing, researchers must reference REDCap in their publications. The following wording is appropriate:
Study data was collected and managed using REDCap¹ electronic data capture tools hosted and supported by the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta.
Example:
¹Paul A. Harris, Robert Taylor, Robert Thielke, Jonathon Payne, Nathaniel Gonzalez, Jose G. Conde, Research electronic data capture (REDCap) – A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support, J Biomed Inform. 2009 Apr;42(2):377-81.
Additional information
REDCap is built and supported by a team at Vanderbilt University and is licensed by the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute on behalf of the University of Alberta. Additional information can be found on the REDCap project website and on WCHRI’s REDCap support site.
WCHRI is able to provide access to REDCap, training and support, free of charge through the support of our funders and collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (FoMD), the Northern Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Centre (NACTRC) and the Alberta SPOR Support Unit (AbSPORU).
WCHRI, in collaboration with the Maternal Infant Child & Youth Research Network (MICYRN), maintains a validated instance of REDCap for use in Health Canada regulated investigator-initiated clinical trials.
If you would like to learn more about WCHRI’s data management services and how they might support your project, contact our research informatics team lead Rick Watts.