REDCap

REDCap

REDCap was originally designed at Vanderbilt, and it is now used at more than 70 institutions worldwide. This is a self-service system, where the researcher defines the database fields either in a spreadsheet or with the help of user-friendly web tools. Once the database fields have been finalized, you can start entering data immediately. There is no annual maintenance fee, thanks to funding from the Medical College of Wisconsin CTSA.

REDCap is a secure, customizable web-based database application used to collect and store research data. REDCap is flexible enough for any type of research (i.e. cross-sectional and longitudinal studies). REDCap supports calculated fields, branching logic, double data entry, data import and export to common stats packages, complete data logging and canned reports.

Our team hosts a secure, local installation of REDCap that is approved for use with restricted data. Anyone in the Medical College of Wisconsin research community can use the system.

Features

• Streamlined, largely self-service process for rapidly building a database
• Intuitive, multi-user / multi-site, web based interface for collecting data with data validation
• Autonomous utilization: research groups have complete autonomy and control to add new users
• Automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to common statistical packages (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R)
• Advanced features, such as branching logic, file uploading, and calculated fields

Additional Features

In addition to supporting sophisticated data entry, REDCap also offers a very nice set of tools to profile the data you have already entered, as a way of ensuring data quality. Categorical variable values are plotted in individual bar charts, and numeric variable values are summarized in box plots.

Other tools include data export and import, data comparison in support of double data entry, data logging for HIPAA compliance, and a report builder that lets you build a report one variable at a time (restricting columns) and define row selection criteria to let you export a limited subset of your data.

Administrators are also permitted to establish data access groups and define access rights on a per-user basis, meaning that each database owner becomes the access granting authority for that database, for ongoing self-administration and autonomy.

REDCap Demonstrations

We have provided 3 demonstration projects for you to familiarize yourself. To view them, please visit the REDCap website, and log in with the following credentials.

Username: user
Password: redcapUser1

The 3 projects are listed on the ‘My Projects’ tab. There are also some training videos available from the link towards the bottom in the left navigation area.

Surveys

REDCap is a powerful tool for creating and managing online surveys. You can create and design surveys in your web browser and engage potential respondents using a variety of notification methods. Participant responses may be easily exported to Microsoft Excel or to common statistical analysis packages (SPSS, SAS, R, Stata).

REDCap Surveys allow for a variety of question types, such as Text Boxes, Likert, Multiple Choice (single and multiple answer), File Uploads, Yes/No, True/False, and Sliders (Rating Scales).

There are also advanced question features that may be utilized, including auto-validation and stop actions.

Citing REDCap

For projects using REDCap to collect, manage, or report data, please cite both Medical College of Wisconsin CTSA Grant 5UL1TR001436-02 and REDCap.

REDCap

“Study data were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at the Medical College of Wisconsin¹. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure, web-based application designed to support data capture for research studies, providing: 1) an intuitive interface for validated data entry; 2) audit trails for tracking data manipulation and export procedures; 3) automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to common statistical packages; and 4) procedures for importing data from external sources.

CTSA

Please acknowledge the Medical College of Wisconsin CTSA Grant UL1TR001436. All publications must comply with NIH Public Access Policy.

Researchers other than K Scholars (KL2) – Please cite Grant UL1TR001436, as follows:

“This publication [or project] was supported by the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant Number UL1TR001436. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.”

K Scholars (KL2) – Please cite Grant KL2TR001438, as follows:

“This publication [or project] was supported by the National Center for Research Resources, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, through Grant Number KL2TR001438. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.”

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.
View the Article on Pubmed

Getting Started

Our REDCap installation can be found by following this link: https://redcap.mcw.edu. If you would like to have one of us show you some of the features or if you have questions about using REDCap for a specific study, please set up a free, in-person consultation.

Fees

Cost sharing is effective with every new research study requesting Biomedical Informatics services. Hourly fees for development services are $100 per hour, but we are able to offer an MCW and CTSI subsidized rate $60 per hour for REDCap research projects to CTSI members from all partnering institutions. Non-research projects are not subsidized, and the full hourly rate ($100 per hour) applies.

• Project Set Up
  • Project Set Up Fee (Per Project): $300
• Development Services
  • MCW/CTSI subsidized hourly rate for research projects: $60/hr
  • Development Services (Unsubsidized): $100/hr

Fees last updated June 30, 2017

Having Trouble?

• Check out the REDCap ‘Help & FAQ’ tab (This area is accessible after logging in with an existing REDCap account)
• Contact us for an in-person consultation

For general and background information on REDCap, please see the Project REDCap website.

Request REDCap Services