Service overview
REDCap by Vanderbilt University is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. REDCap is geared to support online and offline data capture for research studies and operations.
Who can use it
The REDCap tool is intended for use by McGill faculty for research purposes. Their students, staff and collaborators (internal and external) may use the system.
Important considerations for researchers:
- By using the REDCap service, you accept responsibility for compliance with all legal and institutional requirements. Anyone to whom you grant access to your REDCap instance is accountable for ensuring compliance with Personal Information (PI) / Personal Health Information (PHI) data law protections.
- No identifiable clinical data from the hospital systems or health sector should be hosted on the McGill REDCap service. If you are managing identifiable clinical data, contact the appropriate affiliated hospital for guidance. If you are uncertain whether this applies to your project, contact the Digital Research Services Hub at drs@mcgill.ca.
- The relevant Research Ethics Board must approve the use of the REDCap service for each project, and consent must be obtained from participants.
- Central McGill IT provides the infrastructure and life cycle management to host REDCap instances as well as technical support.
- McGill IT does not provide training and support for REDCap application.
- As per REDCap terms of use, the software can only be used for “Non-Commercial Research Purposes.” The researcher must read, understand, and accept these terms of use before submitting a request.
How to request and access the service
McGill Faculty researchers and members of their research teams can submit requests for a REDCap project (Research Survey and Analytics). All REDCap projects must be sponsored by a Faculty researcher. Students requesting access to REDCap should provide their supervisor name as the project sponsor.
Submit each new project request for REDCap through the service request form in the IT Portal: IT Services for research. The Digital Research Services (DRS) Hub will evaluate and approve the request.
Once approved, the Application Services - Faculty & Research (AS-FR) group will create the project in REDCap and provide access.
You will be notified by email once access has been granted.
You can then log in to the website at: https://redcap.mcgill.ca/.
Cost
There is no cost for the basic configuration of a REDCap project.
Availability
The service is available 24 X 7, except during planned maintenance or outages. Check the home page of the IT Support site for announcements.
Requests for the service will be processed during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm).
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get an account to access REDCap at McGill?
Submit a request form in the IT Support Portal: IT Services for Research
My McGill SSO login doesn’t work when I try to log into REDCap at McGill. Who do I contact?
If you are the Project owner, please contact the IT Service Desk.
If you are a member of a research team (e.g., student, staff or collaborator, internal or external to McGill), please contact the Project owner to verify your access permissions to a particular project. If the issue persists, the Project owner can contact the IT Service Desk.
I am working with an external collaborator. How do I give them access to my REDCap project?
If the external collaborator is affiliated with another Canadian research/educational institution, they may be able to access REDCap using their institutional login credentials. Once you have added them to your project within REDCap, they can log in on the the McGill login page.
To provide access for individuals who are not part of a Canadian research/educational institution or who are from outside Canada, you will need to submit a request for IT Services to create an affiliate account for your collaborator. For further information and to submit a request, please look at this article.
Best practices & policies
Consider in advance the names assigned to forms and variables – they should be clear and meaningful. It is recommended to keep form and variable names shorter than 20-26 characters, as there may be character limitations when exporting data to an external statistical software for analyzing.
Training & documentation
Access training and informational videos at the following locations:
Support
- For questions pertaining to software, contact the Digital Research Services at drs@mcgill.ca.
- Contact the McGill IT Service desk if the REDCap service is not accessible.
- For access issues regarding a specific REDCap project, contact the researcher owner of the project.
- For a consultation on REDCap general practices, contact the Digital Research Services (DRS) team at drs@mcgill.ca.