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.
McGill is currently piloting the REDCap service for research projects only. Administrative projects (including for teaching) will not be granted access to REDCap at this time.
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 REDCap for each project, and consent must be obtained from participants.
- McGill does not provide training and project support (e.g., survey design and implementation) for the REDCap application.
- As per the 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. Student Investigators/Student Principal Investigators (including Postdocs) and Research staff requesting access to REDCap should provide their supervisor's name as the project sponsor.
Submit each new project request for REDCap through the IT Support website's New RedCap project request form. 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
Creation of a project in REDCap is offered as a free service for McGill researchers.
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?
First submit your new project request for REDCap in the IT Support site: IT Services for Research. Once approved, you can use your McGill login credentials to create your REDCap account at https://redcap.mcgill.ca/
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 you are working with external collaborators (including staff at affiliate research hospitals), please inform the IT team when submitting the request form.
To provide access for individuals who are not part of a Canadian research/educational institution or who are from outside Canada, you will first need to submit a request for IT Services to create an affiliate account for your collaborator. For further information and to submit a request, see the Affiliate accounts 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
McGill does not provide project support (e.g., survey design and implementation) for the REDCap application.
Access training and informational videos at the following locations:
Support
- For questions pertaining to research 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 McGill's REDCap, contact the Digital Research Services (DRS) team at drs@mcgill.ca.