Once your REDCap project is created, you will be configuring your project and creating instruments to use during data collection. As REDCap is very customizable and can be used for various use cases, we will only touch on the basics of configuring a REDCap project here. If you have certain use cases that require a more in depth explanation, we have a whole range of knowledge articles that can be of help.
Online Designer
You will most likely be spending the majority of your time within the Online Designer when creating instruments for your REDCap project. The Online Designer is a graphical instrument design interface that allows you to create data collection instruments very quickly. This can be accessed either from the left hand navigation panel, or from the Project Setup page.
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You will then be taken into the instrument to configure individual variables and fields.
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Creating New Fields
Here, you will be able to add new fields by selecting the "Add Field" button. In REDCap, data is associated with a variable, which will have various attributes such as variable name, labels and other features such as validation, action tags etc. The variable and its associated attributes is called a field.
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When creating a field, a variable name, a field type, and a field label are required. Other attributes are optional and can be used to add further information and conditions to a field.
Field Types
You can create multiple types of fields:
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Unstructured field types
Structured field types
Special field types
Display field types
Matrix field types
Unstructured field types
Unstructured field types are used to collect free text information. These include the Text Box and Notes Box field types.
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Notes Boxes are great for collecting longer pieces of text, such as clinical notes, comments to elaborate on a previous answer, or descriptions.
Structured field types
Structured field types provide a limited set of pre-defined answers for selection during data entry. These include drop-downs and radio buttons for single answer choices, and checkboxes for multiple answers.
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Checkboxes are used when you want multiple answers to be selected for a single question or variable. Again, just like the single answer field types, numerical values can be assigned to choices depending on study preference.
Special field types
Special field types allow you to upload files to REDCap, collect signatures, and calculate values. These include the Signature, File Upload, and Calculation fields.
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Calculation fields are used to calculate values from data associated with other variables. The end result for a calculation field must be a value, and the calculation field can only access data from variables within that particular record. There are also various special functions and smart variables that can be used to aid with calculation. These fields are useful for creating scoring tools or simple calculations.
Display field types
Display field types, as the name suggest, let you display different types of media within a REDCap data entry screen. These include descriptive text and section headers.
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Section headers can be used to separate different blocks of variables. These can also be used to create separate pages within surveys.
Matrix field types
Matrix field types are a little distinct from the others, as they are a grouped set of variables together. These are useful when you have multiple variables that rely on the same choices. When adding a matrix of variables, you can use either radio buttons or checkboxes as options. The columns of the matrix are the options, and the options for all of the variables within the matrix will need to match. Rows will be the variables (questions).
Now we’ve covered all of the field types that you can add to an instrument. , but what do you do when you only want some fields to show conditionally? We’ll discuss this next!
Head over to the next section of REDCap 101, or head back to the table of contents.