REDCap

The REDCap application is available at no cost to all University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) researchers.

The UMB REDCap team provides support and training to help researchers build and manage their REDCap projects. Consultations are offered at any stage of the project life cycle, providing ongoing support as a project develops and evolves.

Please keep in mind that operational support projects are permitted in REDCap. However, assistance with building these projects is not provided by the REDCap team at this time. 

Principal Investigators (PIs) are responsible for ensuring that their research project protocols allow for data capture and management on the UMB REDCap.

PIs must also ensure that the REDCap project only collects data that has obtained the appropriate IRB approval or determination.

REDCap project team members must be listed on the team list in the IRB-approved protocol, and their REDCap user rights should be limited to their designated responsibilities. If a study team member is removed from the IRB team list, their REDCap user rights for the project must be removed.

For specific IRB-related questions or requirements related to your project, please contact the UMB HRPO.

Anyone with UMB or UMCP credentials can sign in to REDCap with their UMID or UMD Directory ID (for UMCP accounts).

If you are with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), please complete this form to request a UMID: Request for a UMID to Access REDCap.

Outside collaborators, including co-investigators at other institutions and their study teams can get access too—see How can I add an external user.

External users who need access to the UMB REDCap will need to obtain a UMB or UMCP sponsored/affiliate account. 

For the UMB Community System, please start here: Sponsors and Approvers - Center for Information Technology Services. 

For UMCP, please start here: Workday Resources - Create a Contingent Worker. 

New project users will need to have logged into REDCap at least once before they appear in the User Rights/Add New Users search tool. To add a user, type their first or last name in the search tool and select them from the dropdown list. 

1. Development – Building and testing the project.
2. Production – Entering and protecting real data.
3. Draft Mode – Making changes to a project that is in production.
4. Analysis/Cleanup – Editing or locking data.
5. Complete – Removing the project from the team’s project list.
6. Delete – Permanently removing the project from REDCap.

1. Thoroughly test your project and, whenever possible, consult with your statistician and data entry team to verify that your project is functioning as intended.
2. The principal investigator (PI) or project lead (with project setup permissions) can click "Move project to production" at the bottom of the Project Setup page.
3. Choose whether you want to keep or delete any existing data in the project.
4. Complete the brief move to production survey. (Please ensure that you have obtained the necessary IRB approval and have your IRB determination letter readily available to upload if applicable).
5. The REDCap team will receive notice that you want to move your project to production. They will conduct a brief review of your data dictionary, ensuring it aligns with best practices, and review the submitted move to production survey response.
6. If appropriate, they will ask you to make changes to your project to meet the best practices. When you have finished, simply e-mail back.
7. Your project will be moved to production.

 Please allow up to 24 hours for a move to production request to be approved.

You can still make changes to a project after it has been placed in production mode. To do so, navigate to the Online Designer and select "Draft Mode." This will allow you to modify your project as needed.

If the changes you are making do not affect your data, your changes will be approved automatically. If the changes could impact your data, the administrator will review them and confirm that you understand the implications before proceeding. Upon confirmation, the changes will be approved.

If you decide against the submitted changes, the administrator can either revert the project back to Draft Mode for corrections or reject all changes, restoring the project to its original state prior to entering Draft Mode.

Please note that if you are adding new variables to your data dictionary, it may be necessary to consult with the IRB to ensure compliance.

Study data were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at University of Maryland, Baltimore. 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.

1 Paul 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.

New project requests in the SOM REDCap instance are no longer accepted.

All new projects that will not collect patient medical record data, including UMMS Epic data, should be requested in the new UMB REDCap. If you plan to collect this data, please email redcap@umaryland.edu for additional guidance. When requesting a new project, please allow up to 24 hours for the request to be approved.

Yes! If that project will not collect patient medical record data, including UMMS Epic data, and you have project design rights, you can transfer projects that are in development by navigating to Project Setup → Other Functionality → Download or Back up the Project → and selecting "Download the project XML (without data).

To create the new project, please follow these steps:

1. Login to the UMB REDCap
2. Request a new project
3. Enter the project information
4. Select to create the project with an XML file
5. Upload the XML file
6. Create the project
7. Complete the new project request form
8. Submit for approval

For projects containing embedded or attached files (including PDFs, Word documents, and images), please ensure that all files are uploaded in the new project.

This process will transfer the project structure, allowing you to continue designing and testing the project before it is moved to production.

The original project can be deleted to avoid duplication—see How do I delete a project?

If your project did not collect UMMS Epic data, and your protocol is still active or permits the retention of the project's data after completion (and you have the necessary REDCap user rights), there are several options for exporting and storing the project and/or data.

To download the project metadata (with or without data) in an XML file, go to Project Setup → Other Functionality → Download or Backup the Project, and select the option that works best for you.

To export your data, navigate to Applications → Data Exports, Reports, and Stats, select "Export Data" for all data, and choose the appropriate export format.

Additionally, you can export a PDF copy of all data collection instruments with saved data (for all records) and/or a zip file of all uploaded files (for all records) by going to Applications → Data Exports, Reports, and Stats → Other Export Options.

To export your project’s logging history, navigate to Applications → Logging and select “All Logging” from the export options at the top of the page.

If you have any questions related to storage requirements for your project’s data, please refer to the UMB Policy Regarding Ownership, Management, and Sharing of Research Data - University of Maryland, Baltimore.

If your project enabled the eConsent Framework and PDF Snapshot functionality, participant consents were automatically stored in the File Repository. To access these consents, navigate to the File Repository via the left-hand project navigation, select "PDF Survey Archive," and choose "Download All (zip)" to retrieve the files. These files can then be uploaded to the File Repository in the new project.

If the eConsent Framework and PDF Snapshot functionality was not enabled in the project, you can download a PDF copy of all data collection instruments containing saved data (for all records). To do this, go to Applications > Data Exports, Reports, and Stats > Other Export Options to download the PDF file. With this method, you will need to extract the consents from the downloaded file. Alternatively, you can download each consent individually from the corresponding record. With either method, you can create a folder and upload the files to the File Repository of the new project.

For specific IRB requirements for consent management, please contact the UMB HRPO.

If the project collected UMMS Epic data, and your protocol is still active or permits data retention after completion, the data must be stored in the UMB Secure Research Environment (SRE).  Please contact redcap@umaryland.edu to request assistance with this process.

If you have the appropriate REDCap user rights and are ready to delete a project, navigate to Project Setup → Other Functionality → Data Management and select "Delete the Project."