Survey & Data Collection Platforms
This sub-cluster covers the platforms researchers use to actually field a survey or collect structured data: Qualtrics (enterprise-grade, common at large institutions), REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture — free to academic institutions, HIPAA-compliant, dominant in clinical and biomedical research), LimeSurvey (self-hosted, open-source), and participant-recruitment platforms Prolific and MTurk. Pages here are comparative and migration-focused — cost, compliance posture (especially for REDCap in regulated research), and how to move a survey instrument or exported dataset between platforms.
Guides
MTurk Data Quality: Documented Problems and How Researchers Screen for Them
Bots, VPN-based geographic misrepresentation, and professional “super-workers” are documented MTurk data-quality risks. Here’s the published evidence and the quality-control measures researchers actually use to screen for them.
REDCap Alerts and Notifications: Triggers and Scheduling
REDCap’s Alerts & Notifications module sends an automated email when a trigger condition is met, immediately or on a schedule tied to a date field. Here’s how triggers, scheduling, recipients, and messages fit together, plus common failure points.
Missing Data Codes in REDCap and How They Export
How REDCap’s Missing Data Codes module works, the default code list, and what actually happens to those codes in CSV, SPSS, SAS, R, and Stata exports.
REDCap Repeating Instruments and Repeating Events
Repeating instruments let one form recur on a record; repeating events let a whole longitudinal visit recur. How to choose, and what each looks like in a data export.
REDCap Survey Queue and Automated Invitations
How REDCap’s Survey Queue and Automated Survey Invitations work, why they’re often confused, and how to combine queue logic with invitation triggers to design a multi-instrument participant flow.
Piping in REDCap: Injecting Field Values Into Text
REDCap’s piping feature displays an already-entered field value elsewhere in a form, survey, or email using square-bracket syntax. Here’s the exact syntax, the event-name prefix for longitudinal projects, smart variables, and what can’t be piped.
REDCap Randomization Module: Allocation Tables and Stratification
How REDCap’s Randomization module actually works — why the allocation table has to be generated outside REDCap, how stratification and blocking keep group sizes balanced, and why the setup locks hard once a project moves to production.
REDCap Calculated Fields: Syntax, Limits, and the Recalculation Trap
How REDCap calculated fields, @CALCDATE, and @CALCTEXT work: field references, functions like datediff(), and why calculations silently go stale until Data Quality Rule H forces a refresh.
Attention Checks on Prolific: Policy, Design, and Rejection Rules
Prolific’s exact policy on attention and comprehension checks, the rejection thresholds by study length, how to design a check that meets its fairness rule, and what Pew Research’s direct test found about how often checks actually catch low-quality respondents.
Is REDCap HIPAA Compliant? What the Software Covers and What You Must Configure
REDCap’s own documentation frames it as capable of supporting HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, FISMA, and GDPR compliance — but that is a platform-capability claim, not a certification. What actually makes a REDCap project HIPAA-compliant depends on hosting, access configuration, and institutional policy, not the software alone.
REDCap Data Dictionary: Structure, Editing, and Moving a Project
What each of the 18 Data Dictionary columns does, editing it as a CSV versus the Online Designer, and the two ways to move a REDCap project to a different institution.
REDCap eConsent Framework: Setup and Regulatory Fit
How to configure REDCap’s eConsent Framework (signature field, survey queue gating, the auto-archived PDF) and exactly what it satisfies under 21 CFR Part 11 and 45 CFR 46 — versus what still requires separate IRB review.
The REDCap API: Tokens, Exports, and Automating Data Pulls
A practical guide to the REDCap API: how project-scoped tokens are generated and what rights they inherit, the record/metadata/file export endpoints, and a worked example of an automated, scheduled data pull.
REDCap Branching Logic: Syntax, Testing, and Common Errors
How REDCap branching logic syntax actually works — field references, operators, the checkbox (code) form, cross-instrument and cross-event logic — and the specific errors that break it with no error message at all.
Qualtrics vs REDCap for Academic & Clinical Research
Qualtrics and REDCap compared for academic and clinical research: which is an enterprise survey engine and which is a clinical EDC, how they differ on HIPAA and 21 CFR Part 11 exposure, longitudinal designs, branching logic, export pipelines and licensing cost.
