Definitions & Terminology

Data Collection Instrument – a form or survey created for capturing data. Similar to a sheet or tab within an Excel Workbook.

Record - Similar to a row in an Excel sheet.

Record ID – a unique identifier for each record in your database.

Record Status Dashboard – a table that lists all existing records and their status for every data collection instrument

Data Dictionary – a spreadsheet containing the data entry fields for your project

Variable – the name of the field or answer choice that is stored in the database

User – a person who is given access to a REDCap project (e.g. can login to REDCap and go into the project.) If you are the creator of a REDCap project, you are a user on that project. Anyone else you add to the project is a user on the project.

Participant – a person who completes a survey. This person does not see other participants’ survey results because they are not logging into REDCap to enter their results.

Survey – data collection instrument that can be completed by someone who is not a user on a REDCap project.

Project - Similar to an Excel workbook. Contains the instruments that will capture your data. All instruments within a project are tied together.

Field Comment - Users with access to data entry forms may leave one or more comments on any field on a data collection instrument by clicking on the field comment, after which the balloon icon will stay lit up to signify that comments exist for that field for this record.