Functionalities

Because there is a community behind Research Survey, new functionalities are constantly being added. These are always available to everyone, at no extra cost. All functionalities can be turned on or off, depending on the needs of the project. A “how-to” page is provided for the administrator, and we can add short explanation videos on this if needed.

Each project gets its own domain (www.example.com) which is forwarded to a subdomain of researchsurvey.nl. There you will get your own homepage, participant explanation page, logo, project colors, and whatever else you need.

To ensure security, we recently started to offer a 2-way login. This means you not only need a username and password to login as an administrator, but you also get an extra check by SMS text.

Digital questionnaires

The basis of Research Survey, these can be added by our team here, but we always advise the investigator to check them for error.

Conditional logics

if the answer to question 1 is A, the system can go to question 3 if needed

Code book

when finished, all questions and answers are in “code”. You can export the codebook with one click, telling you, for example, that answer A1 = yes

Export data

you can export the anonymous data at any time, in a universal data file format

Primary survey

after participating, it is possible to send the participant to a first survey right away, without waiting for an invitation email

Study number check

when a participant is not using the link, they must fill out the study number AND, for example, a date of birth or email address. The system will check if these are in the participant database to prevent accidental errors

Reminders

once a participant is included, the system can send invitation emails after X time, and reminders after that, when the survey is not filled out

Collaborator reminders

some studies require input from someone other than the participant, for example a surgery survey. The system can send an invitation with reminders to a collaborator as well

External administrator reminders

some multicenter studies have research assistance in the local centers. The system can send them a reminder that a survey has not been filled out by a participant or collaborator

Administrator reminders

when all reminders fail, an email is sent to the administrator/principal investigator to contact the participant another way

SMS-Reminders

when requested, the invitation email can be accompanied by an SMS text message. This way, emails ending up in SPAM folders are more likely to be found

Stop all

Intervention date

Study number lookup

when a collaborator needs to fill out a survey, for example a lab result, they sometimes do not have the study number present. They can fill out the local patient ID on the homepage, and get the corresponding study number. This can, of course, not be done the other way around, for privacy reasons.

Randomize

if needed, you can randomize within the inclusion of a new participant. The system provides allocation variants (like 1:2), block randomization, and stratification between locations

Pregnancy dependent variables

when working with pregnancy-related questionnaires, the system can send invitations and reminders based on pregnancy duration, and add the pregnancy duration to each questionnaire automatically

Home dashboard

when the administrator (usually the principal investigator) logs in, you will find a dashboard with all functionalities, a graph with new participants, and other

Multiple accounts

there is always at least one administrator account. Some projects require temporary accounts for a monitor with limited access, for example

Email log

it can be difficult to know why someone does not reply to a survey invitation. The email log will show you if an invitation was delivered, and if the email was opened. This way, you can at least weed out invalid email addresses

Overview table

the administration page can show you a lookup table. This table shows all participant study numbers in one column, then green arrows or red crosses for each survey. This way you can see who is filling out what from just one table

Mass communication

you can send an email to all participants straight from the administrator menu which allows you to, for example, thank everybody for participating, or send them an update, and involve them even more in your project