REDCap Tips & Tricks: User Management

The ITHS REDCap Tips and Tricks Series is here to support researchers get the most out of REDCap in their translational science work. This month’s installment focuses on User Management to help you build and maintain your REDCap account.

User Management 101

Project owner/manager adding someone with a UW NetID to a project

Before starting this process, please make sure that the user you are adding has logged into REDCap at least once to establish their profile.

Note: If you try to add a user before they login at least once, they will not be able to access the project successfully!

• • • Go to User Rights from the applications menu in your REDCap project.
    • Add a new username in the format [username] @washington.edu. (You MUST use the @washington.edu format, or the user will not be able to access your project, @uw.edu & @u.washington.edu will not work due to security )
    • If the user has logged into REDCap and established their profile, their username name will popup in the Add new user window, and you can select it.
    • Click on + Add with custom rights and edit the user’s rights appropriate to their role in the project
    • You can also add users directly to the role you have created for your REDCap project.
    • An email will be generated inviting your new user to the project, and the user should now see your project in their project list.

How do I add a colleague to my project?

Granting access:

If you (as the administrator of the project) would like to grant other people access to your project, there needs to be 2 things in place:

• • • You need to have access to the application ‘User Rights’ in your REDCap project.
    • The person you want to add needs to have a REDCap account.

To see if you have access to User Rights, look at the left-hand navigation bar in the Application section.

To add a user:

• • • Click on the User Rights link in the Application section of the left-hand navigation bar.
    • Put your cursor in the “Add new user” box.
    • Start typing the person’s name or email address
      • • • If the person is found, their name will pop up. Click on their name and then click the “+ Add with custom rights” button.
          • If the person is not found, this means they do not yet have a REDCap account and can’t be added to the project yet.
    • Once you click Add with custom rights, you will now see a screen with access privileges. Choose what you want the user to have access to. Select the appropriate rights and then click Add User.

If you are not the primary owner of a project and do not have access to the User Rights application, navigate to the Project Home page to identify the project admins and request the administrators to add your colleague to the project.

Why can’t I see my new form/survey in the Record Status Dashboard?

Once you move your REDCap project to Production and start collecting data, new instruments that are created in a project will automatically be setup with “No Access (Hidden)” rights by default in User Rights.

This change is a result of REDCap security features put in place when a project is in Production. As a REDCap project manager, you must set the appropriate individual user or role right for each new instrument to ensure that project users do not accidentally gain access to data that they should not have access to view and/or edit.

After adding a new instrument to a project that is already in Production, go to REDCap User Rights for any Users or Roles who will need access to the new instrument, and assign the needed view and/or edit rights for the new instrument.

You can now access several ITHS REDCap courses on demand via the Translational Research Education Engine (TREE) Learning Management System (LMS).