What status should my project be in?

Understanding REDCap project statuses, the differences and the appropriate status for your project.

Note: Having your project in Production indicates that the project is active and data is currently being collected and/or analyzed.  There are, however, other statuses which are more appropriate if your study is not currently active.

Development: All projects start in Development status. In Development, you can design, build, and test your project. All design changes are made in real time and implemented immediately to your project. All aspects of your project regarding design and testing should be performed in while Development. Only test data should be collected in Development. This data can be deleted upon moving the project into Production.

Production: Your project should be moved to Production once all building and testing has been completed and you are ready to begin collecting data. All survey and data entry features/functions will be exactly the same as they are in development. Changes can still be made in Production, however, some will require submitting changes in Draft Mode to be reviewed by a REDCap administrator before being placed into Production. This is to help protect data integrity, as some changes can alter or even delete data collected prior to the changes.

Archived: Can be used if data collection is complete; or you no longer need to access the project from the My Projects List; or if the project is no longer needed, but you want the project/data to remain intact for future reference. This status will also disable most project functionality. The project can still be accessed by clicking the Show Archived Projects link at the bottom of the My Projects page. The project can also be moved back into Production status at any time.

Inactive: Can be used if your project is on hold or data collection is complete. This is especially useful if you are collecting data via surveys and wish to stop. Setting your project to Inactive status also disables most project functionality, but data will remain intact and available for review or export. With this status, the project can be moved back into Production at any time.

Note: Data entry is disabled, although you can still view and analyze data. Use this status if you want to ensure that no new data entry will occur, but you would still like to access all of your data easily.

Deleted: If your project and/or data is no longer needed, a REDCap Administrators can delete the project from Production. Project users can do the same for projects that are in Development status. A request to delete a project in Production can be done by navigating to the 'Other Functionality' tab and clicking on 'Request delete project'.

NOTE: Projects are permanently removed from REDCap 30 days after they have been deleted. Until that time, REDCap Administrators can undelete the project, if requested.

More information on project status can be found on the Help & FAQ page in REDCap

For additional assistance, please contact cru@ucalgary.ca