Create and capture

Capture research data

Research data are created or captured to analyse and produce original research results.

High quality documentation and data description (known as metadata) enables future users to find, understand, use and properly cite your data. During your project:

your data and collection processes to ensure quality, transparency and context.
Use to ensure your data can be identified, interpreted, accessible, understandable, preserved and verified.
and organise your data at the point of collection or creation to ensure integrity is preserved and contextualised.
Use high resolution capture and technology or equipment for primary materials.
Document ownership information, , privacy and consent.

Data capture involves collecting data for processing or analysis using various methods, from high end technologies to low tech field instruments.

Use tools and processes to:

capture data provenance—include data origin details, how it has been altered or transformed
at the point of capture to enhance sharing, publishing and citation
into open and flexible formats
ensure compliance with privacy, ethics, and consent agreements.

Solutions, methods and tools are available to capture your data accurately and ensure valid results.

View available tools

Interviews

Apply for ethics approval to secure informed consent from participants.
Consider potential data sharing and re-use scenarios when organising an appropriate agreement.

Randomised controlled trials

Clinical Trials Randomisation Service provides an independent randomisation process, compatible with all major clinical trial standards.

Speech to text service

Griffith provides access to a speech-to-text service for automatically transcribing audio data. This service is safe, secure and complies with ɫ��վn government, Griffith, and ARC funding requirements.

Surveys and clinical trials

Griffith provides access to LimeSurvey, Qualtrics and REDCap for developing and distributing surveys. Each tool has different strengths and use cases.

Compare survey tools

Create high-quality surveys

Before you begin creating your survey:

speak with your supervisor
seek statistical advice
attend relevant workshops.

Start developing and publishing your research survey

While planning your survey consider:

the survey objectives
the type of survey that best suits your objectives
how the survey supports your research intentions
who is your target cohort
how many responses you need to get
if it should be anonymous
how it will be advertised or distributed
possible incentives or enlistment strategies
if extra care is needed for the research data (personal, or commercial sensitive data may need special handling).

Note: Make sure you have ethics approval for your research.

After completing training start building your survey by:

registering your survey
building a test survey
giving others access (for example, your supervisor) during survey development, if required
creating a map or flowchart of your survey
with a small test group.

Once your survey is finished and requires no further changes:

activate your survey
- survey structure and question types can not be changed once active
decide how long to keep the survey active
decide between open-access or closed-access mode
- open-access mode—anyone with the link can complete the survey
- closed-access mode—participants need to register or receive an email invite, with a limited number of uses.

Note: Choose Open-access mode if you don’t know who will be completing your survey. Closed-access is good when you need to keep a record of participants.

After activating and distributing your survey:

keep track of completed submissions
export data after you have enough responses or the survey has expired

Data is commonly exported to Excel (CSV), SPSS, or R for analysis.

Contact us for assistance integrating survey panel codes if you engage a panel company to supply participants.

All Griffith supported survey tools have inbuilt charts and data display pages that show a simple overview of participant responses.

You can analyse using free software available via the :

Leximancer—text analysis
Nvivo—qualitative analysis
SAS—statistical analysis
SPSS—statistical analysis
R—free software environment for statistical computing and graphics.

Attend for support with R or Python programming.

After data analysis has been completed:

export as a PDF or printable version, if a copy is required, and deactivate the survey
consider your requirements for data archival and custodianship.

Check the and Griffith's .

Survey tools at Griffith

Griffith provides support for LimeSurvey, Qualtrics and REDCap. Each has different strengths and use cases, contact us if you need help choosing a survey tool.

In general, if you’re not sure you need REDCap, it’s usually best to select Qualtrics or LimeSurvey.

LimeSurvey

User-friendly and quick to develop.
Lightweight, responsive, web-based forms—suitable for mobile and tablet entry.

Qualtrics

User-friendly interface.
Supports very complex logic.
Offers some question types not available in other tools.

REDCap

Suitable for clinical and longitudinal studies.
More suited to studies with multiple collaborators.
Offline data collection tools (for remote fieldwork).

Compare LimeSurvey, Qualtrics and REDCap
Feature	LimeSurvey	Qualtrics	REDCap
Price	Free	Free	Free
Complexity	**		****
Validation	Yes¹	Yes	Yes
Email invitations	Yes	Yes	Yes
Secure file send	No	No	Yes
Custom HTML / CSS	No	Yes²	No
Quotas	Yes	Yes	Yes
Logic and branching	Yes	Yes	Yes
Offline data entry	No	Yes³	Yes³
Longitudinal studies	Yes¹	Yes	Yes
Panel integration	Yes	Yes²	Yes¹
Mobile app	No	Yes	Yes
Responsive design (mobile friendly)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Randomisation / counterbalancing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hosted on Griffith infrastructure	Yes	No	Yes

Possible, but difficult and complex. Contact us for advice before proceeding.
Additional costs are involved.
Requires mobile app.

LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey is a web-based survey tool that features functionality such as a wide variety of question types, automatic redirects based on conditions, automated invitations, and quick visualisation of responses.

Griffith hosts a secure installation of Limesurvey for use by university researchers, where all survey data collected is stored on Griffith servers and administered by the eResearch & Specialised Platforms Team.

Learn the basics and get support

Get started with our self-paced tutorial and access support materials and resources.

LimeSurvey support

Common questions

REDCap

REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a data collection tool that is highly flexible and supports multiple collaborators. It works well for clinical and longitudinal studies, but can also be used to deliver simple surveys.

Griffith hosts a secure instance of REDCap for use by university researchers, where all surveys and data collected are stored on our own servers and administrated by the eResearch Services team.

Learn the basics

Work through our self-paced tutorial to get started with REDCap.

Find out more

Common questions

Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a web-based tool enabling you to build surveys, feedback and polls using a variety of distribution means. Results can be easily analysed, downloaded and viewed in reports to inform your research.

The Griffith instance is hosted in an ɫ��վn data centre and meets requirements for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data capture. Qualtrics is centrally funded and available free of charge for Griffith staff and students.

Learn the basics and get support

XM Basecamp house tutorials and guides to get you started with Qualtrics. You can contact the Qualtrics team 24/7 via email, chat or phone for technical support.

eResearch support