redcap.socsci.uci.edu

The School of Social Sciences hosts a REDCap instance, which is a web application for building surveys and managing the collected data. It is primarily used to support research studies and research operations. If you would like to apply for a project to be hosted in our REDCap instance, please email socit@uci.edu, we are happy to schedule a consultation to discuss your needs. Please note, while billed as a secure application capable of handling high levels of security, our shared service is not rated for anything over UCOP Protection Level 2. If you require increased security or other custom considerations for your REDCap project, please do not hesitate to reach out so we can see if we can accomodate you outside of this shared service.

• Who can apply: Social Ecology and Social Sciences staff and faculty
• Cost: $150 per year. This is our estimated cost to operate per project manager. Billing details will be covered during a consultation meeting or Zoom call.

By using this service, you agree to the following terms, subject to change.

• Configuration and design of projects / surveys
• Administration of team permissions and access rights
• Troubleshooting or updating projects / surveys in case updates cause issues
• Uploading and downloading their data (don't treat the REDCap instance as a long term storage device)
• Backups of projects/data before making changes
• Restoring or rebuilding projects/data due to mistakes or issues arising from updates or maintenance
• Ensuring that no data beyond P2 exists on or is entered into the application or database.

• REDCap instance uptime
  • Weekly backups of the server
  • Restoration of the server due to backend incident or issue with an update
    • SocIT will not restore data due to user error
    • SocIT will not restore data due to changes made without a backup
• Updates and Downtime
  • Software Updates
    • Scheduled Updates
      • 2nd Wednesday of every month:
      • 4 hours of downtime:
        • 2 hours to perform updates
        • 2 hours allotted for project teams to check projects/surveys and request server rollback and report issues with an update
    • Emergency Security Updates: We will try to warn before updating but depending on the nature of the security vulnerability, we may have to update and restart the server immediately.
• Long Term Maintenance
  • Cleanup (annually in July)
    • There will be a regular notice sent out requesting that PIs and Project Managers clean up their old data and to respond with a list of active projects.
    • Any ignored notice will be marked for deletion at the next cleanup period. A warning will be sent out and if not addressed, project deletion will be scheduled.
    • This is to ensure that the shared resources are not taken up by defunct or closed projects.
  • Server Rebuild (schedule TBD)
    • SocIT will need to periodically rebuild the server in order to remain secure and up to date. This should only occur once every few years.
    • Outside of emergencies, SocIT will give at least a month's advance warning before rebuilding to allow for teams to plan for extended downtime.