Creating a study
Create an EnaResearch study with the wizard: title, measurement types and sources, schedule, retention, clinical record scope, criteria and team.
- Admin panel
A study is the frame for everything in EnaResearch: which measurement types are collected, from when to when, who is on the team and how long data is kept. You create a study as a draft with the study wizard. A draft collects no data and enrolls no participants; it becomes active only after an owner approves it.
Required role
- Researcher or Owner (permission to create draft studies). Whoever creates the draft becomes the study's principal investigator (PI).
Start the wizard
Go to My studies (owners: Studies) and click New study. The wizard has five steps: General, Data scope, Schedule, Team and Review. You can move between steps; a step with a field to fix is marked.
General
- Title (required).
- Protocol / ethics no: optional; the number your organization uses.
- Description: shown to participants in the participant web area and the app. Describe the study's purpose and what is expected of participants in plain language. Do not include personal data.
- Internal note: for the team only; never exported. Do not write national IDs, phone numbers or email addresses in it; EnaResearch warns you if the note looks like it contains one.
Data scope
- Permitted measurement types: choose from the data catalog picker. Only the selected types enter this study's data. The picker shows, for each type, whether it is collected on iOS (Apple Health), on Android (Health Connect) or neither. See Data catalog.
- Sources: automatic by default. The system collects the selected measurements from every source that can provide them. Choose Limit sources if your protocol needs device consistency; no data is taken from sources you do not select.
- Data before participation (days): baseline data from before each participant's start, 0 to 30 days. 0 means only data after participation starts.
- Late data window (days): after the study closes, delayed data for the period before closing is accepted for this many days, 0 to 30 (default 14).
- Clinical record scope: the clinical record categories the team will record per participant (hospital stay, surgery, procedure, critical care, ward transfer, follow-up, complication, other). Leave empty if the study has no clinical records. See Clinical records.
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria: an optional structured list. See Eligibility.
See Data scope for how these settings decide which data is accepted.
Schedule
- Start: Start on approval (data collection starts and recruitment opens as soon as an owner approves) or On a set date.
- Planned end: required to submit. Quick choices: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year. The closing period starts at the end of that day.
- Data retention: Kept for the license term, or Delete earlier with 1, 2 or 5 years or a custom number of days after the study's final close. See Ending a study and retention.
Team
You are the PI. Under Researchers you can add, choose the co-investigators (Co-I). They are added when the draft is saved and can be managed later on the study's Team page.
Review
The review lists every step with an Edit link and a Ready for approval checklist. Choose Save as draft to keep working, or Save and submit to send the study for owner approval at once.
The approval checklist
To submit, these must be complete: a title, a planned end date, an end date that is today or later, a start date that is not in the past (unless the study starts on approval) and an end after the start. The checklist also warns when:
- no data source or measurement type is selected: the study would collect no data,
- sensitive data (reproductive health or sexual activity) is selected: it must be explicit in the ethics approval and participant information,
- data from before enrollment is requested: consent must cover retrospective data, and on iOS the participant may limit history to 30 days on the permission screen.
Ethics and consent are your organization's responsibility
EnaResearch shows these reminders, but it does not check your ethics approval or consent forms. Make sure they cover every measurement type, the clinical records and the retention period you choose.
Copy an existing study
From a study's Actions menu, choose Copy. A new draft is created with the same data scope, periods and team; dates, the internal note and participants are not copied.
Delete a draft
The PI can delete a study that is a draft or has changes requested and has no participants: Actions → Delete study. This cannot be undone.
Related articles
Can't find what you need?
Our support team can help, from setting up a study to exporting a dataset. Please include your organization code.
Surfaces overview
EnaResearch's admin panel, participant web area and iOS and Android participant apps: who uses each one, how to open it and what it is for.
Study lifecycle
The seven statuses of an EnaResearch study from draft to closed, what each allows, recruitment, and how dates move a study forward automatically.