Cited by 24,013Research Data Management PracticesScientific Computing and Data ManagementElectronic Health Records Systems

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 63 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 12 of the 20 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

The REDCap consortium: Building an international community of software platform partners

Open access
Harris, Paul A., Taylor, Robert, Minor, Brenda L., Elliott, Veida, Fernandez, Michelle, O'Neal, Lindsay, McLeod, Laura, Delacqua, Giovanni, Delacqua, Francesco, Kirby, Jacqueline, Duda, Stephany N.·2019·Journal of Biomedical Informatics

Abstract

The Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) data management platform was developed in 2004 to address an institutional need at Vanderbilt University, then shared with a limited number of adopting sites beginning in 2006. Given bi-directional benefit in early sharing experiments, we created a broader consortium sharing and support model for any academic, non-profit, or government partner wishing to adopt the software. Our sharing framework and consortium-based support model have evolved over time along with the size of the consortium (currently more than 3,200 REDCap partners across 128 countries). While the “REDCap Consortium” model represents only one example of how to build and disseminate a software platform, lessons learned from our approach may assist other research institutions seeking to build and disseminate innovative technologies.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This paper describes how REDCap grew from a Vanderbilt-built data capture tool into an international consortium through phased sharing and support. It reports that by mid-December 2018 the consortium had more than 3,200 partners in 128 countries and argues that the staged model offers transferable lessons for disseminating research software.

Key findings

  • The consortium expanded from a single site in 2004–2005 to more than 3,207 partners across 128 countries by mid-December 2018; in 2018 alone it added 575 partners, with roughly 2.75 international requests for each U.S. request and more than 20% of partners in World Bank low- and middle-income countries.
  • Growth followed six phases: local development, three collaborating sites, 4–10 partners, about 50 national sites, about 500 sites, and then more than 500 sites globally, with changes in licensing, communication, support staffing, and feature priorities at each stage.
  • REDCap was cited in more than 6,000 journal articles between 2004 and 2018; early return-on-investment tracking at Vanderbilt in 2008–2009 cited REDCap’s value in securing 23 funded or awarded projects.
  • Lessons include starting with local needs, maintaining compatibility with existing projects, setting modest expectations and delivering more than promised, using simple communication tools, managing growth deliberately, and enabling flexible modules, APIs, and plug-ins.

Methods

  • Descriptive experience report tracing REDCap and the REDCap Consortium from 2004 through 2018, organized into six chronological phases.
  • Evidence includes consortium membership counts, partner distribution, publication citation counts, local return-on-investment examples, and narrative accounts of governance, licensing, support calls, conferences, and software features.
  • No formal hypothesis testing or controlled comparison; the analysis is a retrospective narrative synthesis of program metrics and lessons learned.

Limitations

  • Stated: the authors note that the REDCap Consortium is only one dissemination model and may not suit all groups; REDCap is not open source, eligibility is limited to non-profit or government institutions, the license restricts code sharing and reseller services, and Vanderbilt retains control over the development trajectory and funding-driven priorities.
  • Stated: growth reduced Vanderbilt’s ability to maintain close ties with every new partner; support is limited to partner informatics teams rather than end users, and many non-technical vendor requests were denied.
  • Evident: the metrics are program-reported and descriptive, with no independent or controlled evaluation; citation counts and return-on-investment examples are not adjusted for confounding, and the paper does not report systematic user outcomes or comparative performance against other platforms.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103208

Cites

57 of 57 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

43 No basis given · 22 Own interpretation · 6 Partly supported · 3 Own result · 2 Sources not found · 2 No full text of the sources · 1 Supported so far · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 25 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 42
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 25
54 of 54
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The core principles of the REDCap Consortium model are generalizable to other software development teams or sharing consortia.

    “we believe the core principles are generalizable and can benefit any software development team or sharing consortium.”
1 of 1

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 63 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Committee to Review the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine, The CTSA Program at NIH: Opportunities for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research, National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC), 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK144067/ (accessed December 10, 2014).
  2. Nadan, 2004, Software licensing in the 21st century: Are software licenses really sales, and how will the software industry respond, AIPLA Q. J., 32, 555

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 22,001–22,100 of 23,840

Metadata

Authors
Harris, P. A., Taylor, R., Minor, B. L., Elliott, V., Fernandez, M., O'Neal, L., McLeod, L., Delacqua, G., Delacqua, F., Kirby, J., & Duda, S. N.
Affiliations
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
Harris, Paul A.
Venue
Journal of Biomedical Informatics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-07
Volume
95
Pages
103208
ISSN
1532-0464 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2944434778
Cited by
24,013
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 3706 · 2025: 4752 · 2024: 4657 · 2023: 3779 · 2022: 3249 · 2021: 2604 · 2020: 1153 · 2019: 70
FWCI
2198.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Biomedical Informatics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
NIH/NCATS (UL1 TR002243)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Research Data Management Practices
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Scientific Computing and Data Management
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Electronic Health Records Systems
Keywords
REDCap, research data management tools, consortium model, software adoption
MeSH terms
Humans, Medical Informatics, Software, Information Dissemination, Biomedical Research, Internationality

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