RCR: Describing and Defining Your Data

Presented by Deborah Martin and Theresa Sax, CTSI BERD  

This workshop is part of a series of six workshops co-sponsored by CTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design and the RCR Center.   

Beginning with the assumption that a study has been designed, its aims and hypotheses clearly defined, and the data to be collected have been broadly identified, this workshop will address:  

Part 1 - How to critically review your proposed data collection instruments, including issues of form design, validated vs standardized instruments, and foreign language translations.   

Part 2 – How to convert the Table of Measures from your grant proposal into a tool to document data collection sources and track form development, file transfer protocols, and versioning. Part 3 - How to create a data dictionary that can be used to build a data collection system.  Topics include variable naming conventions, types, codes, dependency, and validations (subject matter: data acquisition and analysis).