Ripple Science Glossary
This glossary provides definitions and explanations of key terms used within the Ripple Science platform. Use this as a reference to better understand the tools, settings, and terminology relevant to your study management.
Access Role: determines the team member’s level of security access to the study
Add item: a button in the “Events” and “Statuses” section of Study Settings where you can add additional events and statuses respectively
Admin: access role for a study that gives team member access to all participant data and the study settings area
Age Requirements: the required age range(s) for participants in the study. Use the “Add age group” hyperlink to define multiple age ranges and the number of participants required for each range
Bulk Task: groups of common tasks that always occur together. Bulk tasks can be linked to specific event triggers. For example, you can link a bulk task to “Event: Intake” and “Event Status: Scheduled” resulting in bulk tasks being automatically created when a participant’s intake event is scheduled
Calendar: Filterable calendar showing all tasks that are overdue/missed, scheduled, and/or to-be-scheduled/projected
Comment: a note written by a team member on a task, event, or participant profile card
Contact Method: contact information for a participant (includes name, relationship to participant, phone number, email address, if a message can be left, and preferred method of contact
Contact Comment: a comment in which a participant was contacted. Writing a comment and indicating that it was a contact comment updates the date of last contact to the date that the comment is written
Convert: Converts a custom variable that was created as a “single select” variable to a “multi select” variable
Custom Variable: information that is critical to the study sample enrollment that is not captured in the out of the box variables of Sample Size, Age Requirements, Sex & Gender, Ethnic & Racial Categories
Custom ID: a user defined ID to track a participant at the study level. Another way to think of the Custom ID, is this is the participant's study ID. Users can use the same ID between studies, but not the same ID within a study. A participant's Custom ID is the identifier that is shown on a participants event details on the Ripple calendar and in the calendar subscription.
Dashboard: The study landing page helps you keep track of your study progress with a focus on the success of your recruitment campaign. The dashboard gives you information about what strategies are working best, which sources and sites have resulted in the most participants, and whether you are on track to reach your recruitment goals
Demographic Info: the section on a participant profile card where the following information is defined: Age, Sex/Gender, Ethnicity, Race, and Birthday
Display: a page in the Study Settings area to select the locale of date by country. This page is also the location to set the “Show global comments” feature to on by selecting the checkbox. This allows for comments marked as global to be seen across all studies within Ripple
Enrolled Participant: Participants which have been screened and consented to be part of the study
Ethnic & Racial Categories: the area within Participant Requirements where the ethnic and racial category(ies) and the corresponding required sample size(s) are defined
Event: either something that a participant does or a study milestone
Event Before: an option when creating new events to have the scheduled date be calculated based on the event directly before it in the ordered list of events. For example, a new event called “Prepare Interview Room” could be scheduled relative to the Event Before when the Event Before is “Schedule Interview”
External Screening Form: a screening form built to be hosted online where potential participants can register/screen themselves for your study.
Family ID: the team member defined unique ID that links participants together into a family
Filter: in the Registry, filters are used to search for participants based on a specific variable(s)
Global Custom Variable: a custom variable that is available to use for participants across all studies rather than a study specific custom variable
Global ID: a unique id for each participant that is defined by Ripple
Global Comment/Contact: a comment or contact that is marked global will make it visible across all studies and the registry. Global tags will also include the study in which the comment or contact was created.
Intake Event: the first event defined in a study. This title of this event is free text, however in the event relative menu the first event is always referred to as the “Intake Event”. For example, the first event in the study might be called “Consent Form Signed”. If any future events should be scheduled based on the “Consent Form Signed” event then a user will select “Relative to Intake Event” in the “Schedule Relative To” dropdown
Internal Screening Form: a screening form built to be used for phone or in-person participant screening. Internal Screening Forms can be accessed from the potential participants page.
Leader: access role for a study that gives team member access to all participant data, but not the study settings section
Long Text: a variable that is a long text string entered for the participant, there is no limit on the number and type of characters that you can add in this box (ex. Participant Behavior Description)
Multi-Select: a variable that is a list where multiple options in the list are selected for the participant (ex. Temperament – Quiet, Difficult, Outgoing, Uncomfortable, Animated)
Notify Comment: a comment that is marked as notify causing an email to be sent to all team members assigned to the task (for a task comment), all team members assigned to an event (for an event comment), or all team members within a study (for a participant comment or contact)
Number: a variable that captures a number for the participant. This is different from a short text box in that you can only type numbers, decimals and commas (ex. Height, Weight, etc.)
Option: a value within a single select or multi select custom variable
Participant: any person that is defined within a study
Participant Profile Card: the information card defining a participant within a study or the Registry. The card contains sections for all out of the box and custom variables. Within a study the participant profile card will show study specific and global custom variables; within the registry the participant profile card will show only global custom variables
Pin Comment/Contact: a comment that has been "Pinned" keeps the comment/contact at the top of the log. Multiple pins can be used within a log.
Potential Participant: participants being screened/recruited to a study, but are not yet enrolled
RA: access role for a study that gives team member no access to the participant personal data (they see a de-identified ID only) and no access to the study settings section
Registry: cross-study lab-level repository of all participants across all of your team’s Ripple studies. The registry is available to anyone on the team with Admin privileges
Requirements: page within the Study Settings where all required participant information is defined (out of the box variables and custom variables)
Sample Size (N): the number of participants required for the study
Sex & Gender: the section of Participant Requirements where the sex and gender category(ies) and the corresponding required sample size(s) are defined
Single Select: a variable that is a list where only one option in the list is selected for the participant (ex. Preferred Contact Time – Morning, Afternoon, Night)
Site: a specific location that applies to each recruitment source. For example, you may create a list of specific hospitals, doctors, schools, websites, or magazines that you want to target. The sites dashboard allows you to keep track of the contact person of each site and to make notes about your interactions with each site.
Site Admin: This is a Ripple site access role that allows a user to be an Administrator for your Ripple site. This will give the user access to add new team members, lock/unlock user accounts, define user roles, add/delete studies, import/export data, and define configurable security settings.
Short Text: a variable that is a short text string entered for the participant, you have a 250 character limit in a short text. Think of this link a tweet sized text box (ex. Alphanumeric Payment Receipt ID)
Source: a broad category of sites where you could find participants. For example, participants might come from hospitals, clinics, stores, coffee houses, schools, etc.
Status: a category used to visually separate participants within their respective dashboards. For example, common statuses within potential participants include “To Contact”, “Contacted – Scheduling”, “Scheduled”, and “Withdrawn”. Common Statuses for enrolled participants include “Enrolled”, “Completed”, “Withdrawn”.
Strategy: a recruitment tactic to target specific sources. For example, flyers would be a strategy used within a source of a clinic
Study:
Study Details: a page within the Study Settings to enter the Study Name, recruitment start and end dates (this information will be used to calculate recruitment progress on the study Dashboard), the IRB Approved #/ID, Grant # and agency, and a study description
Study Roles: a page within the Study Settings to assign team members to the study and assign a role (a simple label) and access role (permission to participant information and the study settings section)
Tag: an openly defined, searchable word or group of words used to identify participants. For example, strength of match, hair color, preferred test object, etc.
Task: something someone on the study team is responsible for. For example, preparing the interview room
Trigger: the combination of an event and timing of the event that will trigger tasks to be created. For example, a set of tasks can be automatically created when an intake event is scheduled by creating a set of Bulk Tasks that use the Trigger of the intake event being scheduled
Unlock: when custom variables are made global they are automatically locked within a study. You can use the unlock button to modify the custom variable on the Requirements page within the Study Settings section
User: an individual with access to Ripple; a user may have access to any number of studies and have different roles in different studies.
Variable: a subgroup of information that is critical to the study sample/participants not defined as part of the out of the box variables