A query is a conversation attached to one data point. Someone asks about a value, the site answers, and someone confirms the answer settles it. This article covers the whole cycle, whichever end of it you are at.
🔑 Prerequisite: three separate permissions, so your role may allow one step and not the others.
eCRF Records (Add Queries) to raise one
eCRF Records (Resolve Queries) to answer and resolve
eCRF Records (Close Queries) to close
Monitoring (Access) to work from the Queries dashboard
The three states
State | Means | Who moves it on |
Open | The query has been raised and is waiting for an answer | Whoever is responsible for the data, usually the site |
Resolved | The site has answered, and any correction has been made | The person responsible for reviewing the answer |
Closed | The answer has been accepted. The query is finished. | Nobody, it is the end state |
A query holds as many messages as you need. It works like a chat thread, so the full exchange stays attached to the data point.
Raise a query on a data point
🛠️ Step by step guide
Open the subject's eCRF and go to the form.
On the question you want to ask about, select the ··· menu at the top right.
Select Add query.
Type your message.
Select the blue arrow to send it.
The query appears under the answers in a cream panel, with your name, the time, and an Open pill.
💡 Tips
A query attaches to one question at a time. There is no bulk option and no query at form or visit level, because a query is a conversation about a single value.
The message is free text. There is no severity, category or assignee to choose, so put everything the reader needs into the message itself.
A question that already has a closed query can be queried again. Add query stays on the menu.
Automated queries from a data validation appear in exactly the same panel and follow exactly the same three states. Once raised, there is no difference in how you work them.
See at a glance whether a query is waiting
Datacapt shows the state of a query in four places at once, so you can spot it whether you are looking at a single answer or a whole study.
Where | Open | Resolved | Closed |
The pill on the query itself | Open, orange | The button reads Close | Closed, green |
The dot beside the question title | Orange | Yellow | Grey |
The form status, in the left panel and the top bar | Queries | Verifications | Back to In progress |
The banner at the top right of the eCRF | 1 active query, orange | 1 active query, yellow | No active queries, green |
💡 Tip: the banner at the top right is the fastest check there is. A site opening their eCRF can see whether anything is waiting for them without opening a single form. It is worth telling your sites this exists, since nothing emails them.
Answer and resolve a query
This is the site's half of the cycle.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Open the eCRF and go to the queried data point. The query sits under the answers.
Select the chevron to expand it.
Check the value against your source, and correct the answer if it is wrong.
Type your reply in the field and send it with the blue arrow.
Select Resolve.
Once resolved, the form moves to Verifications and the question dot turns yellow. The query is now waiting on the reviewer, not on the site.
Close a query
Closing is the reviewer's confirmation that the answer settles the question. It is the end of the cycle.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Open the eCRF and expand the resolved query.
Read the reply, and add a message of your own if useful.
Select Close.
⚠️ Warning: a form cannot be locked while it holds a query that is not closed. Attempting it fails with Failed to lock form, please close queries first. At database lock, closing queries is not optional housekeeping, it is the thing standing between you and a locked database. See Lock and sign eCRF data.
Work the whole list from the Queries dashboard
Going subject by subject does not scale past a handful. The dashboard is where you work a study's queries as a list.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Open the study and go to eCRF > Monitoring.
Open the Queries tab.
Use Add filter to narrow to a center, and Save it so it is there next time.
Use Filters > Status to show only Open, Resolved or Closed.
Select the eye icon on a row to jump to that data point in the eCRF.
Do the work, then use the back control to return to your place in the list.
What the tab shows you:
Element | Reads |
The three cards | Total, Resolved and Opened counts for the study |
The Query State donut | The split between Closed, Resolved and Opened, as percentages |
The table | One row per query: subject ID, center, location in the eCRF, first message, last message and status |
💡 Tips
The Last message column is the most useful column on the page. It tells you whether you are waiting on the site or the site is waiting on you, without opening anything.
The cards count Total, Resolved and Opened, while the donut splits Closed, Resolved and Opened. Closed has no card of its own, so read the donut for it.
Export gives you the query list as CSV or Excel, and the History tab of that window keeps previous exports so you can download one again.