IMPORTANT: Privacy for the respondent
Almost all TSD Nettskjema usage is for collecting sensitive information. This implies that the respondents are sometimes directly identifiable in the response data once decrypted, especially if using minID or BankID etc. for authentication.
Your research project has the responsibility of washing the data before performing analysis so that there is no use of names, IDs or other data that are not essential for the research.
Every project should have one or a few people washing the data by inserting a responsecode (l?penummer), and putting the link key (koplingsn?kkel) matching ID and the responsecode in a safe place with limited access. TSD recommends the pxx/home/area of the data manager and PI for storing the link key.
If the link key is final , TSD can lock it down further so that none in the actual project can access the link key. For questions, please contact tsd-drift@usit.uio.no
TSD does not provide this service in an automated fashion, but we might have the time to assist you on a per hour fee.
Read the Nettskjema disclaimer before you start.
How to create a Nettskjema for sensitive data
Step 1: Getting access
In order to use Nettskjema as an integrated TSD service you need to have a TSD project running. See "Getting Started with TSD".
To access Nettskjema you need either:
- A valid username and password at the University of Oslo (employed or student). You already have access to Nettskjema and can start making forms right away.
- For TSD-users that are not affiliated with UiO we can grant access to Nettskjema. Request access thorugh IDporten or FEIDE..
Step 2: Construct the form
Construct your survey in Nettskjema with form elements, design the questions, answer options etc. as these should appear to the respondent.
Important about piloting and testing outside TSD:
If you are piloting the form in the standard Nettskjema service before it is activated in a TSD project, no submissions with sensitive data should be registered. Piloting should only contain dummy data. All data will be deleted when the form is activated for TSD use.
If you need assistance when making the survey, send a request to nettskjema@usit.uio.no.
Step 3: Make a predefined codebook
You can activate the codebook function under advanced settings in Nettskjema. Fill in the desired variables and scores.
Read about codebook here. (Norwegian)
Requirements for the codebook:
- The form should be pre-coded according to the link above, thus ensuring optimal data flow to TSD and correct import to applications like SPSS, Stata, Excel, R etc.
- You should create your own variable names and avoid the auto-fill available in Nettskjemas codebook.
- Maximum 999 variables per form are allowed. The maximum number of questions are therefore 999 in a single Nettskjema.
- Variable names in the codebook can be up to 60 characters long, and the first character must be a letter. Subsequent characters can be a combination of letters and numbers (no blank spaces). Variable names must also be unique within the same form.
- Variables names must not be one of the reserved words in SPSS: ALL, AND, BY, EQ, GE, GT, LE, LT, NE, NOT, OR, TO, and WITH. SPSS Documentation
- Variable names defined in the Nettskjema codebook must not contain any of these characters:
‘?’, ’?’, ’?’, ’;’, ’?’, ‘(’, ‘)’, ‘!’, ‘@’, ‘#’, ‘$’, ‘%’, ‘^’, ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘=’, ‘[‘, ’], ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘~’, ‘`’, ‘|’, ‘-’, ‘.’, ‘:’
Step 4: Activate form for TSD use
Make sure that the form is in its final version before TSD activation. Do not edit the questions and answer options any further at this stage, in order to keep a consistent dataset and be able to compile the answers into a single file for further analysis. The form will automatically lock when the first submission is received.
When you are finished designing the survey, the form needs to be set up with your projects unique encryption key.
Checklist before activation
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It is the final version of the form.
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The codebook feature in Nettskjema and all questions and answer options are properly coded. The codebook should be complete, no blank fields.
- I have used radio buttons or dropdowns for questions for fixed answer options where only one answer can be selected. Do not use check-boxes
See example form (Norwegian).. - There are no submissions left in the form. Test submissions in the results tab should be deleted before activation.
When you are ready, start the procedure for activation (self service):
Step 5: Send a test submission
When a new form is activated for TSD it is very important that you verify that submissions reach your project area and that the associated files decrypt as they should. This must be done before using the survey on real respondents with real sensitive data.
In addition to checking that the result files are as you expected, this is also an assurance that your key pair is valid and answers are delivered correctly to your project area.
- Send a test submission (dummy answer) from your form.
- Make a note of the Nettskjema form ID.
3. Locate the test submission in your TSD secure storage area as described in step 6 below.
Double click on your durable shortcut and navigate to the folder data > durable > nettskjema-data. Open and inspect the forms result file (<submission-id>.csv). You should now see a table with your data, each line representing one Nettskjema submission. Verify that the test-submission is as you expected, with the variable names you defined in the codebook.
Manage your Nettskjema data in TSD
Further processing and analysis of the results from secure nettskjemas should be conducted inside of TSD. If you need to export data out of TSD, the files should be properly de-identified or anonymized before exporting. If the files contain sensitive data they must be encrypted before export.
You are free to organize the data as you wish within TSD, but remember to always store your files securely on data>durable or in your home directory.
TSD internal Nettskjema portal
A web tool to view TSD-enabled Nettskjemas
- Download submissions as CSV/Excel files
- Edit or delete submissions
- Download file attachments as well as signed PDFs
Quick start
Log into a TSD virtual desktop. Inside TSD, open the Firefox browser and go to internal.nettskjema.tsd.usit.no. A login prompt will ask for your TSD username and password again.
Multiple TSD projects
In case you are a member of multiple TSD projects, make sure to use the same TSD username of your current TSD session.
Example: If your Nettskjema is activated for TSD project p123, log into a virtual desktop with p123-yourusername. Inside the virtual desktop, use the same p123-yourusername at internal.nettskjema.tsd.usit.no.
Read permissions
Read permissions for individual Nettskjema forms can be set at nettskjema.no. Inside TSD, the forms overview will indicate any Nettskjemas that you don't have access to (as shown below).
More on setting access rights for nettskjema data can be found on this Nettskjema page (Norwegian only).
Handling Digital Consent Data
Projects can monitor incoming data from consent forms delivered via Nettskjema in compliance with GDPR. Consenters can view and modify their consents.
Read more about handling digital consent data here.
Best practice
- When the form is activated and in production it is good practice to make a print of the Nettskjema form as a PDF or a regular paper print and store it as a reference. Open your form in the Nettskjema application, press the View tab and print the content.
- If the codebook functionality is used in Nettskjema, download the codebook and store it together with your project files as a reference. See the Codebook tab in Nettskjema.
- When the form is finalized and tested and is delivering submissions to your TSD project, it is considered to be in production. The form should then be locked for editing to ensure data integrity and consistency.
- If you need to do major revisions of the Nettskjema form, you should make a copy of the original form inside Nettskjema. This way you will get a new form ID, and the submissions will be stored in new directory within your project.
- When working with submissions, please copy files to a folder where you have write access, and analyze data in that folder.
- See best practice examples for using different elements/fields in Nettskjema for research purposes. (Norwegian).
Troubleshooting
Missing Nettskjema submissions
If you cant find any answers in your nettskjema-submissions folder there may be a problem with the projects encryption key or a scheduled maintenance of the system. Check the service log to see if any issues have been reported.
If the problem is not reported in the service log, contact TSD support for assistance.
Run a pilot of a TSD-nettskjema before it is activated
You can pilot a a TSD-nettskjema before it is activated, but with with dummy registrations that are not sensitive only. Send the form to 4-5 respondents from the target group or a few research associates. Ask them to fill out randomly, make notes if anything was unclear in the questions and how long time they spent filling in the form. Then delete the answers in Nettskjema and adjust the form based on the feedback.
Help with the functionality in the Nettskjema web application
This is in general not a case for the TSD support team.
Full Nettskjema user guide in Norwegian.
Nettskjema user guide in English.
If you can't find an answer in the Nettskjema documentation, send your request to nettskjema@usit.uio.no.
Change a form that is locked for editing and activated in TSD
The locking is a safety mechanism to prevent accidental changes to the form when it is in production. If the data producing elements in the existing form (such as question and and answer options) are changed when the form is in production, it may distort the final dataset. For example, the content of the questions, variable names or content of answers options should not be changed after the form is activated.
If you need to do edits, the following two approaches are safe to do, as the original form and the associated data will remain untouched:
- Make a copy of the original form in Nettskjema. Do the edits, update the codebook and activate it, following the standard routine. The new form will then deliver submissions to another folder representing the new form ID.
- Make a new supplementary form with the extra questions you forgot to put in the original form. Include the same participant-ID field as the original form. Add the new questions and define appropriate variables in the codebook. The new form with extra variables can be joined with the original form when preparing the final data set. The supplementary form needs to be activated for TSD use according to the standard routine.
Read more about changes of forms after activation in TSD (Norwegian).
Deleting test answers in TSD
When the test answers are sendt to your TSD project you should not delete them. Leave the files as they are in their respective folders. Take note of their answer IDs and remove the raw data containing the test answers when the exporting data for analysis. This also applies if you have Data Loader activated in your project.
A respondent withdraws consent
If a respondent withdraws from the research study it is the projects responsibility to remove all data from this particular person. TSD can assist in running new fresh backup after you have deleted the data so that any traces of those specific answers are not in the backup. We do not touch your data directly.
Open audio recordings and images from the camera app in TSD
- Locate the /data/durable/nettskjema-data/forms-ID/attachments folder. Audio recordings and photos will be stored here.
Contact points for secure Nettskjema
- TSD: Question concerning TSD, login to project, locating/handling/storing data etc.
- nettskjema@usit.uio.no: Questions concerning the Nettskjema web-application, advice on building and creating forms etc.
See also (Norwegian)
- Mobile solutions for research and app-development
- Central configuration and maintenance of iPads for secure data collection with Nettskjema and custom apps
- Voice recorder app (Nettskjema diktafon) that can deliver audio-files to secure storage in TSD
- Viso mobile app that can deliver Video-recordings to secure storage in TSD
- Nettskjema mobile-app that can securely deliver pictures to TSD