# Studies **URL:** \ **Category:** Reference\ **Created:** [June 16, 2025, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/studies/1271 "2025-06-16T09:19:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mojtaba](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@mojtaba](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/u/mojtaba)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/studies/1271/1 "2025-06-16T09:19:19Z")
The first step to using Avicenna is creating a [study](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/terminology/1288#p-2915-study-39). Studies form the core of Avicenna, and you cannot run or manage any research without them. ## My Studies Avicenna lets you be part of multiple studies, either as a **researcher** or a **[study owner](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/roles-and-permissions/1282#p-2909-study-owner-6)**. You can see all your studies on the **My Studies** page in your dashboard. On this page, you can **open a study** by clicking its row, **[create a new study](#p-2898-create-a-new-study-2)**, and perform other actions. ![My Studies page in Avicenna researcher dashboard](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/57b65d94bfe2d585293c20c0193b6d5f781e8b26.png) ## Create a New Study To create a new study, follow these steps: 1. Go to the **My Studies** page in your dashboard. 2. Click the **Create Study** button. 3. In the **Create a New Study** dialog, click **Let’s Go** to start. 4. Fill in [the study details](#p-2898-study-details-3) for each step. 5. Submit each step using the **Checkmark** button or the **Enter** key. 6. Click **Start** to create your study. This sets up the database and redirects you to the [Basics Page](#p-2898-basics-page-9) in your dashboard. As part of this, Avicenna assigns a [unique ID](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/terminology/1288#p-2915-study-id-40) to your study, helping you to distinguish it from other studies on the Avicenna platform. ![Create a New Study form in the researcher dashboard](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/542c9b0984064c10e4e641071af267549e4f9aa7.png) > [!note] > You can navigate back to completed steps by clicking their titles. ### Study Details #### Study Name A concise and memorable name for easy reference in the researcher dashboard and participant apps. #### Organization Name The name of the organization conducting the study. It defaults to your affiliated institution but can be adjusted if needed. #### Consent Materials The participant consent form, usually approved by your institution’s review board (IRB). This content is shown to participants during registration before they join your study. Participants are expected to read and accept this content before joining the study. Make sure it includes: - Study purpose - Participant risks and benefits - Data handling and access (how, who, etc.) - Research team contact information, if needed - Withdrawal procedures If participants provide signed consent in person, the content here can be mostly informational. If no signed forms are collected in person, include the full consent text and clearly state that registering for the study implies consent. You can format your content using the available controls at the top of the input area. #### Participation Period & Duration Defines when and how long the participation (e.g., data collection) will take using the **start** and **end** dates and times. For more details, visit [Participation Period](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/participation-period/1279/1). > [!note] > Participation duration cannot exceed the participation period. ## Duplicate a Study Study owners can duplicate a study protocol/schema (not the participants or their data) instead of [creating one from scratch](#p-2898-create-a-new-study-2). To duplicate an existing study: 1. Find the study you want to duplicate on the **My Studies** page. 2. Click the three-dot menu next to it and select **Duplicate**. 3. Confirm the action. 4. You will receive an email notification once the duplication is complete or has failed for any reason. Duplicated elements include: - [Basic settings](#p-2898-basics-page-9) - [Localizations and translations](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/localization/1275/1) - [Sites](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/multi-site-studies/1276/1) - [Activities](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/activities/1237/1) (the last [version](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/surveys/1286#p-2913-versions-and-export-15) only) - [Data sources](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/data-sources/1266/1) excluding [beacons mapping](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/contact-network/1252#p-2879-beacon-mapping-page-6) - [Notification templates](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/notifications/1277#p-2904-notification-templates-1) and their links to the activities - [Researchers, roles, and permissions](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/roles-and-permissions/1282) Also, all references to survey questions in [criteria](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/criteria/1236/1), [question placeholders](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/questions/1291#p-2918-placeholders-92), and [receiver questions](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/carry-forward-responses/1294) will automatically update to reflect the new survey IDs in the duplicated study. > [!note] > Duplicated studies have a trial license. On the other hand, settings such as [SMS](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/notifications/1277/1) and [chat (televisit)](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/televisit/1284/1) are **not copied**. Contact [support@avicennaresearch.com](mailto:support@avicennaresearch.com) if you want to adjust those settings. ## Basics Page From the **Basics** page, you can view your study’s **[ID](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/terminology/1288#p-2915-study-id-40)**, **name** , **organization** , **consent materials** , **participation timeline** , and [some other details](#p-2898-editing-a-study-10). On the other hand, this page allows you to make changes to the basic settings as needed. ![Basics page for a newly created study in Avicenna](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/191ddd59781e584add503446770d0c9e2a523099.png) ## Editing a Study Once a study has been created, you can update its basic settings at any time by using the **Edit** buttons at the top of the [Basics page](#p-2898-basics-page-9). Other than **name** , **organization** , **consent materials** , and **participation timeline** , you can also adjust the following settings: ### Participant Verification Decide whether Avicenna should verify each participant’s **phone number** and/or **email address** : - **Verify phone number** : Required for sending SMS notifications. To enable this option, [contact our support](mailto:support@avicennaresearch.com). Note that additional charges may apply. - **Verify email** : Ensures participants provide a valid email address. Also, this is required for sending email notifications, but you can still enable this even if your study isn’t going to send any email notifications. > [!note] > The checkbox can be selected, but the feature may remain inactive until the required underlying service is enabled. The checkbox reflects the intended setting, but the feature only works when the corresponding service (SMS or email notifications) is enabled by support or correctly configured. ### Enrollment Type Specify how participants can join your study. For more details, visit [Enrollment Types](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/enrollment/1274#p-2901-enrollment-types-8). ### Auto-Triggered Activities Provide a title for auto-triggered activities. Participants will see this title on the study’s home page of their app. ### Participant-Triggered Activities Provide a title for user-triggered activities. This title will appear on the study’s home page of the participant’s app. ### Empty Message (No Session) Create a message that appears on the study’s home page of the participant’s app when no activities are currently available. ### Participants Progress Page Enable the **My Progress** feature to let participants view their progress directly from the study’s home page of their app. See [here](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/participation-period/1279#p-2906-my-progress-13) for more details. ### Capture Reason for Changes Researchers can enable a feature that will force them to provide reasons for any changes that affect participants’ data, including modifying the participation period, changing labels or sites, dropping them from the study, editing survey responses, etc. This provides transparency and accountability, empowering researchers to validate the integrity of any modifications. ![Enabling Capture Reason for Changes](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/66aa796ae9b8e89cfff5a017d08308c42d7fa58a.png) Once enabled, researchers must provide reasons for changes made to participants’ data. For example, the following image shows that editing a participant’s label requires a Reason now: ![Edit participant's label with a reason](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/1f0a93f4b5b09f6399c953ff0c1490e0a956ef82.png) Reasons are recorded as part of the audit logs along with the changes made to the participants’ data. See the following image for the recorded Reason we wrote when changing the participant’s label: ![The audit log with the reason](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/405a462880368cc503a05019ae7dfa1815053099.jpeg) ### PII Visibility By default, Avicenna does not show participants’ PII to researchers. Avicenna allocates a unique ID to each new participant and uses this identifier to store their data in the database. This ID is used throughout the platform to reference participant data, ensuring personal details like names and email addresses are stored separately from study-related data and remain inaccessible. However, **study owners** can choose to display participants’ personal information for all researchers of the study. ![Change PII Visibility](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/1X/06afa2c478e4a648c9b6a3ef4a49f1e069445b2c.png) Once enabled, you can see some of the participants’ PII on the `Participation` page or the corresponding exports. This includes the participant’s first name, last name, and email address. ### Study Background You can customize the look of your study on the participant apps using an image. The ideal aspect ratio is 9:16 (e.g., 720 x 1280). The chosen image will appear as the background of your study’s home page, consent page, and [registration page](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/t/enrollment/1274#p-2901-using-registration-url-5). ![Change study background](https://forum.avicennaresearch.com/uploads/default/original/2X/1/119b36dc0473660dbcb837ecf9d536180ba4a7f2.png)