JISC Online Surveys is the leading survey platform at Edge Hill. Many of our researchers use it to collect opinion data from research participants as part of their projects. It’s a great tool which securely protects research data but has started to look a little dated in recent years.
Major update on the way
A brand new version of JISC Online Surveys will be released soon. To prepare for this, our LTD team have reviewed and audited all surveys still stored on the platform. Ahead of the big update, we are introducing policy to remove any unneeded legacy content.
So what does this mean?
- After 31st March 2023, any surveys created up to and including the year 2017 will be deleted from the system.
- In future, surveys that remain on the platform longer than 5 years will be deleted by the system administrator (LTD). So, surveys created in 2018 will be removed in January 2024 and so on.
A reminder that it is the responsibility of survey owners to backup, manage and delete their surveys as per the Good Practice Guidelines for Edge Hill University Users.
What do I need to do?
If you have any surveys/data on JISC Online Surveys from 2017 or before that is still needed, you must download the anonymised data before 31st March 2023.
In accordance with the University’s Research Data Management Policy, research data should be safely retained in a research data repository e.g. Edge Hill Figshare . If the research project is funded, this should be in accordance with the requirements of the funder policy.
JISC provides guidance on anonymising respose data, and advice on survey design to avoid retention of user data in responses or downloaded data.
What if my survey is within the current 5-year retention period?
Nothing will be deleted from your account yet, but now is a good time to think about exporting any data you have out of the platform.
It is good practice for researchers to actively maintain the surveys they own in the system by:
- Ensuring that a survey status is up to date
- Deleting surveys after downloading data for long-term storage elsewhere
Researchers should not rely on the JISC Online Surveys for long-term storage.
When will the new version be launched?
We don’t yet have a date from JISC for the migration, however, you can have a look at this sneak peak of the new version. As soon as we have more information about the change, we will update you across university news channels and our social media.