Establishing a secure survey is essential when conducting research at Rowan University. Qualtrics prioritizes security and has the necessary tools to protect the data you collect. This article outlines the best security practices to remember when creating a survey or project. 

Note: Rowan employees are responsible for ensuring proper security when using Qualtrics. If you would like more information, please refer to the Electronic Survey Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and Research Survey Software. If sensitive data is to be collected, or if you are unsure if your data is sensitive, don't hesitate to contact the Information Security Office through the IRT Support Portal.

Survey Access

When managing a respondent’s access to a survey, you can set up secure access by invitation only instead of making the survey available to anyone. If you set up your project for invitation only, respondents are sent a personal link or invited via email to access the survey. This adds an extra level of security so that no one can enter the survey using the anonymous link or submit multiple responses.

To set up, go to Survey>SurveyOptions>Security>SurveyAccess>InvitationOnly
 

Set up Password Protection

You can set a single, general password that only your respondents must enter to access your survey. This is helpful if you decide to use an anonymous link but still want to restrict users' access to the survey. To set up password protection, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Survey>SurveyOptions>Security>PasswordProtection>On
    
2. Under Survey Password, enter your desired password.
    

Note: There is no limit to how many times respondents can try to guess the password.

Prevent Multiple Submissions

Depending on the project, you may want to prevent participants from taking a survey more than once. This will ensure accurate data, avoid incorrect results, and maintain the integrity of the survey’s findings. Follow the steps below to enable this feature.

1. Go to Survey>SurveyOptions>Security>Preventmultiplesubmissions>On
    
2. Under Action, you set up the user to see a default end-of-survey message or create a custom message.
    
3. Select Publish when done.

Prevent Your Survey from Appearing in a Search Engine

Enabling the indexing field will prevent your survey or project from appearing in a search engine.

1. Go to Survey>SurveyOptions>Security>Preventindexing>On
    
2. Select Publish when done.

Helpful Resources

Here are a few other helpful resources to check out on the Security Survey Options Qualtrics website:

Add a Referral Website URL

Bot detection

Security Scan Monitor

RelevantID

Fraud Detection

Uploaded Files Access