Study Management

The studies list

Studies in the sidebar opens /dashboard/studies, headed "Your studies". It is a table with the columns Study, Status, Updated and Actions. Each row has two actions: Edit opens the Study Builder and Open dashboard opens the study's dashboard. The header has the buttons New study and Browse templates. An account without studies sees Create a study and Use a template instead of the table.

Creating a new study

Starting from scratch

1. On the studies list or the dashboard, click New study. The page "Create a New Study" opens.
2. In the card Create from Scratch, enter a Study Title and a Study Description. Both fields are required.
3. Click Create Draft Study. The study is created with the status Draft and the Study Builder opens.

If a field is empty, the message "Study title is required." or "Study description is required." appears below it. The page also shows how many studies the plan allows ("Plan usage" and the Plan Overview card). When the limit is reached, a "Study limit reached" notice with an Upgrade Plan link appears and the create button is disabled.

If your account has a confirmed encryption vault, a new study is set to end-to-end encryption automatically. Otherwise it uses server-side encryption. The option can be changed in Settings → Security.

Starting from a template

A template is a saved study design that includes surveys (with their notification schedules), sensor settings and participant management settings.

1. Click Browse templates on the studies list or the dashboard, or Browse Templates in the "Use a Template" card. The page "Study Templates" opens at /dashboard/templates.
2. The tab My Templates lists your own templates. The tab Public Templates lists templates shared on the platform.
3. Narrow the list with the "Search templates…" box, the category filter (for example Mental Health, Cognition, Sleep Science) and the schedule filter (Fixed, Random, Interval, Event-based). Cards show the schedule types and a "Sensors" label when the template collects sensor data.
4. Open Details to see the template's surveys and settings, or click Use Template. A new draft study is created from the template and opens in the Study Builder.

The Study Builder

The Study Builder opens with Edit in the studies list or Edit Study in the header of the study dashboard. Its URL is /dashboard/studies/<id>/edit. The header shows the study title, the Export menu and the buttons Save and Validate & Activate.

Tabs

• Overview: Study Title, Study Description, Contacts (email, phone or support details for participants) and Study Image, which is shown on the public study page and in the mobile app (up to 10 MB; Remove Image deletes it).
• Participants, with the sub-tabs Participant Management, Informed Consent and Prescreening. See Participant Management.
• Protocol, with the sub-tabs Surveys and Background Data. Each survey has its own sub-tabs: Builder, Notification Schedule, Sensors, Settings, Preview and, when AI-tailored surveys are enabled, AI Tailoring. See Designing Surveys and Sensor Data.
• Engagement, with the sub-tabs Payments, Gamification and Compliance Alerts. See Payments and Engagement.
• Settings, with the sub-tabs General, Schedule, Messaging, AI, Security and Danger zone. See Study Settings.

The top-level tab is part of the URL (?tab=general, participants, protocol, engagement or settings), so a link can open a specific tab.

Burden meter

Above the tabs, the Participant burden meter estimates the load that the current design places on participants. It shows Time per day (minutes), Prompts per day, Per prompt (items per survey) and Total commitment over the study. When some prompts depend on events, the second figure is labelled Planned + triggered and shows a lower bound. The estimate is calculated from the unsaved design, so it changes while surveys and schedules are edited. When the design crosses a threshold, a findings button lists the issues, and Burden Centre → opens the study's full burden report.

Exporting the study design

The Export menu in the header offers Export as JSON, a machine-readable file of the study protocol, and Export for Print / PDF, which opens a print-ready document of the design, for example for an ethics application or a preregistration. In the Protocol tab, each survey can also be downloaded or uploaded as JSON and duplicated.

Saving changes

Changes in the Study Builder are kept in the browser until you click Save. While there are unsaved changes, "Unsaved changes" shows next to the buttons at the top; after saving it reads "All changes saved". Save is disabled when there is nothing to save. Some actions in the Settings tab, such as changing the study status, take effect immediately and do not need Save.

Read-only view for collaborators

Project collaborators who are not the study's author open the Study Builder with View Design on the study dashboard. The builder then shows the notice that only the author can change the study, and the Save and Validate & Activate buttons are hidden. The study dashboard shows a "Read-only" label. See Projects and Collaboration.

Testing a study before activation

A study can be tested in two ways before it is activated.

• Preview in the browser. Study Builder → Protocol → Surveys → (select a survey) → Preview shows the survey in a phone frame, including permission screens and notifications.
• Test on a real device. While a study has the status Draft or In Review, testers can join it in the SMAAT app with the study code. The code is listed on the study's Invitations page under Study Code. The app shows a notice that the study is in testing mode.

Activation as a video

A narrated walkthrough (3:40) that continues from the quickstart video: test responses are set aside, the study is activated, participants are invited with the study code, links and emails, a schedule is changed while the study is active, and the study is paused. It is filmed in SMAAT with a test study. The narration is a synthetic voice; turn on captions in the player to read along.

Recorded in October 2026. Screens in newer versions of SMAAT may differ slightly. Chapters, transcript and all video tutorials →

Validating and activating a study

Click Validate & Activate in the Study Builder header. A dialog of the same name opens. It explains that activation sets the study to Active, that participants can then find and join it, and that the chosen encryption option applies to data collected from then on. Unsaved changes are saved automatically when you activate.

Blocking errors

Errors are listed under "Fix the following before activating:", and Activate stays disabled until they are fixed. The checks are:

• The study has no title.
• A notification schedule has an empty notification title.
• An event-triggered schedule has no trigger survey or no condition, or a trigger refers to a survey or schedule that no longer exists.
• A Random Block has fewer than two arms.

Three further checks run on the server when you click Activate and stop the activation with an error message: an end-to-end encrypted study whose key has not been set up (re-select the option in Settings → Security); AI-tailored surveys on a study that does not use server-side encryption or has no AI provider key; and, when the payment settings require it, a payout wallet that does not cover the rest of the budget.

Warnings

Warnings are listed under "Consider reviewing before activating:" and do not prevent activation. They appear when the study has no surveys, when surveys have no questions or no notification schedules, when the IRB approval number or institution is missing from the informed consent, and when "Self-managed study key" is selected but no key pair has been generated. If nothing is found, the dialog shows "All checks passed. Ready to activate."

The activation summary

After activation, the dialog "Study activated" reports how many notifications were created, for how many enrolled participants, and the period they cover. A breakdown lists the notifications per survey and schedule type. Schedules that are triggered later on the device, such as event or location triggers, are listed under "Triggered later, not scheduled now". Problems are listed under "Needs your attention". Participants who join after activation receive their notifications when they enrol, so the study does not need to be activated again for them.

Changing the schedule of an active study

When Validate & Activate is used on a study that is already Active and has scheduled notifications, the dialog "Update Notification Schedule" asks how the changes should be applied:

• Reschedule for all participants: unsent scheduled notifications are deleted, and every enrolled participant's upcoming notifications are rebuilt from the current schedules.
• Keep current participants' notifications: participants who are already enrolled keep their upcoming notifications. People who join from now on get the current schedules.

Click Update Schedule to apply the choice. Some protocol changes are limited once a study is active, to protect the data already collected.

The same question appears when you click Save on an active study after changing a schedule, a survey's group code, or the set of surveys. Choosing Cancel keeps the saved changes for people who join from now on and leaves enrolled participants' notifications as they are.

Study statuses

Each study has one of six statuses. The status is changed in Settings → General → Study Status, or with the status button in the header of the study dashboard. A study becomes Active only through Validate & Activate, which checks it and schedules the enrolled participants' notifications; choosing Active in either place opens it.

• Draft: the study is being prepared. Testers can join with the study code and see a Draft notice in the app.
• In Review: the design is ready for a final review. Testers can still join and see an In Review notice.
• Active: the study is open to participants and notifications are sent. Participants who join get their notifications from the saved schedules when they enrol.
• Paused: the study is suspended temporarily. Nobody new can join, unsent notifications are canceled, and data is kept. Resuming goes through Validate & Activate, which schedules the remaining notifications from that moment; prompts that fell in the pause are not sent.
• Completed: data collection has ended. Data is kept for analysis, no new participants can join, and unsent notifications are canceled.
• Archived: the study is closed and kept for the record.

A study can also open and close automatically at set times. See Scheduled status changes.

Next Steps