Deleting Records (Part I) – What Happens to Your Data?
Deleting a record, be it a Respondent, Job, Data Field, or Participation record can have unintended consequences if you're not careful. There are many places in the Research Tracker® II system where deletions can be made. For each, we discuss the impact of the deletion and what to consider before deleting. I. Deleting a record from a Data Screen: To remove a Respondent, Client, Alert, or Job from the database, use the "Delete Record" button at the bottom of the appropriate Data Screen. Delete Respondent: This action permanently removes the respondent and his/her participation from the database. If the respondent is on a list or scheduled for a job, his/her name will be removed from the Job Recruitment, Job Roster/Confirmation, or Job Completion screens. To avoid confusion, do not delete respondents who have been pulled or scheduled for jobs until the job has been closed. In the case of a cheater, repeater or other undesirable respondent, mark the record as "Ineligible" rather than deleting it. This will prevent the respondent from being accidentally reentered into the database. In the case of duplicate respondents, do not delete a respondent record if the respondent has been pulled or scheduled for a job. Do not delete a duplicate respondent record if there is participation information on the duplicate record. Use "Print Profile" to create a paper copy of all information on the duplicate record. Then open the respondent record you wish to keep and visually check the master record against the paper record, making any changes or additions to the master record needed. If both the master and the duplicate records have participation history, you will also need to manually copy participation information to the master record from the duplicate record. After manually updating the master record, click "Today" as "Date Updated". It is then safe to delete the duplicate record. Delete Client: This action permanently removes the Client and any associated Contacts from the database. If the client is named in any active or closed job, the client name will no longer appear. Do not delete clients who have active jobs. It is recommended that inactive clients not be deleted if there are jobs associated with that client. To designate an inactive client, you may place an "X" at the beginning of the client name. This will move the client name to the bottom of the drop down list and any client printouts. In the case of duplicate clients, do not delete a client if there are any jobs associated with the client. Use the Job Reports, Job Report, Filter by Client option to check. If the duplicate client does not have any active or closed jobs, it is safe to delete the client record. If two clients who are duplicates have jobs with respondent participation, contact MDSS for assistance in editing participation and job records prior to deleting. Delete Job: This action permanently removes the active job and its quota and session information from the database. Any respondents on a list or scheduled for a job will be deleted from the job. The respondent's record will not be affected, except the "Last Pulled" date will reflect the date they were pulled for the deleted job. Do not delete an active job unless you know all activity for the job has ceased. Do not delete an active job if you have entered incorrect information about the job. Job information may be edited at any time until the job is closed. The only exception is the Job Number, which cannot be edited. If you enter the wrong job number and recruiting has not started, you can delete the job and reenter the job information. If recruiting has started, we recommend noting the correct job number in the Job Description box and proceeding with the same job. Periodically, you may want to delete closed jobs from the database. This will not delete respondent participation associated with the job, however the Job Number will not longer appear. In addition, you will no longer be able to view or print a Closed Job Profile. We recommend retaining historic job information in the database. Or, make a backup of the Research Tracker® II database for archive purposes, then delete closed jobs on a periodic basis. Delete Alert: This action permanently removes the alert and its quota and session information from the database. Do not delete an alert then reenter the same information in the Job Data screen. Use the "Transfer Alert to Job" button to move an alert to an active job. Periodically, you may want to delete old alerts from the database. This will have no impact on other information, however you will no longer be able to view or print the Alert Profile or Alert Report. II. Deleting respondents from a Job: Deleting a respondent from an active job does not affect the respondent's record, except the "Last Pulled" date will reflect the date they were pulled for the job. Delete Respondent from Job Recruitment: This action has the same result as "Release Unscheduled Respondents". From the Job Recruitment screen, position the mouse along the left border of the respondent you want to delete. When the I-beam changes to an arrow, click to highlight the entire row and press the DEL key. Delete Respondent from Job Profile Sheets: Deleting a respondent from a Job will not automatically remove his/her name from a Job Profile sheet. Open the Job Profile sheet as an Excel spreadsheet and delete the row containing the respondent's name from the spreadsheet. Delete Respondent from Job Confirmations/Rosters: To remove a scheduled respondent's name from appearing on the sign-in sheet or confirmation output, delete the Respondent from the Job Recruitment screen as described above. Delete Respondent from Job Completion: From the Job Completion screen, position the mouse along the left border of the respondent you want to delete. When the I-beam changes to an arrow, click to highlight the entire row and press the DEL key. We recommend you do not delete a respondent from a job for which they have been scheduled unless the respondent was scheduled by mistake. If the respondent did not participate in a job, change the Part Status to Cancel or No Show prior to closing the job. III. Deleting Respondent Participation: This action removes all information about a single job from a respondent's record. It does not have any affect on the job itself. From the Respondent Past Participation sub-screen, position the mouse along the left border of the participation you want to delete. When the I-beam changes to an arrow, click to highlight the entire row and press the DEL key.