Research & Science form templates
These forms end in a dataset rather than an enquiry: participant surveys with consent built in, lab and field data entry, clinical trial screening, ethics applications and conference abstract submission.
Building this from scratch instead? See Surveys.
They split three ways. Some recruit and consent participants: the academic survey opens with a consent confirmation and keeps name and email optional, and the trial screener lets applicants self-select against inclusion criteria before a coordinator picks up the phone.
Some fix the shape of a measurement — experiment ID, sample ID, researcher and date on every lab entry, GPS coordinates and habitat on every field observation. The rest carry a submission into review.
What is a research form?
A research form is part of the instrument. Question wording, question order and the scale you choose become part of the method, and anything ambiguous at collection stays ambiguous in the dataset forever. These templates fix what a general-purpose form leaves open: one Likert scale across every attitudinal question, a named field for recruitment method rather than a broad describe-your-study box.
What these forms usually ask for
The questions that appear most often across our 7 research & science form templates.
- Email Address2 of 7
- Researcher Name2 of 7
Why use research & science form templates
The consent confirmation is a field, so every exported row shows whether that person agreed and whether anonymised responses may be published. Logic ends the form for anyone who declines.
Dropdowns for sample type, habitat and weather, plus numeric validation, remove the between-researcher variation that turns a season of notebooks into a fortnight of reconciliation. Each entry carries its researcher and date.
Filter and search submissions, then export for R, SPSS or a spreadsheet. A REST API and a webhook on every submission mean a new screener can alert the coordinator immediately.
How to create your own
- 1
Put consent first: confirmation that the information sheet has been read, and a separate question on publishing anonymised responses.
- 2
Decide what identifies a record — participant ID, sample ID, study name, session date — and give each its own field.
- 3
Hold the scales steady: one Likert scale throughout, one set of units, minimum and maximum values to catch a mistyped reading.
- 4
Add the context you will regret losing: weather, habitat, instrument settings, and an open field for anomalies that look trivial at the time.
- 5
Branch screening questions with logic so an exclusion answer closes the form early, then share by link or QR code.
Getting better responses
Applicants misread clinical wording and screen themselves in or out wrongly, wasting coordinator time both ways. Ask about medication taken in the last six months rather than naming a drug class.
Sample and species IDs written three ways by three researchers cannot be merged afterwards. Fix a format — project, date, sequence — and put the rule in the field label.
Someone who felt rushed, or wants their data withdrawn, rarely says so to the researcher's face. A short feedback form with an optional participant ID surfaces it, if you read submissions daily during collection.
Who uses these forms
Frequently asked questions
Is an online research form IRB compliant?
Compliance is a property of your protocol and your board's determination, not of the tool you build the form in. What the template supplies is what reviewers usually look for: consent confirmed before any substantive question, optional identifiers so participation can genuinely be anonymous, and a plain statement of purpose. Submit your instrument to your own IRB and follow whatever it requires; no HIPAA compliance claim is made here, so check with your institution before collecting identifiable health data.
How do I keep participation anonymous?
Make name and email optional rather than required, and the export then holds nothing beyond what a participant chose to give. On a post-session feedback form, an optional participant ID lets you tie a response to a session without naming anyone. Where answers are sensitive, a form can add end-to-end encryption on top of the transit and at-rest encryption every form already has, and stay on EU infrastructure.
Can I collect field data somewhere with no signal?
Not directly — there is no offline mode, so a record made at a site without connectivity has to wait. Field teams generally keep a short paper backup for the few fields that cannot wait and enter the record at the first point of signal that day. The value of the form is the fixed structure, which is what stops those late entries drifting into unstructured notes.
How do I get responses into my analysis software?
Export submissions as a file for R, SPSS, Python or a spreadsheet, filtering first if you want one study or one collection window. For continuous collection there is a REST API and a real-time webhook on every submission, so records can land in your own database as they arrive. Everything is unlocked free during early access, including unlimited responses, which matters when a study runs for a year.
Related templates and guides
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