Raw Data
Exporting Raw Data
You can use Researcher Dashboard to export data collected from data sources or
activity responses. Both data sources and activity responses support export as
CSV, though you have more options depending on the type of the data being
exported. For example, for GPS you may also choose KML or GPX export, or for
contact network data you may also choose to export as GEXF.
To export your data, open the Researcher Dashboard and navigate to the Data Export page:
In this page, you start with choosing the list of participants for whom you want
to export the data, and the type of data you want to export. Depending the type
of data, Avicenna may ask you to choose the export format as well. For most data
sources, you can download the data as a CSV file. Although for GPS you can also
choose KML or GPX, and for Bluetooth Beacons you can choose GEXF as well.
After selecting the export format, you can choose the date range as well.
Pressing Export will start the data export process. The export may take up to
a few hours to complete, depending on the size of the data. You can always come
back this page to check the status of your data export. When the data export
file is ready, you will receive an email about it, and you can come back to the
Data Export file to download the file.
Note that the Data Export page will also list all Survey Response export requests, even though for exporting the survey responses you need to use the Responses page, as explained in the View Responses document.
Each data export will be available for download for up to 7 days. After that, Avicenna automatically deletes the export file. If you need to download the data again, you must create a new data export.
At the moment Avicenna does not have any limitations on the size of the data export file. But for sensor data this file can be very large, specially if a long date range and many participants are chosen to be exported. So it's not uncommon for the file to surpass 10GB in size. There is no limitation at the moment on the file size, though we do request that if you expect your data export to be very large, break it into multiple requests, so it can generate multiple files.
Data Fields
The data fields you will find in each file depend on the type of data being exported. For survey responses, the list of available fields are explained in the View Responses document. For the sensor-based data sources, the list of data sources are described in their related section in the Data Sources document.
Direct Database Access
While downloading data as CSV through dashboard is easy and convenient for small amounts of data, it's not feasible for analyzing and querying all available data. In this case, you need to have direct access to the database.
While Avicenna still does not automatically provide access to the database based on the study access permissions, you can contact Avicenna Support to arrange your direct access to the raw data.
Handling of Timezones
Every piece of information stored in Avicenna is time-stamped as appropriate. All time values are stored internally in UTC. This is a standard practice in software development which makes analysis of data, particularly across multiple time zones, consistent and straightforward, whether the data is used within Avicenna or in other software packages.
So keep in mind that all data exported from your study will be in UTC, regardless of the participant's timezone.