Questions, answered plainly.
Including what Caracal doesn’t do yet, so you can plan around it.
About Caracal
What is Caracal?
A browser-based platform for longitudinal diary studies. Participants answer recurring questions by speaking or writing, and the research team watches who is answering, reads and listens to every answer, and exports them as data.
Who builds it?
The IDEEAS Lab at Virginia Tech. Built first for a weekly study of how 50 to 200 practicing engineers make, justify and revisit design decisions.
Can I use it now?
In development at the IDEEAS Lab and preparing supervised pilots. We are looking for research teams to run them with us. Read about pilots.
What does it cost?
There is no pricing yet. Pilots are arranged one at a time.
Running a study
Do participants need to install anything?
No. They open an emailed link in the browser on a phone or a computer. There are no native iPhone or Android apps and no push notifications.
Does it transcribe recordings?
Not yet. Export the recordings, transcribe them in your own workflow, and add the transcripts back as a CSV. Caracal keeps each one with its recording and, with word timings, plays it back word by word in the reading room.
Can it prompt people at random times?
Not today. Questions open on a daily or weekly schedule, with an answer window and the study’s time zone. There is no random prompting and no sensor data.
Does it analyze answers with AI?
No. It helps you read, search, mark and export answers; the analysis is yours.
Does it connect to REDCap, Qualtrics or Prolific?
Not directly. Answers export as CSV, which opens in any analysis tool, and recordings export as a ZIP.
Consent and data
What does an export contain?
One row per answer, with the person’s pseudonymous code in place of their name, and the consent version they had agreed to when they answered. You can export exactly the answers in view in the Response table.
How do withdrawal and deletion work?
Withdrawal is one step for the participant or the team; what they sent is kept under the study’s rules.
Requests to delete data wait for the team’s decision; an approved deletion runs at the next processing cycle.
Is it certified or approved?
No. Caracal holds no certification, including HIPAA, SOC 2 or FedRAMP, and the platform has not been approved by an IRB. Each study needs its own ethics approval. For ethics boards and data stewards sets out what the platform records.
I’m taking part in a study. Who do I ask about it?
The research team running it. Their contact is on your page in the study. More for participants.
Something we haven’t answered?
Write to us, or apply to run a pilot. In development at the IDEEAS Lab and preparing supervised pilots. We are looking for research teams to run them with us.
Or write to akatz4@vt.edu