Consent

Last updated: February 20, 2026

Setting up informed consent in Rally to handle a variety of common compliance scenarios.

Why Informed Consent Matters

The following are non-negotiable for high-quality research:

  • Ethical Foundation: It ensures participation is a voluntary choice and that people understand the research goals, data collection, and their right to withdraw at any time.

  • Trust & Insights: Demonstrating respect for privacy builds participant trust, which leads to more open and honest conversations.

  • Legal Compliance: It helps organizations comply with global laws like GDPR and CCPA by maintaining a clear record of consent.

  • Responsible Research: It establishes a fair, transparent process that prioritizes the participant’s rights.

Choosing the Right Type of Consent

Rally offers flexible capabilities to support different research needs. Use this logic to determine which form to select:

Study Scenario

Consent Approach

Typical User Research

Use a Main Consent Form for any external research involving recording or personal data (Name, Email, Job Title, etc.).

Most Surveys

Typically, surveys do not require a separate consent form.

A consent statement on the Welcome page or as the first question may be sufficient.

Vulnerable Populations

Use a Special Consent Form for participants under 18 or other vulnerable groups.

Sensitive Topics

Use a Special Consent Form for topics like finances, health, or emotional disclosures.

Highly Protected Materials

Include a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) within your special consent form to protect internal concepts.

Supporting Consent in Rally

Rally is designed to automate and centralize consent so it doesn’t become a "black hole" of admin work.

Setting Up Consent Forms

  • All consent forms are stored in the “Templates” section of Rally and can be made available to one or more teams.

  • Consent forms can be set up for one-time use for a study or repeat use across studies.

    • Turn on “Requests repeat singing for this consent form” to ensure that the consent form is presented to participants for every new study they are included in and not just the first study

  • Consent forms can include custom statements and embedded documents that participants must agree to in order to continue.

  • Limitations to note:

    • Optional statements are not supported at this time.

    • Only one consent form can be integrated into a study at a time. 

    • Only one person can sign a consent form at this time. Multiple signatures are not supported, yet.

Gathering Consent

Consent can be collected through the following options:

  1. Automated (during sign-up): Integrate consent into the study sign-up and scheduling flow. This ensures a participant cannot book a session or take an unmoderated test without first reviewing any legal information and explicitly giving consent. You can define the moment in the sign-up flow where consent is collected.

  2. Manual (outside of sign-up): Consent can be sent manually to a participant at any time through Rally.

Tracking and Governance

Once consent is gathered, Rally offers the following options to retrieve signed consent forms:

  • Participant Profiles: View all signed documents by going to a person’s Participant Profile and clicking the Consent Submissions tab.

  • Downloads: Signed forms can be downloaded as PDFs directly from the profile for audit purposes.

  • Email Signed Forms: All signed consent forms are sent to the following people by email:

    • Participant: They will always automatically receive a copy of the signed consent form immediately after signing it. This cannot be turned OFF.

    • Study Owners: All Study Owners will receive an email notification with the PDF attachment of the signed consent form

      • Only Study Owners with "View Consent Submissions" permissions will be able to receive an email with a signed copy. This permission controls whether someone can view signed consent forms in-app and receive the PDF copy via email.

      • Users can also turn off receiving a copy of signed consent forms through their personal notification settings in Rally.

    • The official email sender for signed copies of consent forms is notify@mail.rallyuxr.com.

      • Rally suggests adding this email address to your contacts so the consent form notifications don't go to spam.

  • Rally API: Export Consent Submissions per study using the Rally API

To ensure and track that consent is gathered for your study:

  • Guide researchers on importance of consent: Provide guidance to researchers on when to use which consent form and when they need to reach out for help or special consent situations. Make adherence to using consent a part of the onboarding process and a condition of maintaining access to Rally.

  • Preset consent for studies in templates: Leverage study templates that include the most common consent approach for each study type as part of the template. When consent is turned on and positioned ahead of scheduling an interview or taking a test it is rare for this step to be missed or skipped by a participant.

  • Review consent status: Consent Form Signed is a default column when viewing participants in your study. Use a filter on the “In Progress” view of participants in your study to look for participants that have NOT provided consent and request consent manually using a custom message if you discover anyone without consent.