Context
Code Definitions for Qualitative Observations
To code the data in our Airtable databases, we have a Codebook that lists the used codes describing their content/meaning and an example of its application.
Goals
- To keep compiling a growing number of codes.
- To provide an analytic tool to review tags we use for coding observations, categories and themes
- To list, compare and relate codes from different data sets (or different studies).
- To keep coding consistent when doing it collaboratively or for cross-projects such as Global Modeling
The results
General contents of the Codebook
1. Coding conventions
- Tag: the name of the code itself
- Description: 1 to 3 sentence description of the observation's qualities, properties or meaning
- Inclusion criteria: Conditions for the data to be tagged with that code
- Exclusion criteria: Exceptions or instances of the data that do not merit that code
- Typical use: Most representative case to use that code
- Atypical use: Extreme circumstances when still using that code
- Close, but no: Cases when the data can mistakenly be tagged under that code
2. Coding Rules (live content)
Provide a standard criterion for questions that may arise during coding, such as "what to do with observations that seem to fit in two different places in our databases". Hence, the researchers have a common ground to collaborate not only on coding the data but handling it.
3. Updates on databases (live content)
Reviewing new content implies variations in the skeleton of the databases that should be documented to keep consistency when working with them.
These changes are recorded in a board of cards documenting the table in the dataset (tab), the column affected (field), and the change is done. The timestamp is also automatically registered.
🔗  Solera codebook