3.3:Create codingschemes (Redirected from Create codingschemes)

AmCAT Version
This page describes a feature in AmCAT 3.3
View other version: 3.3 - 3.4 - 3.5

Coding schemes or 'Codingschemas' as they are called in AmCAT, consist of variables and their possible values that are used for coding articles manually on the article or sentence level, in the annotator. These two types of schemes (articleschemas and unitschemas) look a bit different in use, but they are created in a similar way.

• Go to ‘Coding Schemas’ in the ‘Coding’ dropdown menu, and there click on ‘New schema’ to create a new coding scheme.

• First, give the schema a name and a description, and choose whether it is used for codings on the article or on the sentence level. The default is a unitschema, for sentence level codings. If you want to make coding scheme for article level codings, tick the box for ‘Isarticleschema’.

• If you want to use a highlighter, select both the highlighter and the highlight language.

• Click Submit to create a new, empty coding scheme.

The next step is to fill the scheme with variables and attach codebooks to these variables. To do so, select ‘Edit fields’ to start adding variables.

Adding variables

After creating a new (empty) coding scheme, you can add variables to it. You do so in the codingschema editor.

Click on ‘Add field’ to add a new variable. If you want to change the order of the variables in the coding scheme, drag a variable to its intended position in the coding scheme. Doubleclick on a cell, for example the cell ‘New Field (0)’ above, to change its contents. Press ‘tab’ to jump to the next cell in the table.

In the codingschema editor:

• Label is the label of the variable that coders see in the annotator, for example ‘Topic’.

• If a variable is Required, coders cannot finish coding the article in the Annotator without entering a value for this variable.

• Fieldtype is the type of variable. AmCAT uses the following variable types:

- Text: coders can enter text freely

- Number: coders can enter numbers freely

- Codebook: coders can choose from predefined answer categories

- Yes/no: this type of variable appears as a box that coders can tick or leave empty

- Quality: a numerical variable with the values -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5 and 1.

• Codebook has to be defined when the variable type is codebook. A codebook in AmCAT is a list of answer categories or possible values for a variable. In the codebook column, you select which codebook to use for this particular variable.

• Clicking on the red garbage bin icon removes a variable from the list.

• Save, and your codingschema is done. You can always edit a codingschema later, using the edit fields and edit properties buttons.

If you have created both an article and a unitschema, you can link both to a coding job.