3.3:Create codebooks Revision as of 09:53, 5 May 2015 by Carinaj (Talk | contribs) (diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

A codebook is a set of answer categories that can be assigned to one or more variables in a codingschema (for example ‘liberal’, ‘republican’, ‘other’).

To make a codebook, go to Coding->Codebooks->Create new codebook.

First, change the codebook name. Then, hover the cursor over the codebook name, and a little star icon appears. Click on this to add a new code, that is, one answer option for a particular variable, to the codebook.

One code can have multiple labels (languages), for example one in German and one in English. Which label coders see depends on the language setting in AmCAT they use.

Save the label(s), then save the changes to the codebook, and the new code appears in the codebook. You can add more codes in the same way.

Some other features of codebooks:

• Hover the cursor over a code to make more icons appear.

• Most importantly, clicking on the eye icon hides the code, so coders cannot use it in the Annotator. Click the icon again to make the code reappear.

• The star adds a new code (‘child’) below the selected code (‘parent’) to create a hierarchically structured codebook.

• ‘Download codebook’ downloads the codebook as an Excel, .csv or SPSS file.

• You can also upload codebooks from a .csv file – instructions for the exact formatting of this file can be found within AmCAT: Coding->Codebooks->Upload codebook.