coding data analysis

8/10/2019 coding data analysis

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What Is Coding?

Coding is the process of organizing and sorting your data. Codes serve as a way to label,

compile and organize your data. They also allow you to summarize and synthesize what is

happening in your data. In linking data collection and interpreting the data, coding becomes

the basis for developing the analysis. It is generally understood, then, that coding isanalysis. Coding is an interpretive technique that both organizes the data and provides a

means to introduce the interpretations of it into certain quantitative methods. Most coding

requires the analyst to read the data and demarcate segments within it, which may be done at

different times throughout the process.[14]Each segment is labeled with a "code" usually a

word or short phrase that suggests how the associated data segments inform the research

objectives. When coding is complete, the analyst prepares reports via a mix of: summarizing

the prevalence of codes, discussing similarities and differences in related codes across

distinct original sources/contexts, or comparing the relationship between one or more codes.

Code Your Data

Coding can be done in any number of ways, but it usually involves assigning a word, phrase,

number or symbol to each coding category. The user will go through all your textual data

(interview transcripts, direct notes, field observations, etc.) in a systematic way. The ideas,

concepts and themes are coded to fit the categories.

Creating Codes

The process of creating codes can be both pre-set and open. Hybrid method is preferred,

using both these two models. Before beginning data collection and the coding process, it is

good tobegin with a start list of pre-set codes (often referred to as a priori codes). Theseinitial codes derive from the conceptual framework, list of research questions, problem areas,

etc. The user prior knowledge of the subject matter and your subject expertise will also help

you create these codes. For instance, if you are interviewing MUH owners and managers, you

may already think about the codes economic issues or tenant smoking or common

areas (the list couldgo on and on. At a later time, the codes economic issues and tenant

smoking may be collapsed into a larger code or theme of barriers to policy.

Pre-Set Codes

A pre-set list can have as little as 10 codes or up to 40-50 codes. Too many codes can create

problem because the person coding can become overwhelmed or make mistakes in the coding

process if there are too many. In creating these codes, it is important to create a codebook,

which is list of the codes and what they mean.

Emergent Codes

While it is good to begin data collection and coding with pre-set codes, another set of codes

will emerge from reading and analyzing the data. These emergent codes are those ideas,

concepts, actions, relationships, meanings, etc. that come up in the data and are different than

the pre-set codes. For instance, in the aforementioned example of interviews of MUH owners

and managers, the issue of tenants smoking medicinal marijuana may have come up. This

may be seen as a tricky legal issue by the owners and managers. It may have been something
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not coded before data collection and coding began. So, the text discussing this issue could be

coded as legal issue (which was probably identified as a start code) and medicinal

marijuana. Because theres a good chance that medicinal marijuana was not a start code, it is

added to the code book as an emergent code. In many cases, the surprise emergent codes

form the basis of interesting stories and may indeed become part of the major storyline told inthe user evaluation.

Coding as a System of Organizing Your Data

One easy way to think about coding is to see it as a system to organize the user data. In

essence, it is a personal filing system. The user place data in the code just as you would file

something in a folder. A systematic way to code data is to ask yourself the following

questions as you read the text:

What is this saying? What does it represent?

What is this an example of?

What do I see is going on here?

What is happening?

What kind of events are at issue here?

What is trying to be conveyed?

The word, number or symbol that you assigned to the item of data in answering such

questions is a code. These are labels that classify items of information. We recommend using

words or phrases as codes and in your marginal notes for later ease of analysis (sometimes

numbers and symbols can be confusing).

Refining Your CodesIt is important to note that as your data are coded, the coding scheme will be refined.

Meaning, you will add, collapse, expand and revise the coding categories. This is especially

true of the pre-set codes. Oftentimes, what one expects to find in the data is not there. It

happens. Moreover, some codes simply do not work or conflate other ideas from different

codes. Alternatively, sometimes codes flourish in a way that there is too much data. In this

case, the code needs to be broken down into sub-codes in order to better organize the data.

The rule of thumb for coding is to make the codes fit the data, rather than trying to make your

data fit your codes.

Coding Notes

Finally, as part of the process of coding, it is important to jot down notes of the user reactions

and ideas that emerge. These ideas are important and vital to the analytic process. These

notes may suggest new interpretations, as well as connections with other data. Moreover, if

the users are mindful of what is growing out of the data, the user's notes will usually point

toward questions and issues for you to look into as you code and collect more data. down

both codes and remarks on a hardcopy as you read it. After the initial coding, Word files

need to be created based on your codes. Think of this process as cutting and pasting the

quotes on a poster board. The marginal notes will also come in handy when thinking about

how the codes fit together. thus collapsed the codes into a larger theme and can discuss

various aspects of onsite learning


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TYPES OF CODING

Open coding

At this first level of coding, you are looking for distinct concepts and categories in the data,

which will form the basic units of your analysis. In other words, you are breaking down the

data into first level concepts, or master headings, and second-level categories, orsubheadings. Researchers often use highlights to distinguish concepts and categories. For

example, if interviewees consistently talk about teaching methods, each time an interviewee

mentions teaching methods, or something related to a teaching method, you would use the

same color highlight. Teaching methods would become a concept, and other things related

(types, etc.) would become categories all highlighted the same color. Use different colored

highlights to distinguish each broad concept and category. What you should have at the end

of this stage are transcripts with 3-5 different colors in lots of highlighted text.Transfer these

into a brief outline, with concepts being main headings and categories being subheadings.

Axial coding

In open coding, you were focused primarily onthetext to define concepts and categories. In

axial coding, you are using your concepts and categories while re-reading the text. Confirm

that your concepts and categories accurately represent interview responses. Explore how your

concepts and categories are related. To examine the latter, you might ask, What conditions

caused or influenced concepts and categories? What is/was the social/political context? or

What are the associated effects or consequences?

For example, if one of your concepts is Adaptive Teaching, and two of your categories

are tutoring and group projects, an axial code might be a phrase like our principalencourages different teaching methods. This discusses the context of the concept and/or

categories, and suggests that you may need a new category labeled supportive environment.

Axial coding is merely a more directed approach at looking at the data, to help make sure that

you have identified all important aspects. Have your highlights ready for revision/addition.

Create a table

Transfer final concepts and categories into a data table. Note how the researcher listed the

major categories, then explained them after the table. This is a very effective way to organize

results and/or discussion in a research paper.

Types of research report

A research report is a completed study that reports an investigation or exploration of a

problem, identifies questions to be addressed, and includes data collected, analyzed, and

interpreted by the researcher. Reports are written for different purposes. They therefore

contain different information and structures, including headings and subheadings, and these

form the outline of the report. The table below shows the sections commonly found in these

types of reports.


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Short report

Title page

Introduction

DiscussionRecommendations

References

Science report

Title page

Introduction

Method & materialsResults

Discussion

Conclusion

Appendices

References

Business report

Title page

Executive summary

Table of contentsIntroduction

Discussion

Conclusion

Recommendations

Appendices

References

Engineering report

Title page

Executive summary

(optional)

Introduction

Objectives

Analysis

Discussion

Recommendations &

action plan

Conclusion

AppendicesReferences

Research report

Title page

Executive summary

Introduction

Method / methodology

Results / findings

Discussion

Conclusions

Recommendations

Appendices

Bibliography

FORMAT OF REPORT WRITING

Title page Title of report

Name of author /

student

Organisation / course

Date

Table of contents Lists the content of the

report

Page numbers

Executive summary(Abstract)

Summarises the whole

report in a logical order

Outlines purpose,

research methods,

findings, conclusions &

recommendations

Written last mainly in

Are the aims of the

purpose of the research

clearly stated?

Are the results

summarised?

Are the conclusions &

recommendations
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past tense

Should be no more than

one page

outlined?

Introduction Outlines context,

background & purpose

Defines terms & sets

limits of the research

Is the purpose of the

research clearly stated?

Is the context &

background explained?

Are the limits of the

study outlined?

Are the important

concepts & terms

defined?

Method Explains the research

methodology and

methods used

In scientific reports, this

would detail the

experimental

procedures

Are the research

techniques / methods

clearly outlined?

Results / findings Presents the findings /

results

Can use visual data, eg

graphs, tables etc

Facts only- no

interpretation

Are the results clearly

summarised / stated?

Is visual data used

where appropriate?

Discussion Interprets & evaluates

results

Analyses results

draws together

Are the results

explained &

interpreted?

Are the results linked to

other similar research &

to each other?

Conclusion Brief summary of

findings

Are the results

summarised?

Recommendations Suggest suitable

changes / solutions

Action plan for

recommendations if

required

Do the

recommendations

suggest possible

solutions / actions /

pathways etc

Glossary List of terms, eg

acronyms used
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The Abstract

The Abstractis a brief summary of the entire article, in approximately 120 words. Its

purpose is to provide the reader with a quick review of the article's content, and as such, is an

important part of the journal article. When people search for articles on-line, they will only

use the article's title and abstract to make the decision of the article's relevance and

contribution to their research. Therefore, the perfect article may go unnoticed because of a

poorly written abstract.

The abstract usually contains a concisesummary of

(a) the article's problem under investigation or the hypothesis,

(b) pertinent information on the participants,

(c) brief review of methodology,

(d) statistical analyses,

(e) results of the study, and(f) implications of the study.

The Introduction

The Introductionserves as the body of the paper. It begins with a broad statement of the

problem under investigation and then proceeds to narrow the focus to the specific hypothesis

or hypotheses of the study. The purpose of this section is to introduce the reader to the

overall issue/problem that is being tested and to provide justification for the hypothesis or

hypotheses. In order to accomplish these tasks, the author needs to review past research on

the same topic, discussing their findings. Some students get confused reading this section

because it is hard to distinguish "previous research" from important information about the

"current study"; consequently, we will take a closer look at the basic structure of a typical

introduction. (Keep in mind that not all published articles may have all of these sections.)

Introducing the problem.

The paper should begin by broadly specifying the research problem or point of the

study. This section is usually 1 - 2 paragraphs long and may include the researchquestions(= general questions asked by the study), a description relating the

hypothesis and experimental design to the problem and the theoretical implications

of the research.

Background literature.

This subsection will be the longest of the introduction. It contains prior research

studies relevant to the current study. A researcher cannot merely create a

hypothesis and test it. He or she must provide a rationale or case for why that

hypothesis should be tested. For example, if I were to state the hypothesis "rats will

press on a bar faster and longer if they are given a food reward each time than ifthey are given no reward", I would not get very far writing my introduction. I


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would realize quickly that my hypothesis is not new, nor does it add anything to the

"reinforcement" literature. Therefore, the background literature section prevents

people from 'reinventing the wheel'. Likewise, if I make the bold claim "women are

genetically superior to men" and provide no background literature to support such a

claim or hypothesis, then every reader has a right to be extremely suspicious andregard my study as unscientific. A helpful way to see an introduction is to view the

author as a lawyer who must convince you, the judge/jury, that the proposed

hypotheses improve upon past research and have some importance. The "evidence"

is the review of previous research.

Purpose, rationale, and hypothesis.

The final subsection of the introduction includes formally stating the study's

purpose, the rationale for that purpose, and the specific hypothesis or hypotheses.

The previous subsection should naturally lead up to this point. A reader should be

able to understand what is being tested and why. There should not be a "surprisehypothesis" or something that was not covered under the background subsection.

Each hypothesis should have a clear rationale describing the logic behind the

predictions. Keep in mind that sometimes the hypotheses will be spelled out for

you; other times, they may be listed aspredictionsor "we believe such and such

will happen".

Method Section.

The purpose of the Methodsection is to provide a detailed description of how the study was

conducted. An overarching goal of science is the replication of research. It is in the Method

section that authors need to specify their participants and procedures to allow others to

duplicate the study. Think of this section as being a recipe with an exact description for

others to follow. This section is usually divided into subparts:

Participants/Subjects

(Participants is the term used when humans are involved in the study while

Subjects is the term used when animals are in the study.)

This subsection contains information such as:

a) number of participants and how they were selected & assigned

(e.g., at random?)

b) major demographic characteristics

(e.g., sex, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, socioeconomic status)

c) description of agreements and payments made

d) statement of ethical principles used in relation to the participants

For nonhuman subjects:

a) genus, species

b) strain number or location of supplier

c) number, sex, age, weight, and physiological conditiond) ethical guidelines on treatment and handling


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This subsection allows readers to make comparisons of samples across different

studies & to make judgments of generalizability of results.

Materials/Apparatus/Measures

All physical aspects of the research design are described in this subsection. Itlists everything that was used in the study to help others replicate it . When an

author uses new materials or measures for the study, often a copy of the information

is included as an Appendix, located at the back of an article.

Procedure

This subsection provides a detailed account of what happened in the study

Results.

The Resultssection is the statistical reporting of the data. Its purpose is to describe what was

found after statistically analyzing the data. Authors typically report results of each

hypothesis, in order as they appear in the introduction to assist your

comprehension. Additional analyses may be described if initial results suggested a new

direction. Tables and figures are often used to convey important information in an organized

manner. This section may not be fully understandable until you have had a statistics and/or

research methods course. Therefore, check with your professor to see how you should treat

this section. It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to provide instruction on how to interpret

the various statistical analyses that might be presented in articles. Indeed, some statistical

analyses might not be understood until you take graduate courses! The results section,

however, tends to become more important once one develops further as a scientificpsychologist.

The Discussion.

The Discussionsection reviews, interprets, and evaluates the results of the study. The review

of the results is done in everyday, nontechnical language, using no statistics. Discussion

sections typically begin by listing the hypothesis or hypotheses and then stating if the results

supported or contradicted the hypothesis or hypotheses. Next, writers usually discuss

similarities and differences between the current findings and findings of previous research.

Any weaknesses of the current study are also reviewed and suggestions are made on

improving the research design. Finally, a discussion section usually ends with the writer

providing directions for future research. Opposite to the Introduction, the discussion section

begins with a narrow focus on the findings and then proceeds more broadly by drawing

conclusions until it ends with future implications.

Reference Section.: The last important section of an article is the list of references. It lists, in

alphabetical order, the empirical studies mentioned throughout the paper. There is a specific

format that must be used to write references.

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