Coding (social sciences)

In social science, coding is an analytical process in which data, in both quantitative form (such as questionnaires results) or qualitative (such as interview ) is categorized to facilitate analysis.

Coding means the [data transformation|transformation of data] into a form understandable by computer software. The classification of information is an important step in preparation of data for computer processing with statistical software.

Some studies will employ multiple coders working independently on the same data. This minimizes the chance of errors from coding and increases the reliability of data.

One code should apply to only one category and categories should be comprehensive. There should be clear guidelines for coders (individual who do the coding) so that code is consistent.

For quantitative analysis, data is coded usually into measured and recorded as nominal or ordinal variables.

Questionnaire data can be pre-coded (process of assigning codes to expected answers on designed questionnaire), field-coded (process of assigning codes as soon as data is available, usually during fieldwork), post-coded (coding of open questions on completed questionnaires) or office-coded (done after fieldwork). Note that some of the above are not mutually exclusive.

In social sciences, spreadsheets such as Excel and more advanced software packages such as R, Matlab, PSPP/SPSS, DAP/SAS , MiniTab and Stata are often used.

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