Step 4: Generate a Coding Manual
Your margin notes and initial or open codes have been tracked on the paper copies of your transcript, but keeping an inventory or log of these items is useful. Since the number of codes can accumulate quickly and change as analysis progresses, it is advised that you keep a record of your emergent codes in a codebook; a great place to store the codebook is in the ATLAS.ti’s Code Manager. Maintaining this list also provides an analytic opportunity to organize and reorganize the codes into major categories and subcategories (Saldana 2005). Code manuals or codebooks become especially critical when multiple team members work together on the same project data. By creating a codebook and requiring that all team members use the codebook when coding, you can ensure a level of standardization on how different people interpret and assign codes.
The standard elements of a codebook include:
- Code name
- Code definition
- A description of when to use the code
- A description of when not to use the code
- An example of a block of coded text
Here is a sample codebook using the codes from the previous exercise.
Code Name:
Route of HIV transmission
Definition:
Used when participants report how they believe they became infected with HIV (unsafe sex, injection drug use, perinatally infected, etc)
When to Use:
Refers to any discussion of how participant themselves became infected with HIV
When Not to Use:
Do not use when participants are talking about individuals other than themselves (e.g. children, sexual partners)
Example:
I was having sex with someone who I knew was positive
Code Name:
Types of medication
Definition:
Any discussion of the participants HIV medication history (e.g Combivir, Epivir, Truvada)
When to Use:
Use ONLY when participants talk about types of medication they have been prescribed by a doctor or health professional
When Not to Use:
Do not use when participants are discussing medication for diseases or conditions that are not HIV OR meds that have not been prescribed by a physician
Example:
My doctor just switched me from Combivir to Videx to make it easier for me to take it.
Code Name:
Medication adherence
Definition:
Any discussion of the issues associated with taking medication as prescribed, include facilitators to medication adherence (e.g. setting phone alarm as a reminder) as well as barriers (e.g. forgetting or planned to not take meds)
When to Use:
Any discussion of difficulty or changes to prescribed regimen (e.g. missed doses)
When Not to Use:
No coding of non-HIV meds (e.g. no HPV meds or other illnesses)
Example:
And I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take it in front of him so I didn’t bring my meds with me...yea I missed for the whole time we were on vacation.