This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Perrin, A. J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The CodeRead System

Using Natural Language Processing to Automate Coding of Qualitative Data

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Most social science research uses data that originate, in one form or another, as written or spoken text. Quantitative researchers code these data very strictly, categorizing answers to questions into fixed groups. In contrast, qualitative researchers typically code free-form text by marking it up according to a set of ideas about the nature and content of the text. This article suggests the use of some elementary techniques from the field of statistical natural language processing to partially automate the process of coding large quantities of free-form textual data. The article presents CodeRead, a set of tools that implement these techniques. The system’s principal innovation is its ability to generate coding rules from a precoded sample of text. This capacity allows for the analysis of much longer textual data than was previously practical. It also insures that the rules used for coding such data are specific and uniformly applied.

Key Words: coding • content analysis • text analysis • automated coding

Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, 213-220 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/089443930101900207


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?