UPCOMING WEBINAR: DIY Data Cleaning & Prep: Super Fast, Super Good Back coding , also known as up coding, refers to situations where a question contains one or more Other specify options and there is a need to allocate these responses into the original code frame (and, as appropriate, create new responses).
For example, if you ask someone their race and they answer "Other" rather than White, Black, Asian, etc. in some instances, it may be possible to backcode the variable rather than leaving them in the "other" category.
Requirements
- A text variable that you wish to back code (i.e., which contains the other specify responses).
Method
- In the Data Sources tree select the text variable that you wish to back code (i.e., which contains the other specify responses).
- Click + > Text Categorization.
- Select Multiple themes if respondents could select more than one option when answering the question. Otherwise, select Only one theme. In this example, I will select Multiple themes.
- Click Start.
- Click Inputs and Back Coding.
- From the Corresponding back coding variables dropdown, select the original variable containing the themes you want to use. In this example, "Race" is selected.
- Click OK.
- The following message will appear. Click OK.
- The original responses are on the right, and the themes you want to reassign them to are on the left.
- OPTIONAL: Based on the message from Step 7, if you wish to completely remove any reassigned responses from the "Other" category, right-click the "Other" theme on the left side and select Is Other/Specify. In this example, I will right-click "Some other race, ethnicity, or origin" and select Is Other/Specify.
- Select a response on the right you want to back code into one of the existing themes.
- Click the theme on the left that you want to move it to, and then click the Add to button. Note, if you selected Only one theme at the start, you won't need to click Add to, the response will automatically be assigned to the theme you clicked on. In this example, we will add "Cambodian" into the Asian theme.
- Repeat Steps 10-11 until you've classified as many responses as you can.
- Click Save to save the classifications to a new variable.
- A new variable will appear in the Data Sources tree with "Categorized" in the name.
You can use this new variable in your analysis. For example, drag it onto a Page to create a summary table. In the example below, you can see that the count for the "Asian" results has increased and the count for "Some other race, ethnicity, or origin" decreased: