Inductive coding (tagging) guidelines

These steps are for coding a document in Zotero.

STAGE 1. Tag documents: Open coding

• Using the Zotero desktop application, open the PDF attachment for the item to be coded. The PDF should open in a new tab within the Zotero application. If you don’t see the notes sidebar, click on the “Toggle Sidebar” icon at the top left of the PDF reader interface.
• Reading through the document, highlight each natural segment – a sentence or passage that contains a distinct idea – to create a quote. You can highlight the passage using any colour you like.
• For each highlight, attach one or more tags, to capture the content of the passage. Click on the text from the highlight in the sidebar, then “Add tags…”. Each tag should be a word or short phrase from the quote (in vivo coding), OR a specific keyword that encapsulates the significant information from the quote (descriptive coding). For an interview, the tag should not simply identify the question being addressed, but should capture the claim, opinion, or language expressed in response to that question.
• If the highlighted passage suggests a distinct point or question that you think may be important in the analysis, use the “Add comment…” feature to indicate what is particularly interesting about this specific passage, and/or to interpret your application of the selected codes.
• There should be a note in the “CODEBOOK” subcollection containing a working definition for each tag. If you are creating a new tag, make a new note for the tag. Put the tag name on the first line, all by itself, followed by the working definition on the second line. If you are applying an existing tag, adapt the previous working definition as necessary. If there are any questions or analytic points to mention about the theme associated with the tag, put those in the note below the working definition. The note itself should be tagged with the tag it describes.

STAGE 2. Review and edit tags

From the Zotero tag manager, review the list of all tags in use.

• If a tag has only been used once or twice, or if the tag duplicates the content of another tag, we will want to merge those tags by renaming one of them to match the name of the other. Within the tag manager (bottom left of the Zotero desktop application), right-click on the name of the tag to be renamed then select the “Rename tag…” option. Merge the text from the renamed tag definition note into the target note, then delete the note for the renamed tag.
• In the tag manager, select each of the tags in turn to see a list of all passages for that particular tag. Based on your review of those tags, try to write 2-3 sentences summarizing the ideas expressed across all the passages: what do they all have in common, what are the differences, and what are the implications of these findings? Open (or create) a standalone note in the “CODEBOOK” collection of the Zotero library corresponding to the name of the tag, and write your analytic summary at the bottom of the note, in a section with the heading “analysis”. Be sure to create or review and edit the working definition, if necessary, to ensure it accurately reflects to content of all the tagged passages. If the tag needs to be renamed, edit the tag name in the note and rename the tag itself using the “Rename tag…” option described above.

Note that the renamed tags will need to be synchronized with the database viewer, so the changes will not show up immediately.

STAGE 3. Group tags

• Referring to the tag definition notes, group tags related to similar concepts into categories by applying prefixes. In the tag manager in the Zotero desktop application, rename the related tags by applying a prefix that identifies the common theme; separate tag elements with a double colon. For example, if we want to group the tags “lack of water sources limits mobility” and “discrimination against households on otor” into a category “otor challenges”, we might use tags like “otor challenges :: lack of water sources limits mobility”.
• Create a tag definition note corresponding to the tag group (e.g., “otor challenges”). At the top of the note, add a heading (Heading 1) title. Below that, try to answer a question or make a general statement about the theme. For example: “We have evidence that herders are willing to be more mobile, but they feel their ability to move is restricted by environmental and social factors.”
• Where appropriate, hierarchies can be extended to create an even higher level of analysis, e.g., “mobility challenges :: otor challenges :: discrimination against households on otor”.

STAGE 4. Analyze tags

• Summarize and analyze the ideas expressed across all the passages: what do they all have in common, what are the differences? What are the implications of these findings? Open the tag definition note for the group prefix in the “CODEBOOK” collection of the Zotero library, and write your analytic summary within the note.
• From the tag query results, choose 3-5 quotes (or more, if needed) that illustrate your analysis particularly well. Click on each annotation to view the description page, then on the “Zotero link” to open that annotation in the Zotero desktop viewer. If the item metadata is showing in the right sidebar, switch to the “Notes view” by clicking on the note icon at the top right of the PDF viewer. Type the group tag name in the search box at the top to filter the list of notes and locate the prefix tag note from the “CODEBOOK” collection. Click on the tag note to open it. Then right-click on the annotation from the left sidebar and select “add to note”. This will add the quoted text and a citation to the note. Edit the note to include connecting text between the quoted passages, formatting longer quotes using the blockquote formatting option and shorter quotes as inline quotes with quotation marks. Where appropriate, provide an indication of who the author of each quote is (e.g., “As one younger herder from Arkhangai told us…”).

STAGE 5. Summarize findings

• Open a Word document to contain the final report. From the Zotero menu in Word, select the “add note” option and add the content of the group (prefix) notes in the desired order.
• Edit the imported content of the notes for flow and readability.
• Create an introduction that introduces the study, explains the context, summarizes the existing literature, describes the study methods, and briefly summarizes the findings and implications of the research.
• Create a conclusion that synthesizes the main ideas of the report, discusses the implications of the findings (e.g., listing the problems and gaps identified), and offers policy recommendations and ideas for future research.