Setting up coding fields and vocabularies

Overview

Set up a new coding field

• Field name

• Field type

  • Number
  • Yes/No
  • Short text
  • Vocab

• Field options

  • Filterable
  • Multi-valued

Vocabularies

• Making a new vocabulary

• Copying an existing vocabulary

Copy Coding Fields From

Overview

There are multiple ways to create coding/curatable fields that intend to be edited in the portfolio. You can start by creating new coding fields from scratch or copy from existing coding fields. Keep in mind these are fields that can be coded/curated/edited in the portfolio, which is different than fields that have been uploaded into the tool. Note: Uploaded data/fields are not editable/curatable in the portfolio.

This option is found once you have created a project/portfolio. Review how to create a project or open one here. Below are the ways to create or edit a coding field.

Set up a new coding field

Open the Setup coding fields option. To create your own coding/curatable fields, click the Add a new coding field button. A new dialog box will open where you can provide the following information to set up the new coding field. See the details below to learn more about the coding field options.

1. Field Name

   Give the coding field a unique name.

2. Field Type

   Choose from the dropdown menu what kind of field this needs to be.

   • Number: if this is a numerical value, choose Number from the dropdown list
   • Yes/No: makes the field a checkbox with boolean values; Yes when selected and No when unselected. Be mindful using this field as the default is No (not blank), therefore, you may need to add a Completed field as well to ensure you know which records are a true negative (No).
   • Short text: provides an input text field for unconstrained free text entries. This is useful for fields such as Comments.
   • Vocabulary: This is used to select a value from a predefined vocabulary to apply to records during coding. If you have any vocabularies that exist, you can select a vocabulary to assign to the field from the dropdown menu when the Vocabulary button is clicked. This is useful for normalizing a coding field and making analysis more efficient once all coders are done. You should consider the vocabulary options carefully before coding.
     • If you need to make a new vocabulary, go to the Controlled Vocabularies tab at the top, then click on the Add new controlled vocabulary button. You can also go to the All vocabularies button to copy/edit previous vocabularies to use in your current project here
     • Once you have added a vocabulary, you can go back to the Coding tab and select it in the drop down menu for that field which is a vocab type

3. Field Options

   • Filterable: select Yes to make a filter for this field. This will not be filterable, however, if the text is long text. Fields that are best utilized as filterable will be categorical so that you can filter/view records in the project that have this field value. 
   • Multi Valued: select Yes to allow the field to accept multiple values, for example, Cancer; cardiovascular; metabolic could be kept together side by side as one value, or if multi-valued is set to Yes, each component of this field will be separated unto unique values so that you can select only Cancer. When left unselected, the field is single valued by default. You may want to use this if a record can be coded into multiple categories, or separate comments to read them easier. The symbol used must be a semi colon.
     • Default settings
       • Searchable: By default, your coding fields will be searchable and exportable, so there is no need to add these options.
       • Field Order: by default, each coding field is in the order which you have added them. If you wish to update this order, you can drag and drop the field boxes to the order of your choosing.

Note: Any individual who has coding permissions (Coder) will have a specific box to code for each coding field, which cannot be edited by other users of the portfolio.

Coding field types

Multi-valued toggle

Vocabularies

When you come to the Controlled vocabulary tab in your project, these are vocabularies specific to this coding project only. This will include vocabularies you have made within this project or copied over from a previous project. Follow the steps below to add a vocabulary for a vocab field.

Making a new vocabulary

1. Click on the Controlled vocabularies tab. Then, click on the Add a new controlled vocabulary button

2. Add vocabulary options by clicking Add new item. When you are done, click Save at the bottom.

3. Go back to the Coding tab and for the newly created field that has Vocab as the type, select the new, recently created (within project) vocab from the dropdown. Click Save at the bottom once you have done this.

Copying an existing vocabulary

1. Click on the Controlled vocabularies tab. Then, click on the See All Vocabularies button.

2. Find the vocab you wish to copy. Click the copy button under the column Copy to Project to copy a previous vocabulary to your current project. The copied vocabulary will now show in the project's Coding tab as a vocab option. Click Close to go back.

Select Close at the bottom.

3. Go back to your Coding tab, and you will see the copied vocabulary as an available option after choosing a vocab field type for the newly created coding field. Click Save at the bottom after making the vocab selection.

Copy Coding Fields From

(in development)

Alternatively, to copy curatable/coding fields from an existing portfolio to your current portfolio click the Copy Fields From button. A dropdown menu will appear displaying all of your portfolios within the module. Select the portfolio containing the fields you would like to copy to your current portfolio. The ability to copy curatable fields from another portfolio is available to Super Curators and Managers, see Adding Collaborators for more information on available functionality allowed for each role within portfolios.