Krupanidhi School of Management - Bangalore

Module 5 Processing of Research data Editing, coding, classification and Tabulation Introduction After data collection processing, an analysis is done keeping in view the purpose and objectives of the study. Data processing involves editing, coding, classification and tabulation of data for analysis. Data analysis is a blend of various disciplines like statistics, psychology, and information technology etc. that satisfies the validity and information requirement of the project to draw conclusions regarding research objectives. Data processing or Processing of research data: Processing data is very important in research. After collecting the data , the next task of the researcher is to analyze and interpret the data. The purpose of analysis is to draw conclusions. These are two parts in processing the data Data Analysis Interpretation of data Analysis of data involves organizing the data in a particular manner; interpretation of data is a method for deriving conclusions from the data analyzed. Analysis of data is not complete, unless it is interpreted. Steps in Processing Of Data: Preparing raw data Editing Coding Tabulation

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Summarizing the data Usage of statistical tools Preparing Raw Data Data collection is a significant part of research. Even more significant is to filter out the relevant data from the mass of data collected. Data continues to be in raw form, unless they are processed and analyzed. Primary data collected by surveys and observation by field investigations are hastily entered into questionnaires. Due to the pressure of interviewing, the researcher has to write down the responses immediately. Many times this may not be systematic. The information so collected by field staff is called raw data. The information collected may be illegible, incomplete and inaccurate to a considerable extent. Also the information collected will be scattered in several data collection formats. The data lying in such a crude form are not ready for analysis. The researcher must take some measures to organize the data so that it can be analyzed. Editing The main purpose of editing is to eliminate the errors and confusion. Editing involves inspection and correction of each questionnaire. The main role of editing is to identify commissions, ambiguities and errors in response. Editing thus means the activity of inspecting, correcting and modifying the correct data. This can be done in two stages Field editing Office editing Field editing

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Objectives of field editing are to make sure that the proper procedure is followed in selecting the respondent, interview them and record their responses. In field editing speed is the main criteria, since editing should be done when the study is still under progress. The main problems faced in field editing are Inappropriate respondents Incomplete interviews Improper understanding Lack of consistency Legibility Fictitious interview Example Inappropriate respondents It is intended to include house owners in the sample for conducting the survey. If a tenant is interviewed, it would be wrong. Incomplete interviews All questions are to be answered. There should not be any blanks, Blanks can have different meanings like No answer Refusal to answer Question not applicable Interviewer by oversight did not record.

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The reason for no answer could be that the respondent really does not know the answers. Sometimes, the respondent does not answers, may be because of the sensitive or emotional aspect of the question. Improper understanding The interviewer is hurry, would have recorded some abbreviated answer. Later at the end of the day, the researcher cannot figure out what is meant. Lack of consistency The earlier part of the questionnaire indicates that there are no children and in the later part the age of the children is mentioned. Legibility If what is said is not clear, the interviewer must clarify the same on the spot. Fictitious interview This amounts to cheating by the interviewer. Here, the questionnaires are filed without conducting interviews. A surprise check by superiors is one way to minimize this. Office Editing: It is more thorough than field editing. The job of an office editor is more difficult than that of the field editor. In case of mail questionnaire there are no other methods of cross verification, except to conduct office audit. Example A respondent indicate that he doesnt drink coffee, but questioned about his favorite brand he replied bru There is inconsistency in this. There are two possibilities which an editor need to consider

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Was the respondent lying Did the interviewer record wrongly? The editor has to look into the answers to other questions on beverages and interpret the right answer
A rating scale given to a respondent states Sematic Differential Scale with 10 items the

respondents ticked strongly agree for all the 10 items In this it is to be remembered that Semantic Differential Scale consists of items which has alternatively positive and negative connotations. If a respondent has marked both positive and negative as agreed, the only conclusion the editor can draw is that the respondent filled the questionnaire without knowledge. The editor will have discard this questionnaire, since there are no alternatives. What is the most expensive purchase you have made in the last one year? Is the question. Two respondents answers are 1) LCD TV 2) Trip to USA In this the respondents have answered correctly. The frame of reference is different. The main problem is, one of them is a product whereas the other is a service. While coding the data, the two answers should be put under two different categories. Coding Coding means assigning numbers or order symbol to the responses in the edited questionnaire. These responses are grouped into limited number of classes or categories ensuring mutual exclusivity, exhaustiveness, and unidimensionality. Or Coding refers to those activities which help in transforming edited questionnaires into a form that is ready for analysis. Coding speeds up the tabulation while editing eliminates errors. Coding

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involves assigning numbers or other symbols to answers so that the response can be grouped into limited number of classes or categories. Eg: 1 is used for male and 2 for female Some guidelines to be followed in coding which is as follows Establishment of appropriate category. Mutual exclusivity. Establishment of appropriate category:

Suppose the researcher is analyzing the inconvenience that a car owner is facing with his present model. Therefore, the factor chosen for coding may be inconvenience. Under this there could be 4 types
1. Inconvenience in entering the backseat

2. Inconvenience due to insufficient legroom 3. Inconvenience with respect to the interior 4. Inconvenience in door locking, and opening the dickey. Now the researcher may classify these four answers based on internal inconvenience and other inconveniences referring to the exterior. Each is assigned a different number for the purpose of codification. Mutual exclusivity. This is important because the answer given by the respondent should be placed under one category. Eg: Occupation of an individual may be responded to as 1. Professional

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2. Executive 3. Mangers Sometimes respondent might think that they belong to more than one category. This is because a sales personal may be doing a sales job and therefore should be placed under the sales category. Also he may supervise the work of other sales executive(s). in this case he is doing a managerial function. Viewed in this context, he should be placed under the managerial category, which has a different code. Therefore he can only put under one category, which is to be decided. One way of deciding this could be to analyze in which of the two functions does he spend most time? Eg: Questions 1. Do you own a vehicle Answers Yes No 2. What is your occupation Salaried Business Retired Technical Consultant Code 1 2 S B R T C

Classification: Number of groups: the number group should be sufficient to record all possible data. The classification should not be too narrow. It is too narrow, there can be an overlap.

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o Eg: if a researcher is conducting a survey on why6 does the current owner dislikes the car? the car owner may indicate the following Difficulty in seeking entry to the back seat Interior space Cramped leg room Mileage Rattling of the engine Dickey space Now the above data can be classified into two or three categories such as

1) Discomfort 2) Expense 3) Pride 4) Safety 5) Design of the car Width of the class interval: Class interval should be uniform and should be of equal width. This will provide consistency in the data distribution.
Exclusive Categories: the classification should be done in such a way that the response

can be placed in only one category. o Eg: problem of leg room is the answer by respondent. This should be paced either under discomfort or design, but not both.

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Exhaustive Categories: This should be made to include all responses including Dont Know answers. Sometimes this will influence the ultimate answer to the research problem. Avoid Extremes: Avoid open ended class interval. Tabulation Tabulation refers to putting the coded, classified and categorized data in the form of statistical tables. Tabulation involves sorting, counting and summarizing of data. Tabulation can be done by hand or mechanical or electronic devices like computers depending on Objective of the research Applications of the statistical computations like mean, median, mode, etc. Data can be tabularized using the table number, title, head note, caption, subentries, body of the table, footnote and source etc. Tabulation is of two types Simple Tabulation Cross Tabulation Simple Tabulation In simple tabulation, a single parameter is considered using one way or univariate tables. The questions are predetermined and consist of counting the number of responses falling into a particular category and calculate the percentage. Cross Tabulation

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This is known as bivariate tabulation. The data may include two or more variables which are treated simultaneously. It gives information about two or three inter related attributes or parameters. Cross tabulation is very commonly used in research.