Introduction
For larger, or on-going projects (e.g. Tracking Studies), Waves are an invaluable means of managing large and otherwise unwieldy sets of data. This page explains why Waves are important and gives an overview of how to work with them in codeit.
Why do we need Waves?
To answer this question, consider a Tracking Study that runs in monthly fieldwork waves.
At the start of the project, you load the first months worth of data, say January, into codeit. You code the data, report the results and everything is fine. Then when February rolls around, you load the data for this new Wave into codeit. If all the February data is mixed in with the January data it becomes very hard to work with. It will be difficult to separate the data and know which verbatims are which. Furthermore, how do you ensure that the January data, which you've reported on, doesn't get changed while you're working on the February data?
Instead, Waves offer a simple way to divide your data into separate silos, or batches, so you can much more easily manage your project and focus on the data separately. Furthermore, it is much easier to keep track of your progress because the Project Dashboard in codeit will report stats by Wave which is typically the way you would want to monitor your project.
How are Waves displayed?
Within the Project Dashboard in codeit, you will see a separate line for each Wave within your Project.
How are Waves created?
There are three ways to create Waves within codeit:
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Import | When importing a file, you have the option to import data into an existing Wave or into a new one. |
| Data Links | If your project uses a Data Link, you can select a closed end question during setup that defines the Wave that each interview loaded belongs to. |
| Admin | Waves can be manually created within the Administration section of codeit. |
Wave Status
Each Wave within codeit is assigned a Wave Status value. The status is intended to follow the natural lifecycle of fieldwork Waves within a survey. The following table defines theses status values and the effect they have on data within the Wave:
| Status | Description | Import Allowed | Coding Changes Allowed | Autocoding Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Progress | Wave is actively being worked on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Verifying | Wave is being QA checked | Yes | Yes - In Quality Checking Only | No |
| Closed | Wave is final and no further changes are allowed | No | No | No |
What if I don't need waves?
All codeit projects require at least one Wave. If no Waves are defined when you import data into a project, then data will be loaded into a default Wave called "Default".