Why use this feature?
In Market Research surveys, 'other specify' questions present a unique challenge from a data perspective.
The data collected using these question is closed end (i.e. drawn from a fixed list of predefined responses) but can also contain supplementary "other specify" text if a selected closed end response allows text entry.
This help section explains how to handle such 'other specify' questions when using the Data Link for either Qualtrics or Cmix.
How does the 'other specify' set up differ?
A closed-end question with "other specify" responses contains both closed-end data and supplementary open-ended text data. Consider this question:
Example: Q5 Which is your favourite chocolate bar?
1 Mars Bar
2 Snickers
3 Kit Kat
98 Other (please specify)
The respondent can choose an item from the predefined list and if they select "Other" (98) then they can also type in an additional text response. The resulting data may look like this:
Here we can see that three respondents have picked one of the predefined list items and one has specified an "Other" response. So, this type of question is unusual because it is both a closed-end question and an open-ended question at the same time. As such, when linking to a question like this from codeit, it performs two roles simultaneously: it provides an open-ended source question for coding, and a closed-ended target question to code into. Mindful of this, the data link wizard in codeit has mechanisms in place to allow this type of question to perform both roles.
How to use this feature
Follow the step-by-step instructions below when linking and setting up the coding for 'other specify' questions.
1. Choose source variable
Taking our example above, although Q5 is technically a closed-question, it will appear in the "Source Variables" tab of the data link wizard. This allows us to select it as a source variable for coding. Note that when the data is synced from the survey system, codeit will load ALL data for this question - both closed-end and other specify. For responses where an other specify response has been selected codeit will load that response, rather than the closed end response. So, for Interview ID 3 above codeit would load the value "Milky Way" and not the value "(98) Other".
2. Choose target variable
To create a coding task, you also need a closed-end target variable to write your coded data back to.
For "other specify" coding tasks, you have two options:
- Create a new, empty target variable
Your new coding task will simply contain an empty codeframe with no pre-coded data. - Select the "Closed End" portion of the "other specify" question
Your codeframe will contain all of the closed-end responses from your "other specify" question.
All of the closed-end data will be imported and pre-coded against the codeframe, leaving only the "other specify" responses uncoded.
You can select the "Closed End" question as your target variable, by looking for the relevant "Closed End" variable in the "Target Variables" tab. In the Q5 example above, the target variable will be labelled "Q5 - Closed End".
3. Mapping
To use the 'closed end' target question ('Q5 - Closed End' in our example), it is important that you explicitly map the source and target variables together in the 'tasks' page of the link data wizard.
4. Coding the question
Once the configuration is complete and you have synced the source data from your survey platform, you should see the correct data appearing in the coding screens in Codeit. In our example, we see that the codeframe and closed end data has been imported from Q5 along with the (uncoded) other specify values:
