Using a Data Dictionary as Your Roadmap to Quality Data

From https://cghlewis.com/blog/data_dictionary

A data, a rectangular format follection of names, definitions and attributes about variables in a dataset, is arguably the single most important piece of documentation you will create in your research study.

Creating a Data Dictionary Before you Collect Data

Study Guide

A set of standars for how your team should organize data for your project. For example rules for naming variables and coding response values.

Information to Collect

This may look like technical documents from an assessment company or instruments attached to publications.

• What itemsmake up the measures/scales?
• How are items coded?
• Are there any calculations/reverse coding needed?

Building a Data Dictionary

You should build a data dictionary for each instrument you plan to collect (ex. student survey data dictionary, teacher survey data dictionary, student assessment data dictionary).

Using your Data Dictionary

Once your data dictionaries are finalized, you can start to:

1. Building your data collection instruments and data entry forms.
2. Once the data is capture, use your data dictionary as a guide to clean your data.
3. Use the data dictionary in your data verification process.
4. The data dictionary serves as metadatat that allows others to interpre your data when you share your data.