Qualitative Codebook Template

No. This works alongside any of them, and it works perfectly well on its own. Coding software stores your codes, but most packages won’t make you write inclusion and exclusion criteria, which is the part that actually keeps your coding consistent. Plenty of good qualitative research has been coded in a spreadsheet.

It suits thematic analysis, content analysis, framework analysis and most other codebook-driven approaches. It’s a poor fit for grounded theory in its purest form, where the categories are meant to emerge without a prior structure, although even there most people keep a record of what each code came to mean.

Both, and that’s not a dodge. Start it with whatever codes your research questions and framework already imply, then add to it as new codes come out of the data. What matters is that a code gets its definition and criteria written before you apply it across the rest of your transcripts.

They will. Change them, and record the change in the Notes column with a date. Don’t delete a code. Set its Status to Merged or Retired and say what happened to it.

That record is worth marks. Your methodology chapter has to explain how your coding developed, and a codebook that shows its revisions is evidence you did the work. One that looks like it arrived perfect is much harder to defend.

There’s no right number, and it depends on your data and your approach. The more useful signal is the shape. If a code has one extract after a full pass through your data, it’s usually either two codes that were split too finely, or a code you don’t need.

Yes. That’s what the criteria columns are for. Hand the codebook to your second coder before they start, have them code a sample independently, then compare. Where you disagree, the fix is almost always a sharper exclusion criterion rather than a longer definition.

It can be used at any level of study. Doctoral projects usually carry more codes and more detail in the criteria columns, but the structure stays the same.

Yes, you’re welcome to share it in its original format (no editing allowed). If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, all we ask is that you reference this page as your source.

Yes, we do. You can find our full collection of templates here.

Yes. You’re welcome to explore our qualitative data coding service if you’d like the coding done with you, or our private coaching if you’d rather work through it yourself with support.