Survey research and design in psychology/Assessment/Data collection and entry/Data entry


 * Steps
 * 1) Follow the survey administration guidelines to collect 5 cases of data using the.
 * 2) Download the blank SPSS data file: (u000000.sav). Do not change any of the variable properties (e.g., do not add or remove any variables and do not change variable widths or column widths).
 * 3) Rename the data file with your student number - the format of the file name should be, for example, u923374.sav.
 * 4) Give each of the surveys a unique Participant ID (from 1 through 5); put this ID # in the top-right corner of the first page of each survey.
 * 5) Enter all of the data from each of the surveys into the data file template (using the detailed coding information) and save the file.
 * 6) Submit the file via the UCLearn site.
 * 7) Late submissions: IMPORTANT: No late submissions are accepted because the electronic data files are collated and distributed for the lab report immediately after data collection submission closes.

Coding

 * 1) Enter the data for each survey respondent on a single row in the data entry template.
 * 2) Enter exactly what respondents wrote or indicated.
 * 3) For most survey items, this involves entering the number circled by the respondent in the corresponding columns.
 * 4) For categorical variables, use the coding described below (which can also be found on the survey and in the data file value labels). This table also included information about how to enter data for CaseID and the open-ended questions.
 * 5) Missing data should be left as blank
 * 6) Make sure not to add or remove any variables or cases

Table 1. Guidelines for coding the survey data to be entered

What if I have missing data?

 * 1) If a response is missing, illegible or invalid, leave the relevant cells blank.
 * 2) There is no need to enter a special value (such as 99 or -1) to indicate missing data.

What if a respondent circled two sequential numbers?

 * 1) The most common and accurate/valid way to treat this type of response is to enter a decimal to indicate the mid-point between the response options (e.g., if 4 and 5 were circled, enter 4.5). Another way could be to toss a coin to select one of the two numbers.
 * 2) Note that if the decimal places in SPSS is set to 0 for a variable, then only a whole number will be displayed in each of the cells. However, the decimal value is stored and used, which can be verified by clicking on the cell and checking the full cell content display in the top left corner of the data view.

==See also==
 * Data collection
 * Data screening
 * Survey administration guidelines