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About classifications

 

In NVivo, you use classifications to store descriptive information about your sources or about the people, places or other cases in your project. You can then use this information to make comparisons or to gather material by attribute. This topic gets you started with classifications—for more information, refer to Classify sources and Classify cases.  

You can also watch the video tutorial Organize your demographic data.

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What are classifications?

Classifications provide a way to record descriptive information about the sources and nodes in your project:

 

While source and case classifications behave in a similar way, they are used for different purposes:

  • Use source classifications to store bibliographical information about your sources—you can import this information from EndNote.

  • Use case classifications to provide demographic details about the people, places or other 'cases' in your project. For example, classify a case as a Person and define attributes for age and occupation.

For more information, refer to About classifying sources or Classify cases (set attribute values to record information).

Working with source classifications

When you click on Source Classifications in Navigation View you will see the classifications that are available in your project—for example a journal article or web page.

If you cannot see any classifications, then you may want to:

Each classification has its own unique set of attributes. For example, if you expand the classification Newspaper Article you can see the attributes that are available for recording:

  • Reporter

  • Year

  • Title

As you classify your sources, you can specify an 'attribute value' for each attribute:

Attribute Value
Reporter Benjamin Smith
Year 2010
Title Urgent Challenges of Climate Change

When you import data from a reference management tool, the sources are automatically classified and the attribute values are assigned.

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Working with case classifications

When you click on Case Classifications in Navigation View, you will see the case classifications that are available in your project—for example:

  • Person

  • Organization

  • Community

If you cannot see any classifications, then you may want to

Each case classification has its own unique set of attributes. For example, if you expand the classification Person you can see the attributes that are available for recording:

  • Age

  • Sex

  • Occupation

As you classify your cases, you can specify an 'attribute value' for each attribute:

Attribute Value
Age 25

Sex

 Male
Occupation

Cattle farmer

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What is a classification sheet?

When you have classified your sources or cases, you can open a grid that displays the attributes for all items in a particular classification—this grid is called a classification sheet.

For example, you could open the Person classification sheet and see all the cases in this classification. The cases are displayed along with their attribute values—you can sort and filter the cases based on their attribute values (for example, age and sex). You can also update attribute values via the classification sheet.

Refer to About classification sheets for more information.

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