10. Classification and Attributes

With classifications, you can find patterns in your data based on attributes, e.g., demographic data about the sample described in the article. 

This example will describes the addition of such attributes to the reference classification sheet. 

The reference classification sheet, is the bibliographic information imported automatically when you import your references from your reference manager.

You can use the classification sheet to record descriptive information about the files in your project. To set up your classification structure, you need to open the reference classification sheet and add the attributes and values you want to describe.

How to: 

Open the Reference classification sheet: In the Navigation View, Choose "File Classifications" (blue menu to the left). Right click on "Reference" to open the classification sheet. Now you can see which attributes are used to describe each article, eg the author, the year of publication, title etc.

View a list of all attributes:  Click on the small "+" beside "Reference". A fold out menu appears, listing all the attributes. 

Tidy up in the attributes: Remove any attributes that do not contain any useful information by right-clicking on the attribute name and choose "delete".

Define a new attributes: Let's say you want to note down the method used in each article in your review. Right-click "Reference" and choose "New Attribute". A dialogue box pops up with two tabs.

• On the General tab, give your new attribute the name "Method" and describe which information you will collect in the method attribute.
• On the Values tab, click on "Add" and add the types of methods your articles use, eg. Survey, Interview, RCT, Mixed Methods.
• Click on "Sort" if you want the values to be displayed alphabetically or chronologically in any analyses you do.

Click "OK" have added all the values you need.

Classify sources: 
Right click on "Reference" to open the classification sheet. Scroll through to your new "Method" attribute. You can see that the rows in the Method column are empty. 

Add values to each file: When you hover your mouse over a cell, a drop-down arrow appears. Click on the arrow to chose which value describes the method used in the article.

Analyse your articles: When you have defined the method in each of your articles you can use this information in visualisations and tabulations of the data in your review. A simple visualisation is to right click on the name of the attribute in the drop-down list, choose "visualize" and choose the "Chart files by attribute values". In this example you will see your files grouped by the method they use to collect their data.