ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the value of proper data coding techniques and the key characteristics of useful data coding formats. The principal motivations in coding data are: accurately reflecting the underlying nature of the data, facilitating useful analysis, and preserving as many analytic choices as possible. Coding is to measurement what the alphabet is to speech: a mechanism for making a precise and lasting record of information. A unique numerical value is used to represent one value or category of the variable. Since religious affiliation is a nominal characteristic, the order and magnitude of the codes have no significance whatsoever. Replication has such value in the discipline that certain journals publish replication articles, often written by graduate students. The most important thing to keep in mind as develop data codes is that the numerical representations must always be consistent with the measurement characteristics of the variables people are researching.
