Good instructions have good examples.
So do good codebooks.
Definitions define the space. Examples populate it.
##intervention_type
Question
What was the main intervention?
Description
The therapy, medication, or behavioural program administered to the treatment arm.
Example answers
"Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), 12 weekly 60-minute sessions, delivered in group format."
Default if missing "Not specified"
Good examples often come from disagreements. When two readers see the same document differently, you've found a gap in your instructions — and that document becomes the example. Drop in what it said, what you decided, and why. Disagreements turn out to be a key diagnostic signal for refining codebooks; we return to them in much more depth later in this series.
On Data Mint, each question has at least these four fields. You can add more:
- Format rules
- Edge cases
- Look in these places
- …or any tag you invent.
All of it reaches the reader.