We have completed a round of multiple coding for screening on title/abstract. We had two teams of two coders doing this. Now we are ready to do another round of coding, this time screening on full text. We have 241 documents that we wish to randomly allocate to our two teams. We can't seem to figure out how to do this - we think we have allocated those documents to two groups, but every time we try to assign work in the collaborate tab, we end up with 0 documents assigned.  Can you give us some advice?

Hello Lesley,

It is good to hear that you found a solution. I had a quick look at your review anyway and would like to make a few suggestions. I suspect the reason that you were having difficulty creating your coding assignments is that your 'Allocation groups' codeset is set for 'multiple data entry'.  The Allocation groups codeset is used to identify the items that you will be using in your coding assignments. You aren't double coding using the 'allocation groups' codeset (I imagine you are double coding using your 'Screen on T&A' and 'Screen on full text' codeset) so you should set it for single data entry. That way the Coding assignment functions will see the allocation codes applied (without you having to manually 'complete' those codes). I would suggest that any codeset that is not being used in a double coding situation (such as the 'File status' codset) be set for single data entry.

As for deleting your duplicated coding assignments, if they really are duplicates (i.e. the same items have been assigned to the same people in two assignments) deleting one will not be a problem. Even if you delete the wrong coding assignment you could recreate it again. Deleting a coding assignment does not delete the codes that were applied to the items that make up the coding assignment. For example, if a coding assignment  consisted of 'Reviewer' - 'A', 'Study group' '- Group 1'  and 'Codes to apply' - 'Screen on T&A', deleting that coding assignment will not delete the codes from 'Screen on T&A' that were applied by Reviewer 'A'. You could just recreate the coding assignment and the same 'Allocated', 'Started' and 'Remaining' values would appear.

Best regards,

Jeff