The Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT) is a free, open source, cloud computing platform built on Microsoft's ASP.NET technology.
CAT enables efficient, transparent, reliable, valid and scalable Web-based collaborative manual text categorization and analysis.
As a free, Web-based system, CAT creates the opportunity for low-cost replication or examination of coding choices.
CAT is also an excellent training tool for teaching students about the role of human subjectivity in recording observations about text.
CAT is a service of the Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP), which is hosted by the University Center for Social and Urban Research, at the University of Pittsburgh,
and QDAP-UMass, in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
CAT was the 2008 winner of the "Best Research Software" award from the organized section on Information Technology & Politics
in the American Political Science Association.
Originally designed to work with merged coding output from ATLAS.ti, the Coding Analysis Toolkit has an interface for creating codes and applying annotations inside of CAT. The CAT system is organized into six main sections:
Login and new user registration
Account and sub-account management
Dataset uploads, coding, and management
Comparison or reliability tools
Adjudication and validity measurement tools
Memo management tools
For the CAT Quick Start Guide, you can view the Portable Document Format (.pdf) file here: