Inter-rater Reliability
The degree to which two or more coders independently assign the same codes to the same data, showing a coding scheme is applied consistently.
Inter-rater reliability is the extent to which independent coders agree when applying the same coding scheme to the same material. It is commonly assessed by having two or more people code a sample of the data and then comparing their decisions, either as simple percentage agreement or with statistics that correct for chance agreement. High agreement suggests the codes are clearly defined; low agreement usually signals that definitions need refinement.
In a thesis, reporting inter-rater reliability strengthens claims that your coding was systematic rather than idiosyncratic, especially in content analysis and structured qualitative designs. Report which portion of the data was double coded and the agreement reached. Even when formal statistics are not appropriate, describing how disagreements between coders were discussed and resolved shows examiners that interpretation was checked against another perspective.
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