Literature Searching and Coding Overview

This page provides an overview of our literature search and coding processes. We encourage you to download and review the MPK Thematic Codebook.

The MPK Team is comprised of faculty and graduate students across the Arab Region and UC Davis. In groups of two, we developed Boolean searches to identify literature on each of our 6 thematics:

1 – Class, Race, Minority, Ethnicity, Tribe, Family, Kin, Care Work, and Social Networks
2 – Media and Popular Culture
3 – Religion
4 – Sexuality and the Body
5 – Social Consequences of War Displacement, Migration, Violence, and Precarity
6 – Space and Socialities

MPK thematic pairs then developed the initial codebook for their thematic and the full MPK team reviewed and revised these codebooks through several discussions and test coding phases. Our ultimate goal was to capture major topics within each thematic that emerge across the literature.

Thematic Codes

Within the Codebook, you can explore the codes developed for Cross-Thematic, Individual Thematics, and Geography. Code tables consist of three-column tables. Each of these columns is explained in the table below.

Codebook Column

Explanation

Column 1 :

Codebook Term

Thematic Abbreviated Name Thematic

Column 2 :

Key Terms from the Boolean Searches are in black font (these terms were also used in the autocoding); Additional terms used for autocoding are in red font

Key Terms
Boolean Search Key Term 1 Boolean Search Key Term 2 Boolean Search Key Term NOT used in Autocoding Additional Term for Autocoding 1 Additional Term for Autocoding 2

Column 3 :

Justification for Reducing Boolean Key Terms (Column 2) into the Code (Column 1). Additional notes on the searches and overlap with other codes or thematics are also included.

This a general code applied whenever an abstract discusses full thematic name in some context. Whenever a full thematic name code is applied to an abstract, the “Thematic Abbreviated Name Thematic” code is also added. Note, that in certain cases, the “Thematic Abbreviated Name Thematic” code may be applied when no other full thematic name code is applied. For example, XX.

Note that the first row in each thematic codebook is a general code for that thematic. For example, “Space Thematic” is the general code for literature on Space and Socialities. In the database, you also have the option of searching for literature that falls under one of the six overarching thematics.

Overarching Codes

In addition to developing thematic-specific codebooks, there are also several overarching codes that apply across themes, such as geography. These codes are shown in the table below along with how you can use them when searching the literature database.

Code

How to use in literature database

Honor Killing

Female genital cutting

Sexual Harassment

Domestic Violence

Rape/Sexual Violence

In the left sidebar of the literature database page, look under Cross-Thematic section

Algeria

Bahrain

Comoros

Djibouti

Egypt

Iraq

Jordan

Kuwait

Lebanon

Lybia

Mauritania

Morocco

Oman

Palestine

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Somalia

Sudan

Syria

Tunisia

UAE

Yemen

In the left sidebar of the literature database page, look under the Geography section or In the bottom left sidebar of the literature database page, click on the appropriate country in the clickable map

North Africa

Middle East

Maghreb

Mashreq

Arab Gulf

Arab Region

Ottoman Empire

Arab World

In the left sidebar of the literature database page, look under the Geography section