To record the stages of healing, rating scales are used, with a set of criteria to assess various aspects of wounds. If all the researchers give similar ratings, the test has high interrater reliability.Ī team of researchers observe the progress of wound healing in patients. Then you calculate the correlation between their different sets of results. To measure interrater reliability, different researchers conduct the same measurement or observation on the same sample. This is especially important when there are multiple researchers involved in data collection or analysis. When designing the scale and criteria for data collection, it’s important to make sure that different people will rate the same variable consistently with minimal bias. Reliable research aims to minimize subjectivity as much as possible so that a different researcher could replicate the same results.
People are subjective, so different observers’ perceptions of situations and phenomena naturally differ. In an observational study where a team of researchers collect data on classroom behavior, interrater reliability is important: all the researchers should agree on how to categorize or rate different types of behavior.
