How to build vocabulary

To create a new vocabulary, start by clicking on the 'create vocabulary' icon in the Controlled Vocabularies dashboard and provide a name for your vocabulary.

You can build your vocabulary manually by clicking the 'add some' 

Alternatively, you can import an existing vocabulary (that was built outside of the tool) by clicking the 'import' button  in the middle or right panel. 

You can import two types of files:

• JSON format: Here, you have the option to upload not only terms but also "term code" and 'Synonyms.'

•  CSV format: In this format, you should place parent terms in the first column and child terms in the second column. Please refer to the example below for clarification. 

Note: You should have a headers for each column or leave the first row empty. You can add as many levels as you need in your vocabulary. 

There are two options for importing when a controlled vocabulary already exists and you decide to modify it:

• You can add new terms to the existing vocabulary (append).
• You can completely replace the current vocabulary with a new one.

To create Create/edit vocabulary terms

1. Click 'Add some' to input your first term.

2. Provide the term in the Edit panel.

3.  If desired, you can define a term code and add synonyms. 

Why is it worth adding synonyms? When you enable model suggestions for this vocabulary field, the model will find the specified terms (one of the synonyms) in the study and extract the main value (vocabulary term). This helps support the model with coding, so you won’t have to manually code the extracted value yourself.

4. To add a new term that belongs to a previously provided category, click 'add child' To add a new term that does not belong to previously added terms, click 'add sibling’.

5. To rearrange terms within the same vocabulary level, use the 'move up' or 'move down' buttons. To change a term's level, such as from children to parent, use the 'promote' or 'demote' buttons.

6. And finally, you can also add labels to each parent and child category, which will be used as field names in data extraction forms. In our example, we create two labels: Parent: Study Type Category, and Children: Study Type. In the Data Extraction Form Creator module, when you create your data extraction fields, the tool will automatically add the field name once you choose to use this vocabulary in your data extraction form. 

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