Holsti's Method
Holsti's method is a percent-agreement reliability index for content analysis, popularized by Ole Holsti's 1969 textbook and derived from Osgood's earlier formula. For two coders it is twice the number of coding decisions on which they agree divided by the total number of decisions each made — a simple, intuitive measure of how often coders reach the same judgment.
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Sources
- Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 9780201029406
- Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN: 9780761915454
- Scott, W. A. (1955). Reliability of content analysis: The case of nominal scale coding. Public Opinion Quarterly, 19(3), 321–325. DOI: 10.1086/266577 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Holsti's Reliability Coefficient for Coded Data. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/communication/holsti-reliability
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Intercoder ReliabilityCommunication↔ compare
- Krippendorff's AlphaCommunication↔ compare
- Manifest Content AnalysisCommunication↔ compare
- Scott's PiCommunication↔ compare