st: best way to manage data with recoding

["Christopher W. Ryan" <cryan@binghamton.edu>]

I am conducting a study that involves some paper-pencil Likert-scale 
survey instruments.  Some of the items are reverse-scored to calculate 
the final scale score.  I plan to use Epidata to enter the data.

What is the best and most legitimate way to handle the reversed coding:

1.  reverse the scores on the fly at data entry time and enter them the 
reversed way?  (seems onerous and prone to error)

2.  enter the scores as written by the subjects, then use Stata to 
recode them, and save the now-modified dataset (writing over the 
original one), to use for the subsequent analyses?

3.  enter the scores as written by the subjects, and leave the "raw" 
dataset like that, doing a recoding at the start of each analysis 
session, thus preserving the original dataset?

4.  make a new dataset, with the relevant items recoded, and save both 
the raw and the "working" dataset?

5.  something else?

Thanks.
--
Christopher W. Ryan, MD
SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton
and Wilson Family Practice Residency, Johnson City, NY
cryanatbinghamtondotedu
GnuPG and PGP public keys available at http://pgp.mit.edu

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