🌻 Names of tables and fields
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2 Oct 2025

Columns and tables#

We can think of a causal map as a database consisting of two tables, the links table and the sources table. We don't need to have a separate table for the factors because the factors can be derived from the links table.

Field name Explanation
Citation count aka Link count Number of citations of a given factor or link.
Source count Number of sources mentioning a given factor or link. Source count cannot be higher than citation count and may be a lot lower if some sources mentioned the same factor or link many times.

Columns in the factors table#

Field name Explanation
incoming_links, indegree Number of citations of all the incoming links to a particular factor.
outgoing_links, outdegree Number of citations of all the outgoing links from a particular factor.
outcome-ness (%) A factor with a high outcomeness percentage is mostly an outcome; it has mostly incoming links. If it has low outcomeness it has mostly outgoing links so it is mostly a driver. Outcomeness is the proportion of citations of incoming links out of all the citations of a particular factor: a normalised version of the Copeland Score (Copeland 1951). So factors with high outcomeness can be thought of as “outcomes”. And factors with low outcomeness can be thought of as inputs or drivers.
Field name Explanation

Columns in the sources table#

Field name Explanation
source_id
title
filename
Glossary

Some essential terminology for causal mapping.

Term Definition
Causal claim A section of text where someone or something says or claims that one thing (a cause) influences or influenced another (an effect). There need be no suggestion that the cause is the only cause of the effect, or totally determines it.
Causal link A causal link is the representation of a causal claim within a causal mapping system or database. Each link consists of a cause, an effect, a quote or other evidence to back up the claim, and a source, for example an interview transcript.
Coding The process of capturing a causal claim in a text as a causal link in a database or map.
Bundle Often there will be many links with the same causes and effects. We call this set of links a bundle of links. Usually these links are mentioned by multiple sources. In a causal map, we usually display all the links in a bundle as one arrow. A thicker line or a label can be used to show the number of links in the bundle.
Source Sources are where your causal claims come from: respondents you have interviewed or documents you have collected. Sources are usually given an ID like, say, Source_001.
Cause A causal factor at the beginning of a link, that affects another factor.
Influence factor See cause. Sometimes we prefer "Influence factor" over "Cause" to make it clear that we may be talking only about a partial contribution to an effect, not complete determination.
Effect A causal factor at the end of a link, that has been influenced by another factor.
Consequence factor See Effect. Sometimes we prefer "Consequence factor" over "Effect" to make it clear that we may be talking only about a partial contribution to an effect, not complete determination.
Factor A cause or an effect; something that can influence or be influenced by other factors. We use the word both for the text label within the causal mapping representation as well as for the thing in the world to which it refers.
Codebook A list of factor labels that can be used when coding causal links and/or other instructions for coding.
Causal map A set of causal links between a set of factors, usually interconnected, such that a link from X to Y means that someone says or claims that X influences or influenced Y. We can think of a causal map as a visual representation or more abstractly just as a table or database of links which can be visualised.
Self-loop A causal link from one factor to itself.
Column Data associated with a link or a source: some columns are essential, e.g. a link must have a cause and an effect, and some are optional.
Field See column

!Names of tables and fields

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References

Copeland (1951). A Reasonable Social Welfare Function.