The case of CharmStats or how the process of harmonization can document itself using the right tool

Comparative social researchers often confront the challenge of making key concepts equivalent across different factors. Usual examples are geographical space or stretches of time or different codings. GESIS has developed the software program CharmStats (Coding and Harmonizing of Statistics) to provide social researchers with a structured, documentable and publishable solution to data harmonization. By enabling researchers to simultaneously perform and document the process of variable coding and harmonization, the resulting CharmStats Projects can be used for publication and citation providing also syntaxes for proprietary software packages. The presentation reviews the CharmStats software and the logic behind it. We will demonstrate how the application allows users to browse stored harmonization projects. Using the concept 'Education' and data from the CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems) as our basis, we will present step by step a full publishable CharmStats Project.