Both measure content validity from judges. Aiken’s V comes with a confidence interval; the CVC is simpler and corrects for chance agreement. Use the one your university or advisor asks for; you can calculate both from the same data.

Which scale should I use?

Hernández-Nieto uses a 1 to 5 scale. It also works with 1 to 4 scales, which many validation forms use.

What if an item scores low?

Read the judges’ comments, rewrite the item and, if you can, ask them to rate it again.

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Content validity coefficient (CVC) calculator

Hernández-Nieto’s CVC (2002) sums up in one number how much your expert judges agree that each item is valid, minus the part that could be due to chance. Paste the ratings from Excel: one row per item and one column per judge. Pick the scale the judges used (for example, 1 to 5).

Paste the ratings (rows = items, columns = judges)

Rating scale

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How it’s calculated

For each item, the judges’ ratings are averaged (Mx) and divided by the highest value on the scale: CVCi = Mx / Vmax.

The chance error is Pei = (1 / j)^j, where j is the number of judges. With 3 judges it is 0.037; with 5, 0.0003.

Each item’s corrected CVC is CVCic = CVCi − Pei. The instrument’s overall CVC is the average of the CVCic values.

If the judges rated several criteria (clarity, coherence, relevance), calculate one CVC per criterion.

How to read the result

Hernández-Nieto suggests: below 0.60 unacceptable, 0.60 to 0.70 deficient, 0.71 to 0.80 acceptable, 0.81 to 0.90 good and above 0.90 excellent.
The usual rule is to keep items with a CVC above 0.80 and review or rewrite the rest.
The author recommends 3 to 5 judges. With more judges the chance error almost disappears.

Frequently asked questions

CVC or Aiken’s V?: Both measure content validity from judges. Aiken’s V comes with a confidence interval; the CVC is simpler and corrects for chance agreement. Use the one your university or advisor asks for; you can calculate both from the same data.
Which scale should I use?: Hernández-Nieto uses a 1 to 5 scale. It also works with 1 to 4 scales, which many validation forms use.
What if an item scores low?: Read the judges’ comments, rewrite the item and, if you can, ask them to rate it again.

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