Getting Started with CQPweb 

This article’s purpose is to walk you through the purpose of signing up for the online system CQPweb at Lancaster University, where the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus is available for analysis.

What is CQPweb?

CQPweb is a corpus analysis program. It allows you to search for words, phrases, and grammar patterns in the corpora stored on the platform. Because it is web-based, all the data processing happens on a server, so you don’t need to install or set up anything on your own computer. However, you do need to register for an account to access the system.

You also need to sign the licence for users of the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus in order to unlock this specific data. While this corpus is free-to-use to everyone, the texts’ copyright status means there are some conditions that you must agree to.

Information regarding what data is required and stored for CQPweb can be found in the CQPweb privacy policy.

Step A – Creating a CQPweb Account

Advance note: you will need to access your email inbox in order to validate your account.

Open a web browser and go to https://cqpweb.lancs.ac.uk

The first thing you see will be the login form, underneath that form is a link with the text “Create account”. Click on that link!

You will now see the account creation form. This has three parts.

Part 1 – Username and password. This is just like any other online signup.

Part 2 – Verification. The system uses email verification, so you must enter your email address.

There is also a CAPTCHA or “human being test”, which looks like this:

The images are randomly generated so sometimes it might be hard to make out the letters. The “click for another” control under the image can be used as many times as you need to get one that you can read.

Part 3 – Personal information: your name, educational or professional affiliation if you have one, and location. Supplying this information is optional.

That’s it – press the button to continue.

Now go to your email inbox. Within a short time, you will receive an email message from the CQPweb system that contains a verification link. Click on that link to verify your account.

After you’ve verified, you can use the username and password you just created to log in.

Warning: the #1 cause of account creation problems is typing your email address wrongly. If you do this, your verification message will never arrive! Please check it carefully.

Step B – Signing the Licence

In your browser navigate to this URL: http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/esc-user-service/

This page is the User Service website for the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus. It allows you to get access to the corpus data through the CQPweb system.

On the side menu, click on the Sign up for access.

This page consists of:

1. A box containing the Terms of Use. These are the conditions that you must agree to. They are not especially onerous! You can also read these Terms on a separate page by clicking the Terms of Use option on the side menu.
2. A form to fill in with your details. Some of the information we request is the same as for CQPweb signup – sorry about this!

Once you press the button, signup is complete! You will receive an email to confirm that you have successfully signed up for access to the data, but there is no verification step this time.

Go back to http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/esc-user-service/ (or click on About the ESC on the menu). Under the heading Corpus access on CQPweb are links to the different ESC components. Click on the link for ESC: First Folio Plus.

You are now ready to begin the next step which introduces CQPweb.

Future steps using CQPweb involve both ESC: First Folio Plus and ESC: EEBO-TCP Segment. But for now you only need to follow the link for ESC: First Folio Plus.

Note on accessibility

CQPweb is a web based tool and can be used on both mobile/tablet devices and computers using a standard web browser. It is compatible with most browser based accessibility tools and navigation is possible using a keyboard only. It may not, however, be fully accessible using screen reading technology.