The redshift measurement for each object in the DEEP2/DEEP3 database is inspected by eye and assigned a quality code (Q = -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) based on the determined accuracy of the redshift value. The break-down of the quality codes is like so…
| Quality Code | Brief Description |
| Q = -2 | object was effectively unobserved |
| Q = -1 | object is identified as a star (i.e. z ~ 0) |
| Q = 0 | object has yet to be inspected; quality still to be assigned. |
| Q = 1 | redshift unlikely to be recovered for this source; redshift value in catalog is not meaningful. |
| Q = 2 | redshift may yet to be recovered for this source; redshift value in catalog is not meaningful. |
| Q = 3 | secure redshift |
| Q = 4 | very secure redshift |
Note that each entry in the redshift catalog corresponds to a particular observation of an object. A given object may appear more than once in the catalog. Of the 24,022 unique targets in the sample, 1633 appear on more than one DEIMOS slitmask (i.e. 25,655 total entries in the redshift catalog).