Resources for qualitative data analysis and users of NVivo
On this page you can access the following free resources
(including those referred to in Qualitative
Data Analysis with NVivo):
·
Information
about Qualitative Data Analysis with
NVivo
·
NVivo instructions for versions 8 and 9 for those
working with NVivo
·
Working papers on qualitative research
·
Technical resources for those planning to
use NVivo, including some tips on using heading styles and other formatting
options in MS Word, using NVivo in combination with EndNote, and ways of
structuring tree coding systems in NVivo.
·
Sample NVivo projects (the Researchers tutorials) to illustrate tools and techniques for analysing
qualitative data with NVivo.
Qualitative data analysis
with NVivo (Sage, 2007)
(version
7 and later – see update notes below for later versions)
This is a book for three kinds of learners:
·
Those who prefer to
learn by doing;
·
Those who want to learn
new tools for data management and analysis on a need-to-know basis;
·
Explorers, who just want
to play around and see what this software might do for them.
Learning any new software program, even just updating
to a radically changed version, is a daunting prospect. If you’re like me, you
groan at the thought, and wish for someone to stand by you to ease you through
the process. This is what I attempt in this book—to be the guide beside you as
you work though your first project in NVivo, helping you to make best use of
the powerful and flexible tools offered by this latest version of the software.
Readers are particularly encouraged to go beyond simply ‘identifying themes’ as
they learn to choose and apply NVivo’s tools to a range of analysis strategies.
The book is written for those who can’t access
personal training, and also for those who have, but who need then to think
through how the huge confusion of ideas they brought home from their training
session might be contextualized, applied and extended using their own data.
Explanations throughout the book draw on examples from my own and others’
projects, and are supported by the methodological literature. Because researchers
have different requirements and come to their data from different perspectives,
the book shows how NVivo software can accommodate and assist analysis across
those different perspectives and methodological approaches. It is required
reading for anyone thinking of using their computer to help analyse
qualitative data.
|
1
Perspectives: Qualitative computing and NVivo Qualitative research purposes and NVivo Issues raised by using software for
qualitative data analysis What does an NVivo project look like? About this book 2
Starting a project Starting Starting with software Saving your project 3 Making
data records Data for your project Data in cases Data preparation Data records in NVivo Managing data sources in NVivo 4
Working with data Goals for early work with data Gaining perspective on the text Building knowledge of the data through coding Storing coding in nodes Reflecting on the case |
5
Connecting ideas Development of the coding system Making connections across trees Coding in practice Managing coding 6
Managing data Managing data sources Bringing demographic or other quantified data
into your analysis Scoping queries 7 The
‘pit stop’ Seeing data afresh in nodes Searching text Revisiting the literature Pausing to ‘play’ with models The periodic pause 8 Going
further The analytic journey Queries in NVivo Starting the journey… Going further with cases Going further with concepts Going further with narrative and discourse Using numerical counts Going further into theory building Moving on – further resources |
NVivo
8 and 9 workshop notes
NV8 notes - provide instructions on how to carry out basic functions in NVivo version 8. Users would benefit also from familiarity with the contents of Qualitative data analysis with NVivo as it provides explanation of when and why you might use various tools provided by the software.
NV9 notes – instructions on most functions in NVivo version 9. Again, users would benefit from familiarity with the contents of Qualitative data analysis with NVivo.
Working
papers – qualitative research
Bazeley, P. Analysing qualitative data: more than ‘identifying themes.’
Based on a paper presented at Qualitative
Research Convention, Qualitative Research Association of Malaysia, Selangor,
3-5th September, 2007. Published in the Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research (Dec., 2009), Vol.2, 6-22.
Technical resources to assist your working with NVivo
Formatting documents for Nvivo versions
7 and 8 – using Word 2003 or
earlier; using Word 2007
This guide covers the following topics, for those preparing
documents to import into NVivo:
About heading styles
Applying
heading styles when transcribing text
Converting
tables to text with headings
Converting
text to table for analysis of ‘meaning units’
Creating
and using a document template for structured text
Extracting
text responses from a spreadsheet or database
Transcription
symbols used in conversation analysis
Note
that the notes on formatting data stored in a spreadsheet or database have
become redundant with NVivo 9 as it allows for importing a dataset directly.
Using NVivo in combination
with notes made in EndNote
Take the notes you’ve recorded from literature or
other documentary material into NVivo, and use NVivo’s coding and analysis
tools to assist you in indexing and analysing them,
or in generating a literature review. This guide suggests how you might do this
most efficiently, so that you can readily access notes on any topic or query
associations between topics, and always with immediate access to reference
details for any retrieved notes.
If you are importing original .pdf sources, or
importing an EndNote database using NVivo 9, then these notes do not apply.
Examples
of hierarchical coding systems (sample ‘trees’)
It’s often difficult to understand how to organize
your nodes in a tree-structured (hierarchical) system so as to facilitate
further analysis. This guide provides some sample coding systems, and provides
instructions for how you might deal with a ‘messed up’ system.
Free
demonstration software and getting started guidelines and macromedia tutorials
are available for various versions of NVivo from the QSR site (www.qsrinternational.com). The site
also hosts a forum for users of NVivo, and provides answers to FAQs, a
newsletter, and other useful resources.
Sample NVivo
projects – the Researchers tutorials
These
project files (described below) are stored as self-extracting zip files. Download them before trying to open them.
Put them in a convenient location, and then simply double click and confirm the
location. They will create a sub-folder (QDA with NVivo samples) in the same
location, and place a copy of the unzipped project into it. Open the sub-folder
and double click on a project file to open it in NVivo.
Those working through
the overview provided in Chapter 1 of Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo should download Researchers 4 to ensure a full range of illustrative features.
The
Researchers project comprises interviews and focus groups with researchers at different stages
of career development who have told of their developing involvement in research
and/or their experience of being a researcher. The study explores what brings
people into research, and what holds them there as committed, productive
researchers.
·
Researchers 1 demonstrates the very beginning
stages of a project, when first documents (interviews) are introduced and
initial thinking occurs through coding (in free nodes), memos and models. This
has been saved as an NVivo 7 file, and can be opened in either NV7 or converted for use in NV8 or NV9.
·
Researchers 4 shows further development of the
project through the development of the coding system (using tree nodes),
working with further interview documents, notes from literature, and focus
group data. Attributes have been
applied, queries used, and memos written. Note that the tree nodes have been
through several changes – a list of nodes from an earlier version is archived
in the memos area. This has been saved as an NVivo 7 file, and can be opened in
either NV7 or converted for use in NV8.
·
Researchers 4v8 is an NV8 version of this project, with a small amount of added
multimedia data. Please note that the file size is 15+ mb,
so don’t download it unless you need to!
It can be converted for use in NVivo 9.
If
the models in Researchers 1 and 4 won’t open in NV7, you need to download and
install the latest service packs for NVivo 7 (up to SP4), available from www.qsrinternational.com
If you are working in NVivo 8, make sure you
have the latest service packs installed for it, as well (currently SP4). The
current service pack (in April 2011) for NVivo 9 is SP1.