Using software in qualitative research : a step-by-step guide / Christina Silver & Ann Lewins.

Previous edition: 2007.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Some personal history -- Our thinking -- Why a second edition? -- Chapter overview -- Chapter exercises and the companion website -- Our ultimate aim -- --ch. 1 Qualitative Data Analysis and CAQDAS -- Qualitative research and data analysis -- The practicalities of research in the software context -- Managing and referencing literature -- Formulating the research problem and defining the research questions -- Representing theoretical frameworks -- Incorporating research materials -- Defining factual features -- Developing analytical areas of interest -- Some basic principles and distinctions -- Analytic processes -- Levels and directions of work -- Code-based and non-code-based approaches -- Cuts through data -- The rise of qualitative software -- What types of software do we categorise as CAQDAS? -- Which is the 'best' CAQDAS package? -- Analytic strategies in the context of software use -- Analysis of discourse -- Narrative inquiry --

Framework analysis -- Grounded theory -- Thematic analysis -- Mixed methods research -- Visual analysis -- Concluding remarks: a critical yet flexible approach -- --ch. 2 The Nature of Software Support for Research Projects -- The project management potential of CAQDAS packages -- Starting points -- Familiarisation -- The software project as a container for your work -- Case-study examples -- Case study A Young People's Perceptions -- Case study B The Financial Downturn -- Case study C Coca-Cola Commercials -- Qualitative activities and software tools -- Integration of sources and analyses -- Exploration of content and structure -- Organising materials and ideas -- Grouping -- Coding -- Hyperlinking -- Reflecting upon data, interpretations, processes and results -- Retrieve, review and rethink data and ideas about them -- Memo, summarise, track, output -- Connecting and visualising interpretations -- Interrogating to identify, compare and test --

Identifying patterns, relationships and anomalies -- Comparing subsets and cases -- Testing theories and assessing quality -- The right tools for the job -- Concluding remarks: flexibility in the sequencing of tasks -- The bits in between -- --ch. 3 Software Summaries -- ATLAS.ti -- Dedoose -- HyperRESEARCH -- MAXQDA -- NVivo -- QDA Miner -- Transana -- Resources -- --ch. 4 Data and their Preparation for CAQDAS Packages -- Data types -- File formats -- Textual formats -- Multimedia formats -- Quantitative formats -- Textual data preparation -- Data structures -- Units of recognisable context -- Transcription guidelines for textual data -- Are special formatting considerations really necessary? -- Structural coding without auto-coding (no special formatting] -- Formal transcription conventions -- Multimedia data preparation -- Social media -- Direct or indirect handling -- Assistance for transcribing -- and developing synchronised transcripts -- Mixed data --

Descriptive or quantitative data import -- Pre-coding -- survey data import and auto-processing -- Concluding remarks: laying the groundwork -- Exercises: data and their preparation -- --ch. 5 Early Steps in Software: Practical Tasks and Familiarisation -- The way work can happen -- Gain familiarity with software by setting up a project -- Creating the project -- Transparency -- Naming and backing-up routines -- Incorporating research materials -- Getting the software project and the interface shipshape -- Project design -- Early organisational structures for data -- The virtue of empty places for thinking and growing -- Creating a framework of memos -- The first memo -- The dispersal of notes around the project -- Ideas for naming memos effectively -- Overt reflections and reflexivity: thinking out loud; telling the story -- Memos attached to other entities -- Standalone memos -- as project management devices --

Scoping the topic area and critiquing the literature -- Exports from customised literature management tools -- Optimising tools for literature management -- Concluding remarks: groundwork for efficient analysis -- Exercises: getting started -- --ch. 6 Exploration and Data-level Work -- Early exploration of data -- Familiarisation during early handling -- Marking data for relevance and significance -- Simple data reduction devices and workarounds -- Annotation tools -- their universal utility -- Multimedia data: annotations and data reduction -- Annotating data -- to aid continuity, reflexivity and openness -- Quick content searching tools -- Word frequency tools in CAQDAS packages -- Text or lexical searching -- the practicalities -- Text-mining tools and complex pattern searching -- Hyperlinking -- Practical aspects of hyperlinking -- Concluding remarks: appropriate use of data-level tools -- Exercises: exploration and data-level work -- --

ch. 7 Qualitative Coding in Software: Principles and Processes -- What is qualitative coding? -- How coding works in qualitative software -- Approaches to coding -- Induction, deduction, abduction: logics of reaching explanations -- Coding terminology -- Inductive approaches to coding -- Deductive approaches to coding -- Theoretical coding -- Question-based coding -- Combining approaches: the practice of abductive coding strategies using software -- The flexibility of combining approaches -- Coding visual data: 'indirect' and 'direct' approaches -- Coding visual data 'indirectly' via synchronised transcripts -- Coding visual data 'directly', without an associated transcript -- Coding in software, whatever the approach -- Bases for generating codes -- Concluding remarks: using software to support your approach to coding -- Chapter exercises -- --ch. 8 Basic Retrieval of Coded Data -- Principles of basic retrieval -- Purposes of basic retrieval --

Aiding continuity: where did I get to last time? -- Aiding continuity: generating snapshots of coding status -- Moving the analysis on: identifying areas for further consideration -- Moving the analysis on: recoding -- Moving the analysis on: comparing coding -- Types of basic retrieval -- Quantitative overviews -- Horizontal cuts -- Vertical cuts -- Simple filtering devices for early comparative interrogations -- Generating output -- Concluding remarks: reflexivity and rigour -- Chapter exercises -- --ch. 9 Working with Coding Schemes -- Breaking down data, building them back together -- Structures of coding schemes in software -- Functioning and implications of hierarchy -- The behaviour of hierarchical coding schemes -- Non-hierarchical systems -- What type of coding scheme will suit the way you work? -- Creating coding schemes -- Project-related factors influencing the development of coding schemes -- Escaping the confines of coding scheme structures --

Separating areas of the coding scheme for pragmatic or theoretical reasons -- The relationship between the coding scheme and the theoretical framework -- Better ways to express and collate theory -- mapping and short-cut groupings -- Coding scheme maintenance -- routine actions -- All codes, all data -- Concluding remarks: manipulating coding schemes for your needs -- Exercises: managing and manipulating coding schema structures -- --ch. 10 Managing Processes and Interpretations by Writing -- The importance of writing in analysis -- Writing as a continuous analytic process -- Forms, purposes and spaces for writing -- Appraisals -- Field notes -- Transcriptions -- Annotations -- Definitions -- Analytic memos -- Process memos -- Summaries -- Final write-ups -- Considerations when writing in software -- Managing your writing -- Creating, naming and dating -- Grouping memos -- Structuring writing -- Integrating your writing with the rest of your work --

Linking writing -- Visualising memos -- Coding your own writing -- Searching the content of your notes -- Outputting writing -- Concluding remarks: integrating writing -- Exercises: managing processes and interpretations -- --ch. 11 Mapping Ideas and Linking Concepts -- Mapping traditions and other software -- Other types of 'mapping' -- Purposes of mapping in CAQDAS packages -- Mapping to express theoretical connections -- General mapping functionality in CAQDAS packages -- Software-specific functions and specialities -- Remembered vs. scribbled links -- Working at the data level within maps (ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA) -- Creating, hiding and revealing layers in maps (MAXQDA and NVivo) -- Visualising co-occurring codes in maps (ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA) -- Creating codes (and other project items] in a map (ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA) -- 'Intelligent' links and functional relationships in maps -- Concluding remarks: extensive possibilities for mapping --

Exercises: mapping ideas and linking concepts -- --ch. 12 Organising Data by Known Characteristics -- The importance of good organisation in reflecting project design -- The earliest basics of organisation -- and the limits -- Timing: when to put more complex organisational structures in place -- Illustrating the potential at the interrogation stage -- What does a data file consist of? -- Circumstances, conditions, contexts, cases -- The evolution of data organisation -- Imperfect categories -- Case studies -- Organising whole documents in software -- Organising at document level -- step-by-step advice -- Organising at document level -- by importing a spreadsheet (or survey) -- Starting a table off in the right format? -- Organising within the document (parts of documents) -- Coding in step-by-step ways -- Auto-coding -- The implications of coding cases, respondents and parts of files in terms of their further organisation --

Concluding remarks: potentials and cautions -- Exercises: organising data by known characteristics -- --ch. 13 Interrogating the Dataset -- The role of interrogation in moving on -- The incremental, iterative and repeatable nature of querying -- Combining different dimensions of data -- Test theories and expectations (hunches) -- Creating signposts for and from queries -- Identify patterns and relationships -- Compare subsets, cases and interpretations -- Quality control -- Quality: queries improving interpretive processes -- Quality: flag up problems and check work -- Software tools for interrogating the database -- Searching content and/or structure -- Simple forms of retrieval -- Readily available information about codes (without building complex queries) -- Coding queries -- Qualitative cross-tabulations -- Visualising results -- Tables and matrices -- Charts and graphs -- Concluding remarks: interrogation functionality in CAQDAS packages --

Chapter exercises -- --ch. 14 Convergence, Closeness, Choice -- Planning for the use of software -- Convergence of tasks and tools: software as a container for your work -- Closeness to data: inside software and outside it -- Changing techniques of data analysis -- Automation, quantitisation and mixing methods -- Visual and social media analysis -- Focused effective use of software.

1. Qualitative Data Analysis and CAQDAS -- 2. The Nature of Software Support for Research Projects -- 3. Software Summaries -- 4. Data and their Preparation for CAQDAS Packages -- 5. Early Steps in Software: Practical Tasks and Familiarisation -- 6. Exploration and Data-level Work -- 7. Qualitative Coding in Software: Principles and Processes -- 8. Basic Retrieval of Coded Data -- 9. Working with Coding Schemes -- 10. Managing Processes and Interpretations by Writing -- 11. Mapping Ideas and Linking Concepts -- 12. Organising Data by Known Characteristics -- 13. Interrogating the Dataset -- 14. Convergence, Closeness, Choice -- --