analysis IPA: An introduction to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is an increasingly popular approach to qualitative inquiry and essentially an attempt to understand how participants experience and make meaning of their world. Although not to be confused with the now ubiquitous style of beer with the same initials
analysis Word clouds and word frequency analysis in qualitative data In the latest update for Quirkos, we have added a new and much requested feature, word clouds! I'm sure you've used these pretty tools before, they show a random display of all the words in a source of text
analysis Archaeologies of coding qualitative data In the last blog post I referenced a workshop session at the International Conference of Qualitative Inquiry entitled the ‘Archaeology of Coding’. Personally I interpreted archaeology of qualitative analysis as being a process of revisiting and examining an older project
analysis Against Entomologies of Qualitative Coding I was recently privileged to chair a session at ICQI 2017 entitled “The Archaeology of Coding”. It had a fantastic panel of speakers, including Charles Vanover, Paul Mihas, Kathy Charmaz and Johnny Saldaña all giving their own take on this topic
qualitative analysis software Quirkos vs Nvivo: Differences and Similarities I’m often asked ‘How does Quirkos compare to Nvivo?’. Nvivo is by far the largest player in the qualitative software field, and is the product most researchers are familiar with. So when looking at the alternatives
process Teaching Qualitative Methods via Social Media his blog now has nearly 120 posts about all different kinds of qualitative methods, and has grown to hosting thousands of visitors a month. There are lots of other great qualitative blogs around, including Margaret Roller’s Research Design Review and the Digital Tools for Qualitative Research group
process Writing qualitative research papers We’ve actually talked about communicating qualitative research and data to the public before, but never covered writing journal articles based on qualitative research. This can often seem daunting, as the prospect of converting dense, information rich studies
qualitative analysis software Does software lead to the homogenisation of qualitative research? In the last couple of weeks there has been a really interesting discussion on the Qualrs-L UGA e-mail discussion group about the use of software in qualitative analysis. Part of this was the question of whether qualitative software leads to the ‘homoginisation’ of qualitative research and analysis
quirkos Quirkos v1.4.1 is now available for Linux A little later than our Windows and Mac version, we are happy to announce that we have just released Quirkos 1.4.1 for Linux. There are some major changes to the way we release and package our Linux version, so we want to provide some technical details of these, and installation instructions
quirkos Quirkos update v1.4.1 is here! Since Quirkos version 1.4 came out last year, we have been gathering feedback from dozens of users who have given us suggestions, or reported problems and bugs. This month we are releasing a small update for Quirkos, which will improve more than a dozen aspects of the software:
analysis What next? Making the leap from coding to analysis So you spend weeks or months coding all your qualitative data. Maybe you even did it multiple times, using different frameworks and research paradigms. You've followed our introduction guides and everything is neatly (or fairly neatly) organised and inter-related, and you can generate huge reports
analysis Comparing qualitative software with spreadsheet and word processor software An article was recently posted on the excellent Digital Tools for Qualitative Research blog on how you can use standard spreadsheet software like Excel to do qualitative analysis. There are many other articles describing this kind of approach, for example Susan Eliot or Meyer and Avery (2008)
methods Making the most of bad qualitative data A cardinal rule of most research projects is things don’t always go to plan. Qualitative data collection is no difference, and the variability in approaches and respondents means that there is always the potential for things to go awry. However, the typical small sample sizes can make even
quirkos 7 unique things that make Quirkos awesome Quirkos is now 3 years old! To celebrate, we’re taking a break from our regular programming of qualitative method posts to remind everyone why Quirkos is the best qualitative analysis software around...
analysis Practice projects and learning qualitative data analysis software Coding and analysing qualitative data is not only a time consuming, it’s a difficult interpretive exercise which, like learning a musical instrument, gets much better with practice. However, lots of students starting their first major qualitative or mixed method research project will benefit from
quirkos Looking back and looking forward to qualitative analysis in 2017 In the month named for Janus, it’s a good time to look back at the last year for Quirkos and qualitative analysis software and look forward to new developments for 2017
quirkos How Quirkos can change the way you look at your qualitative data We always get a lot of inquiries in December from departments and projects who are thinking of spending some left-over money at the end of the financial year on a few Quirkos licences. A great early Christmas present for yourself the team! It’s also a good long term investment
methods Snapshot data and longitudinal qualitative studies In the last blog post, we looked at creating archives of qualitative data that can be used by other researchers (or yourself in the future) for secondary analysis. In that article I postulated that secondary data analysis could make collecting new data a rarer, and expensive event
analysis Archiving qualitative data: will secondary analysis become the norm? Last month, Quirkos was invited to a one day workshop in New York on archiving qualitative data. The event was hosted by Syracuse University, and you can read a short summary of the event here. This links neatly into the KWALON led initiative to create a common standard
analysis Stepping back from coding software and reading qualitative data There is a lot of concern that qualitative analysis software distances people from their data. Some say that it encourages reductive behaviour, prevents deep reading of the data, and leads to a very quantified type of qualitative analysis
methods Problems with quantitative polling, and answers from qualitative data The results of the US elections this week show a surprising trend: modern quantitative polling keeps failing to predict the outcome of major elections. In the UK this is nothing new, in both the 2015 general election and the EU referendum polling failed to predict the outcome
methods Tips for running effective focus groups In the last blog article I looked at some of the justifications for choosing focus groups as a method in qualitative research. This week, we will focus on some practical tips to make sure that focus groups run smoothly, and to ensure you get good engagement from your participants
methods Considering and planning for qualitative focus groups This is the first in a two-part series on focus groups. This week, we are looking at some of the why you might consider using them in a research project, and questions to make sure they are well integrated into your research strategy. Next week we will look at some practical tips
analysis Circles and feedback loops in qualitative research The best qualitative research forms an iterative loop, examining, and then re-examining. There are multiple reads of data, multiple layers of coding, and hopefully, constantly improving theory and insight into the underlying lived world
analysis Triangulation in qualitative research Qualitative methods are sometimes criticised as being subjective, based on single, unreliable sources of data. But with the exception of some case study research, most qualitative research will be designed to integrate insights from a variety of data sources