I would also love to hear about this...

Hi, you can try with Atlas

Thanks Elena. But no, I meant open source and not commercial. We HAVE played with both Atlas.TI and with MaxQDA, but we actually decided on Nvivo because we liked it better than those two. But it remains, in our opinion, a far-from-satisfactory solution. At THIS particular juncture in time, it seems to me that open source developments in many areas (vizualization, SNA, stats, datamining, etc.) are just a lot more dynamic and innovative in general. And so I am surprised that for such a relatively simple application as this (which in essence isn't much more than tagging text and then somehow organizing the stats) there doesn't appear to be sthg better and more 'open' (also to various open source (automated) textmining tools for instance or to better vizualization tools) than Nvivo.

By the way - for those who are following this, Wikipedia actually lists some tools here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_assisted_qualitative_data_analysis_software#Free_.2F_open_source_software_for_CAQDAS. But I was hoping somebody here may have tried some of these packages and could provide some recommendations.

In the discussion at https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_there_any_software_available_to_analyze_qualitative_data_Please_suggest, two free softwares for qualitative data analysis are cited:

- WeftQDA (http://www.pressure.to/qda/) an open source software

- Fs QCA (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cragin/fsQCA/software.shtml)

Maybe you'll get more informations with those who mentioned them.

Here's a potentially useful list: http://www.content-analysis.de/software/qualitative-analysis It includes software that is either free or for purchase.

Wow! Thanks Meghann! I'll definitely check some of those out...

Although not "open source," you might want to check out the relatively new "dedoose.com"

I have used Dedoose and find it pretty good. i like the way you pay monthly and so only pay for what you need when you need it as it is online. It is relativley easy to work out how to use and provides some nice looking tools for mixed methods research which i hav enot relaly used yet.

Here's another for qualitative data analysis that I've heard some good things about but haven't used myself so can't say much else about it. https://www.leximancer.com/

Not sure how 'open source' it is.

Thanks Danni. We do have a license to Leximancer. It's not bad and we do use it regularly, but it's a textmining program, so it has very little in common with programs like Nvivo or the ones others have suggested here in this thread. Think of it this way: texmining tries to extract meaning automatically from texts, whereas programs like Nvivo just help you to manually code the meanings of texts. And there still is a big difference between the two: for smaller sets of documents, (even) I would still use manual coders (with of course all the caveats that the literature talks about); but for larger sets of documents, I would start with textmining, and then use that as the basis for further human analysis. It'll be interesting to see whether the two will eventually converge. But IF they ever do, my money would be more on the open source community.

Thanks for the comparison Stephan ... much appreciated.

While not a standard QDA program, Automap (from CASOS at Carnegie-Mellon) is free, open-source, and does some powerful text manipulation and taging: parts of speech tagging, stemming, removing/replacing based on common or custom thesauri, etc. http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/automap/

I just saw a notice that QDA Miner has a stripped down freeware version: http://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/freeware/

Thanks. And interesting. But we have been using dedoose now for the project that triggered me to ask the question and I must say we are quite happy with it. We have a team from across the world coding a bunch of documents, and it is working quite satisfactorily so far. The pricing is perfect for us (you pay about 10$ per month per seat) it's really made for distributed work (contrary to the other products) and the support is excellent.. So while not open-source, for us it beats Nvivo hands down.

Interesting--I have also had colleagues use Dedoose and also like it quite a lot. I should check it out. Have there been particular features you have been happy with? Or features that you think are limited? I'm an avid Atlas user, but I'm always looking for ways to augment analytic working strategies--especially ones that are collaborative across multiple users and sites.

Hi Stephan,

I think what you are looking for from the open source community is the flexibility and the novel approaches that a diverse team can bring to the fore. What aI m about to talk about is not necessarily 'open source' but may offer some of the flexibility and potential for innovative approaches that may help you carry your projects forward.

With a previous background in quantitative analysis and having had quite a lot experience with database work, mainly with Microsoft Access, I began to use NVivo with a view to analsying transcripts of 150 or so interviews that I conducted. Whilst I consider it to be a good inroad into qualitative principles, I missed the flexibility that I was used to with SPSS, Excel and Access. I therefore, used MS-Word to break up the transcripts into transactions (I pressed Enter :-). I then moved the text into MS-Excel and added column headings for static information about each transcation (who, when, where, what). I then added headings for dynamic information, such as coding categories or themes. I transported these to MS-Access and created forms with either lists or drop down menus for coding. The result was a very flexible means of filtering, categorising, isolating and counting.

There may be software out there that offers the same flexibility with less manipulation, but I don't know of one and so I went with what I was already familiar with.

I hope you find what you are looking for and hope this helps.

Bijan.

At least AXIIS: http://www.axiis.org/ and CAT: http://cat.ucsur.pitt.edu/

But unfortunately I know them only by the name

Thanks Christopher, your suggestion of QDA miner lite version seems to be helpful,

Hey Stephan,

have a look at this list:

http://www.sosciso.de/de/software/datenanalyse/qualitativ/?wctsort=name&wctinvs=1

There are many simple and also more sophisticated free/open source tools available which might be an alternative to NVivo. It always depends on what kind of methodological approach you are looking for: AQUAD, CAT, CATMA, fsQCA, OpenCode, RQDA, Saturate, WeftQDA, Yoshikoder......

But you should rather ask: what kind of open source/free software could assist in using the methodology XYZ (e.g. content analysis, grounded theory, whatever...).

Best, Ronny

http://www.sosciso.de/en/software/datenanalyse/qualitativ/?wctsort=name&wctinvs=1

I use Nvivo since version 3 and have been looking for an open source alternative since version 7 when they became Microsoft partners, but sadly though I have seen several one source programas I found no really alternative to Nvivo, as most of these other packages are too simple, with very few functions, only accept plain text and many of them are designed exclusively for quantitative (not qualitative) content analysis.

I recently knew about an ongoing project called LibreQDA, wich is not ready for public use yet (http://www.libreqda.edu.uy/).

Hi all,

Could somebody tell me what is the best solution for doing IPA? I would appreciate very much an advise? Thanks in advance!

What is IPA, Maria?

First off - thanks to Rony, That's an extremely useful list. Also LibreQDA sounds promising (I hope they release a useable version soon). But let me throw in another question. I use Zotero as a bibliographical management program and I love (most of) it. But I would like to be able to 'mark up' the actual pdf- and html-files with the full text of the references. Does anybody know of a way to do this? Incidentally, the underlying data are in a sqlite database, so any (preferably open-source) tool that allows to import sqlite might do the trick. Does anybody have any ideas?

I am exploring CATMA right now as an option here, and my first impressions are quite positive. 

Good data! I will take a look at it

http://www.catma.de/

Stephen, I am interested to know what your impressions are after a month of experimenting? Which open-source alternative would you recommend for a grounded theory research?

Respected Scholars,

Kindly help me in the following matter of qualitative research problem at doctoral level.

Link of my question:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_qualitative_descriptive_study_using_observation_and_survey_technique_be_done_on_brand_equity_in_Pakistan_cognitive_construct_as_the_gap

Saw this very late.

I have used KH Coder for text mining and it gives me satisfactory output, especially graphic ones. I cannot compare it with NVIVO since I have only heard and read about NVIVO.

Some programs can be also found on my page: http://www.oulu.fi/sosiologia/node/5065

Are you tried to use PSPP?

Esomar Uzcategui. PSPP has nothing to do with Nvivo.

Élias Rizkallah: Thanks for your recomendation. I am studying RQDA and so far I find it quite useful to replace Nvivo. 

I've also used the RQDA package for a little while and was surprised who easy to use it was and yet how many rich features it provides. 

Generally, it's a good recommendation if you happen to be or want to be familiar with the R universe anyway. 

~Robert

Try Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT) from University of Pittsburgh and University of Massachusetts. Let me know what you think.

http://cat.texifter.com

Raven's Eye is an online natural language ANALYSIS tool based. Raven's Eye provides its users with dynamic, powerful, and instantaneous automated analyses of written language. Raven’s Eye facilitates an incomparably intimate and multifaceted understanding of people, as well as the ability to speak to them in highly resonant ways.

Have a nice day and good luck with your research!

PSPP is an alternative for SPSS

1. RQDA

2. Gate

3. PSPP

I'm not sure who all is still following this but I'd say it really is dependent on what exactly you're using it for. Though many of them may be well liked, they are tailored to specific groups of users and therefore may not be right for your project. I'd look at the features offered for each as many of the products are limited only by your coding ability and have features that allow you to use them differently depending on your skill level. Though I will say, I actually find NVivo to be very user friendly in the sense that you need virtually no skills to use it and can be trained by a quick YouTube lessen in order to amass data from it whereas open source may require a bit more skill and adeptness in coding languages in order to do the same and then some.

A good open source qualitative data analysis tool is Aquad (http://www.aquad.de/en/).

I recommend Atles.it

RQDA is easy to use. However, first you need to install R and R studio. Then install RQDA package. If you are interested in RQDA, following clips may be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSGujXXLu-U&t=32s (How to install R)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TodbCCbV6Wc&t=2s (RQDA intro)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz7AJ8mAUoE (RQDA coding)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEV7-h84IQ (RQDA journal)

RQDA is a good option... Here are some clips for learning how to use it:

1. Basics of RQDA: https://youtu.be/TodbCCbV6Wc

2. Coding in RQDA: https://youtu.be/Oz7AJ8mAUoE

3. How to create and use journals in RQDA: https://youtu.be/UzEV7-h84IQ

4. The functionality of Attributes in RQDA: https://youtu.be/FJi5Vp3NL94

5. Advanced features in RQDA: https://youtu.be/4FRbU3TMJsc

Dedoose is a good one: https://www.dedoose.com/

Hi,

You could try Orange Software, here: https://orange.biolab.si/

Hope it helps.

I have been trying it. Is less user friendly than Nvivo, although, it has some intresting features.

There is also IRAMUTEQ, based in R interface.

Some free alternatives:

• To code images - QDA Miner Lite: https://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/freeware/
• To code audio/video - ELAN: https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/
• For concept maps - Visual Understanding Environment (VUE): https://vue.tufts.edu/

Try this

very interesting

Thanks Àlvaro,

It has a lot of nice graphics, however, I have 2 problems.

1) How can I save the work, and how to copy result

2) I'm beginnea r and would like to use Thematic Analyses. Are there any instruction to follow?

Thanks for all help

Best regards

Georg Hodosi

Georg, you can find some in

https://voyant-tools.org/docs/#!/guide/start

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiBv6-hlrnqAhWPK7kGHVhKC3YQwqsBMAJ6BAgIEA4&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAw06Ymx6joc&usg=AOvVaw1WFoWhKBovi9hCUZlmVuHG

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiBv6-hlrnqAhWPK7kGHVhKC3YQFjAIegQIBRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoyant-tools.org%2Fdocs%2F%23!%2Fguide%2Ftutorial&usg=AOvVaw3PpK0zRXN7dZdRxR4iO3Gu

Thanks for your answer Álvaro.

Thank you Álvaro!

Best regards

Georg

I use Orange software, is nice and free

https://orange.biolab.si/

QualCoder is written in python; deals with text, images, and video.

https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder

Used it only a little bit, looks quite promising.

Can I free NVIVO software to analyse qualitative

I tried a few softwares for discourse analysis, and i'm happy i got to know the one recommended by Alvaro: https://voyant-tools.org/

Highly recommended, comprehensive user guide and open licensing. Worth sharing and citing in your papers

Dear Daniel

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'll try it out as I have some data to process.

All the best

What about VOSviewer or AQUAD? Any experiences with these? // Thank you.

Catalin Soreanu I have not tried AQUAD because it does not have a Mac version. It runs only in windows.

VOSviewer is built for bibliometric analysis. But it could be used for content analysis, though. If you choose to do so, just be mindful of the terms that the program will include in the analysis, as a result of the NPL processing on the text field. Text-processing tools work well with large text corpora. That tends not to be the case of qualitative analysis. So, taking a thorough look at the data can be of use before trying to detect underlying relations between codes and concepts.

I hope this helps!