We are working on a qualitative project that uses telephonic interviews. Most of the interviews have been transcribed so we want to start the coding process. We cannot afford Atlas.ti or NVivo, but many open source software programs either do not cater to multiple collaborators or are limiting. For example, we found Taguette really easy to use however it does not support nested/hierarchical coding or the visually pleasing multiple coloured highlighting.
Could you tell us about any other open source softwares that would overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings? We're open to using Google Docs and Sheets, however, to be honest we are still figuring out how to go about it without causing issues in the later stages.
Note: We're really new to qualitative data analysis
QDA Miner Lite is free, and works well for basic qualitative data analysis.
The range of software and techniques designed for qualitative analysis (CAQDAS, Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) exists. A useful resource is the CAQDAS Networking Project: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sociology/research/researcjcetmres/caqdas
Maybe RQDA? It is open source as all R-based software, but of course requires some knowledge of R.
ATLAS.ti also has a trial mode which is efficient in terms of its functions, but restricted in terms of the amount of data which can be uploaded at once.
Another probably helpful link: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=348074&p=2346107
Good luck!
The choice of software will obviously depend on your machine's operating system, if not web-based. You can find a list of available software here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_qualitative_data_analysis_software
QDA Miner Lite is free, and works well for basic qualitative data analysis.
There is also QCAmap (https://www.qcamap.org/home) which is exclusively for qualitative content analysis based on Mayring's instructions (for his book see Mayring, Ph. (2014). Qualitative content analysis. Theoretical foundation, basic procedures and software solution (free download via Social Science Open Access Repository SSOAR, URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-395173). QCAmap functions online, but as I have not used it before, I don't know if it can actually help you overcome the difficulties you mentioned. In any case, you can have a look.
Good luck for your research.
Best regards,
Lia Lozgka
The best program for time coding transcripted interviews is https://www.inqscribe.com.
Thank you for all your answers. I tried all the applications to sort of give me an understanding of what would work the best for us. I am somewhat familiar with R but my teammates are not, but I would love to explore R-based applications like Scipy and RQDA independently in the future.
I went through the list given by Jonathan Kaplan and I think I am zeroing in on Dedoose. It's paid but the price is much cheaper than any other software I had earlier looked into. It seems quite intuitive and easy to learn, and is also in line with the way we are coding. I hope this works :)
Thanks I mostly use R and thematic analysis in excel Data sheets regards Peter
I think MXQDA is also the simplest and good software for Qualitative Data analysis, you Can also try...
MXQDA works well. I would also say that the type of OS is another determinant for the choice of a tool for analysis.
You can check out this as well:
https://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/top-free-qualitative-data-analysis-software/
I liked using (https://sonix.ai/) for transcription from audio. This program uses AI to give you a template of voice to text to start with and then provides a great user interface to clean it up line by line. Not sure how it works in languages other than English if necessary. It's not free but it paid for itself pretty quickly with flexible subscribing plans.
For up-to-date reviews of a number of data analysis software programs, as well as links to all kinds of other information about qualitative data analysis, see:https://www.surrey.ac.uk/computer-assisted-qualitative-data-analysis/resources/choosing-appropriate-caqdas-packageWhile not required, students may wish to use qualitative research software (QRS) for analyzing their data. A list of QSR programs can be found at https://qualpage.com/qda/In addition, there is a free program that works on both PC and MAC called RQDA. The URL for downloading is http://rqda.r-forge.r-project.org/ Another low-cost program available for both Macs and PCs: http://www.dedoose.com/
I seriously tell you, What I have also heard among them NVIVO 12 PLUS is most useful for interview process of data collection (word counting, repeating and matching) is not readily available freely. I have tried several times to download even trial version but Sadly, I did not succeed.
I personally use NVIVO 12, like many of the others have said. However, I have colleagues that use MaxQDA and they love it. If you are needing transcriptions, there are sources out there that will give you a free trial transcription; you can make many email addresses and get many free transcripts. But for coding, I agree with the above answers and MaxQDA. You can use google sheets/docs also, and do a "find" and then color-code different themes by highlighting...that may be a super low budget option if you're having trouble finding software to do what you need.
Yo utilizo Nivivo 12 junto con un programa de conversión de voz a texto Dragon Naturally Speaking v. 14 que optimiza mis tiempos de transcripción y análisis. El problema es que ninguno de los mencionados es gratuito :(
Once I used atlas.ti, it's also a good software for Qualitative data analysis just try it. And interesting things is that atlas.ti have great features & work with many languages.
There are many softwares which are free but do not fulfill the requirements properly. ATLAS TI and NVivo softwares are good one to gather all reponses at one place. Use these for better understanding of results and accuracy.
Fro QDA issues, as for my concern, NVivo is the best but costly and unaffordable. The alternative is R software, which is free. But it is backward based on CUI (Character User Interface) rather GUI (Graphic User Interface). More efforts are needed to understand R- Studio.
Farheen Meraj ATLAS.ti is free. Please see the attached photo. Thanks!
Thanks @David L Morgan for pointing to Taguette. I'll have students try it during the academic year .
I hope this answer isn't too late, but Dedoose is a great, cheap tool that is useful for collaboration and very similar to Atlas.ti/nVivo in function.
Just to add to the above comments, Otter AI is a new free software for qualitative researchers, it's a speech-to-text transcriber.
MAXQDA is great and easy software to use for qualitative data analysis software, you can use it from the trial version.
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