Which qualitative and quantitative analysis software do your prefer?
Analysis, a critical step in the research, when aided by an appropriate analysis software become a fun activity. Which of the following one, each from the following categories is your favorite? Why?
Qualitative software:
NVivo; ATLAS.ti. ; MAXQDA; MaxQDA; Provalis; TAMS (Text Analysis Markup System)
Quantitative analysis software:
SPSS; SAS; STATA; MATLAB; R: other?
My own journey of use of software has been interesting. I first learned SPSS for class assignments, then SAS for extremely large hospitalization databases, SAS allowed better functionality of data handling and merging . Then I had to learn STATA (because at my new job, SAS licence became unaffordable). Now I use a combination of SPSS (for simple jobs), STATA (for advanced multivariable modeling) and SAS (for data handling and advanced analyses).
NVivo has been my choice for coding qualitative data into themes and subthemes. It has nice feature to perform basic comparison of themes sub themes by some quantitative variables that can be loaded as table (e.g., you can compare themes/subthemes called nodes and tree nodes by Age, gender etc. of the subjects.
For qualitative research I found NVivo very useful. In particular, its functionality around visualisation and mapping of the coding process was very helpful and allows for a rigorous and detailed presentation of the process of data analysis. It was also user friendly and allowed for easy management of large volumes of interviews.
In terms of quantitative analysis for social science data, I used SPSS and found it comprehensive and effective in the analysis of survey data. It was easy to import data into from excel and had a very logical and user friendly interface. The modeller and text analytics functionality are useful. On the downside, while SPSS does have a visualisation designer, I don't particularly like the graphics it produces in terms of style, however that is a personal preference! Best wishes with your research.
My own journey of use of software has been interesting. I first learned SPSS for class assignments, then SAS for extremely large hospitalization databases, SAS allowed better functionality of data handling and merging . Then I had to learn STATA (because at my new job, SAS licence became unaffordable). Now I use a combination of SPSS (for simple jobs), STATA (for advanced multivariable modeling) and SAS (for data handling and advanced analyses).
NVivo has been my choice for coding qualitative data into themes and subthemes. It has nice feature to perform basic comparison of themes sub themes by some quantitative variables that can be loaded as table (e.g., you can compare themes/subthemes called nodes and tree nodes by Age, gender etc. of the subjects.
- Quantitative data is designed to collect cold, hard facts. Quantitative data is structured and statistical.
- Qualitative data collects information that seeks to describe a topic more than measure it. I prefer qualitative analysis
For quantitative analysis i prefer and use SAS program software.
Quantitative :Excel is good enough (ANOVA)
Qualitative : MATLAB and many more depending on the domain such as CAD Tools or Programming languages C++ /VB
- Hazim Al Dilaimy , Corina Sheerin , Dmytro Leshchenko , Anastas Ivanov Ivanov , Nazia Asad , Ismail Younis Al-Hadeedy , Marwah Firas Abdullah Al-Rawe , Aparna Sathya Murthy , Liqaa Habeb Al-Obaydi thank you for your useful insights.
Qualitative software: NVivo
Quantitative analysis software: SPSS, AMOS, MAPLE, MATLAB (I prefer Maple to Matlab cuz Maple can be easily operated by scientists whose primary major is not mathematics and also has better visualization.)
I feel the need of learning R as well.
Dear Ammar A. Oglat , Claire Su-Yeon Park thanks for sharing your insights
Dear Dr @GulzarHShah thank you for posting this important question to RG!!
I used Spss in my last research paper published in 2016 and as per the study requirements, most of my research work was on quantitative analysis, so I prefer Spss.
شكراً لك يا محمد موزامل على مساهمتك في هذه المناقشة.
@ Gulzar Shah, you should try R packages. For R, only sky is limit.
Aleksandar P. Medarevic , Maham Muzamil , @Karine , @Nabaa Hasoon thank you for your contribution to this discussion.
I greatly appreciate the responses from all colleagues. I received answers about which tools but did not receive a lot of replies about the reasons for preferences for certain tools. Will appreciate more of those thoughts.
R is free and open-source tool, with a big helping community. It can easy work on any computer. It is unlimited related to statistical methods. It could be used as software for qualitative and quantitative research, at the same time.
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SPSS is user friendly with windows interface.
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Microsoft Excel for my point of view, is not real statistical software, but it is good for collecting quantitative data.
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I am interesting in qualitative analysis. Does anyone know some free software for this analyses?
Dr. Aleksandar P. Medarevic Thank you for an excellent description of R. Very helpful.
Firas Saadallah , Meison Abdulbary , Ali Akhaddar , thank you so much you all, for your insights.
Use programming languages instead of software: Python and R are my choice. Software is often commercial and proprietary, while languages free to everyone.
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