My initial study used literature review along with semi-structured interviews as research methods and involved the following main steps:
(i) Gathering information by reviewing the relevant literature;
(ii) Gathering information through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews;
(iii) Transcribing, checking and cross-checking the answers received during the interviews;
(iv) Analysing the answers received during the interviews and the information collected through the literature review;
(v) Summarizing the information gathered and drawing conclusions.
I have published the results received in conference proceedings and am now thinking of converting them into a journal article. For this purpose I would like to expand the research through converting qualitative data into quantitative values. Who could advise on what are the best ways to achieve this objective. Thank you!
Don't think that anyone can advise you to any great length without you giving more detail about your research; however, essentially, converting qualitative data into quantitative involves counting how much of 'this' or 'that' found in your project.
A lot depends on where you want to publish, and thus who your reviewers will be. In particular, if you want to do counts on your qualitative data, then you should have a we'll-designed codebook, calculations of inter-coder agreement, and a strong basis in this kind of content analysis.
Alternatively, if you want to publish in a more qualitatively oriented journal, there is little to be gained by counting, since the reviewers will expect a more subjective interpretation via a process such as thematic analysis.
Either way, I would not recommend counting interviews (how many participants did or did not receive a code) because your sample will size will be too small to support meaningful results.
Apparently, u are employing mixed method approach. In this case, u may conduct themetic analysis. You may develop questionnaire based on themes and sub-themes and obtain data on a likert 5 point scale. U may apaply EFA as well and perform analytical analysis.
Based on your statements,“Expand research by converting qualitative data into quantitative values” my advice would be as follows.
In a first place, by providing the rich picture of the qualitative findings, the overall results of data analysis and display them as tabulation of the overall frequency of the categories, which mentioned in the responses (total document Co- Mentioned) for each category.
Similarly, providing a tabulation of the overall frequency of sentences where the most important categories mentioned in the response (Number of Message Sentences in the text).
By quantifying the total document, Co- Mentioning for each category and the number of message sentences in the text, the quantitative value of general pattern can reveal in the data. However, a word of warning, the appearing categories and the number of message are not suited to statistical analysis.
Lot of great answers and advice. I suggest you read the following seminal article:
Sandelowski, M., Voils, C. I., & Knafl, G. (2009). On quantitizing. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 3(3), 208-222.
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