Using Software in Qualitative Research is an essential introduction to the practice and principles of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS), helping the reader choose the most appropriate package for their needs and to get the most out of the software once they are using it.
This step-by-step book considers a wide range of tasks and processes, bringing them together to demystify qualitative software and encourage flexible and critical choices and uses of software in supporting analysis. The book can be read as a whole or by chapters, building on one another to provide a holistic sense of the analytic journey without advocating a particular sequential process.
Accessible and comprehensive, Using Software in Qualitative Research provides a practical but analytically-grounded guide to thinking about and using software and will be an essential companion for any qualitative researcher.
Table of Contents:
PART ONE
Processes and Tasks in Using Qualitative Software
Data and Their Preparation for CAQDAS Packages
Getting Started in Qualitative Software
Practical Tasks
Exploration and Text-Level Work
Qualitative Coding in Software
Principles and Processes
Coding Schemes, Coding Frames
Coding Tasks in Software
Basic Retrieval of Coded Data
Managing Processes and Interpretations by Writing
Mapping Ideas and Linking Concepts
Organizing Data to Known Characteristics
Interrogating the Dataset
Convergence, Closeness, Choice
About the Author :
For much of her working life Ann Lewins was not an academic. She held a commission in the Royal Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller and later ran a growing sports business with her husband until his death in 1988. In 1992, at the age of 45, having just gained a first class honours degree in Modern History & Politics, she started postgraduate study. Two years later she was appointed to a sole, part-time Research post at the University of Surrey with the newly formed CAQDAS Networking Project (Computer Assisted Qualitative AnalysiS). The project, conceived by Nigel Fielding and Ray Lee was born out of a ground-breaking international Research Methods conference convened at Surrey in 1989, a key moment in the coalescing of a new awareness of a small range of early qualitative data analysis software programs. Ann set up online support resources and began hosting a vigorous program of seminars and training workshops to help researchers know the different software programs available and to teach their use. By 2000, Ann, together with Christina Silver had ensured that the CAQDAS Networking Project was reaching thousands of researchers who visited Surrey for support. Their specialist joint initiative, QDAS (Qualitative Data Analysis Services), was created to widen customised teaching and project support on-site at many other universities and research institutions worldwide.
Christina Silver, Ph.D. SFHEA, FAcSS is Associate Professor (Teaching) in the Faculty of Social Sciences (Sociology) at the University of Surrey, UK, and since 2023 Director of the CAQDAS Networking Project (CNP). She joined the CNP in 1998, which from 1994 has provided impartial information, advice and training in software designed for qualitative data analysis. Christina also co-founded, with Ann Lewins, Qualitative Data Analysis Services (QDAS), which provides customised analytic consultancy for teams and individuals. Christina’s interests are in the relationship between technology and methodology, and the teaching of computer-assisted qualitative analysis. She has published widely on these topics, including co-developing the CAQDAS pedagogy: Five-Level QDA with Nicholas Woolf. She is experienced in using a range of digital tools to enact methods across academic disciplines, and in applied, government and commercial contexts. Christina’s recent work has focused on enabling researchers to navigate the terrain of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in qualitative research encouraging balanced and critical perspectives about its potential role. This includes when the use of AI, particularly generative forms, is not appropriate, and when it might be. Christina is widely seen as a leading voice on methodologically-informed use of CAQDAS-packages and balanced and critical engagement with the implications of Generative-AI on qualitative research.
Review :
′This book is an important and updated addition to the scarce literature [available] for choosing a software package to support the analysis of data in qualitative research….[T]he clear, concise, and practical language as well as the numerous pictures…will help any confused, technologically anxious user feel more competent in using technology for…analysis′
Forum: Qualitative Social Research
The text is like having Ann or Christina at
your shoulder guiding you through,
explaining not only the practical steps, but
why you might want to do something in
the first place. A good marriage of
methodological reflection and practical
know-how.
Duncan Branley
Goldsmiths College, University of London
[The] authors have written a very helpful
step-by-step guide, comparing different
software packages, including ‘real
research’ examples and proposing
interesting tasks to the reader. This is a
long awaited textbook.
Wilma C. Mangabeira
Middlesex University
