Qualitative Software (CAQDAS)

GMU Data Services [email protected] dsc.gmu.edu Availability

Software OS Student Pricing Faculty Pricing Teaching (Dec '18) (Dec '18) Atlas.ti 8 Mac or PC $ 99 2 yr $670 Trial version atlasti.com & Mobile $ 51 6 mos 5 user 1yr $800 10 docs, 100 quotes

MAXQDA 12 Mac/PC $ 43 6 mo $495 Standard Free course license maxqda.com & Mobile up to $785 Suite (120 days) Portable $115 2 yr Suite NVivo 12 Mac or PC $85 2 yr Mac $600 Mac Liberal with 14-day free qsrinternational.com $99 2 yr Pro $700 Pro trial codes /nvivo $114 2 yr Plus $800 Plus

QDA Miner 5 PC Free Lite $595 Free Lite Version with provalisresearch.com $238+ 1 yr Edu $1,295 Suite limited features Functionality

Software Strengths Other Functions

Atlas.ti Memos & Theory Building Network Building atlasti.com Made for Grounded Theory

MAXQDA Exploration & Focus Groups Suite has Text Mining maxqda.com Friendly Interface & Emoticons & Statistics

NVivo Flexibility & Organization Plus version has Networks qsrinternational.com Popular & Familiar Interface and basic Text Mining /nvivo

QDA Miner Categorization & Basic Coding Suite has Text Mining provalisresearch.com & Statistics How it Handles…Coded Text

Software Code Display Text Display

Atlas.ti Codes listed in margin alongside No static text highlighting based atlasti.com quotation in one of 22 colors and on codes. shown in code list.

MAXQDA Colored Brackets on the left of text Text Highlighting using code color, maxqda.com can be custom colors, displayed in overlays semi-transparent the code table (but not the list) background colors. NVivo Coding Stripes next to coded text Coded text is yellow when qsrinternational.com can be one of 7 colors and shown in highlighted. /nvivo code list. Auto-colors used by default. QDA Miner Colored Brackets on the right of text Text Highlighting using code color provalisresearch.com and horizontal coding stripes can be uses background then text color, custom colors, not displayed in the which can make it difficult to code list. read. More than 2 codes is grey background. Other options for coded text include dim and hide. are.com

How it Handles…Special Data

Software Spreadsheets Focus Groups

Atlas.ti Rows are Documents in a group People are codes. Can use atlasti.com alongside other document types custom regular expression with cell contents listed and coded pattern with capturing. to variable name. MAXQDA Rows are Documents in a People are "Sub"-documents. maxqda.com hierarchical group alongside other Created on import. Must use document types. Specify document colon after name. groups or codes on import. NVivo Displayed natively alongside other People are "Cases" (codes with qsrinternational.com document types. Can autocode rows attributes). Use Word Headers, /nvivo as "Cases" and specify variables as specify each name, or use codes text to code or use as categories. manually. QDA Miner Creates a new project with each row No special functions, can use provalisresearch.com as a case with variables, which can codes manually. be text to code or other types. are.com

How it Handles…Grouping

Software Document Grouping Code Grouping

Atlas.ti Put documents in any number of Put codes in any number of atlasti.com groups, including dynamic groups. groups. Display by document or group.

MAXQDA Put documents in a single folder Use parent and child codes, as maxqda.com ("Groups"). Can specify and well as code sets. Can specify and import Document Variables. import Code Variables. NVivo Put documents in folders (1) or Use folders or parent and child qsrinternational.com dynamic or static sets (multiple). codes. Toggle code aggregation to /nvivo Establish multiple classifications parent. "Cases" (codes) can have (sets of variables). classifications (sets of variables). QDA Miner A document is a variable value for Put codes in a single group. provalisresearch.com a "Case". Assign cases additional variables for grouping and display hierarchically by variable value. are.com

Pros and Cons

Software Best Feature Most Lacking in

Atlas.ti Quotations and comments are No hierarchies or task-specific atlasti.com central, easy to make and view. features. Grouping does all.

MAXQDA Dynamically see specific codes in "Activation"-based interface is maxqda.com specific documents. complicated and busy at first.

NVivo Most flexible in document and Views focus on only one thing at a qsrinternational.com code organization. Allows time, most difficult to add /nvivo selectable code aggregation. comments.

QDA Miner Coding table enables quick coding Neither flexible nor intuitive. PC provalisresearch.com of paragraphs or snippets. Free only. lite-version. Money tight?

• NVivo is available on Data Services' Computers One is at the Arlington Campus

• QDA Miner has a free Lite version For advanced features, visit Data Services in Fairfax

• Dedoose charges only for months used Like most, also has 30 day free trial

• Atlas.ti and MAXQDA have 6 month licenses

• Use OnTheHub to get additional student discounts Conceptualizing Coding

• Assign codes to segments – also: Attach, Associate, Apply

• Assign segments to codes (MAXQDA)

• Gather content at a node (NVivo) Terminology

Source aka Document, Media, Source, Unit Code aka Tag, Node Segment aka Excerpt, Reference, Quotation Memo aka Note Comment aka Annotation Case aka Participant, Contribution Variable aka Descriptor, Attribute, Field Query aka Retrieval, Filtered Exerpts, Analysis Visualization aka Network, Model, Concept Map User aka Author, Coder What to Pick NVivo

• The most flexible for • Easy to get started, organization, basic project somewhat harder to master management, and literature reviews • All documents/data in native form. • Displays one thing at a time. • Promotes code overlap and hierarchical organization. • Allows code attributes, when each person has multiple files. MAXQDA

• Identical on Mac and PC • Not as popular [at Mason] • Visually oriented with • Harder to learn, but colored highlighting, icons, intuitive once mastered emoji's • Mobile app & Reader • Uses "activation" to find codes in documents. • Good with Mixed Methods, code weighting and statistical functions. • Nice tools like paraphrasing, code mapping. QDA Miner

• Only on Windows • Lite version is free and has • Easy to code by "chunks" complete code-and- retrieve. • Basic coding is simple and straightforward • Tools are powerful, but the interface is not intuitive. • Has occasional bugs Atlas.ti

• Originally designed for • Widely used among Grounded Theory experienced researchers • The first good qualitative • Demo version has limits to software, now more save, but allows viewing. competition. (10 documents, 50 codes, 100 quotes) • v8 replaces the problematic vocabulary of prior versions. • Uses grouping for codes and documents, but not folders, variables, or hierarchies. • Everything is tied to the excerpt. Dedoose

• The only web-based option • Allows weighted codes • For non-overlapping coding • Easy to create basic Mixed- (coded text always colored) Methods Stats and Graphs