Re Sarah's request for comparisons:
I'm half way through analyzing five very interesting case-study interviews with postgrad students about their recent or current research theses and choosing a CAQDAS. I have one who eschewed any qual software, and one user each of NUD.IST, NVIVO, ETHNOGRAPH and ATLAS TI.
The interesting thing that has struck me so far is how much each had to say in favour of their choice, and how little against it. The NUDIST user liked the way she could pull up all the quotes about a topic, the ETNOGRAPH user liked the coding at the side, the ATLAS user loved the visual aspects and so on. The nonuser insisted that her form of analysis would not work at all with any CAQDAS.
Complaints were not about the packages. Rather they were about the fact that no-one else in the department used it, or that support from the suppliers was erratic.
These were, of course, people starting out and not experienced researchers like Sarah. Nonetheless, I wonder if the crucial issues are not about features of the packages per se. Rather, perceptions about what we want to do may set broad parameters. (My examples are the non-user, or the ATLAS fan, who had looked at and then totally rejected one of the other packages, and insisted on strong visual elements when he set up his project.) Then, it's am matter of the kind of practical logistics that Weitzman and Miles discuss - what machines will handle, what support exists and so on. This means that choices might differ radically according to the organisation you are in.
(See Weitzman, E. A & M.B. Miles (1995) Computer programs for qualitative data analysis: A software sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage)
Don't know if this helps you at all Sarah - but it's nice to see (hear?) you back on the air! What do others think?
Cheers
Helen Marshall
Dr Helen Marshall
School of Social Science and Planning
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
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