>>Findings indicate the growth in usage of less structured qualitative
techniques in published projects. Growing popularity of mixed design
projects and positive attitudes toward methodological convergence were also
noted.  NUD.IST is found to be the most popular software package. How would
you comment on that? Why there is an increase in the number of projects
affiliated to the qualitative approach and converged design? >>>>>

Elena - thanks for your mail - it gave us lots of food for thought;  I'm
picking on a couple of parts of the above paragraph since I wasn't sure I
could contribute anything to the others without much more thought!

I'd  be really interested to know how many of your overall market researcher sample
said they used a package for qualitative data analysis, at all? (I  don't
believe you gave any figures here) then give us an idea  of  what
_proportion of them_  said they used 'NUD*IST'.  I think I need numbers to get
the full picture here!
 
As is confirmed by your survey, although usage is increasing, there's no
assumption by experienced qualitative researchers in
market research (certainly not in social research) that a package will be used at all -
apart from a Word processing application or possibly Excel. This would be
especially true, I'd have thought, amongst Market researchers who comprise
your sample since they often need fast turnover where interview or group
data isn't even transcribed - I'd say that was the main reason for non-usage
of "NUD.IST" or any other software designed for thematically coding data.

- I'd agree that probably in Ireland currently, "NUD*IST" (?) is the most
used in academic and social research settings.  The same family of softwares
has the edge in UK - but only if you combined together, the user group for
Nvivo and N6[N4,N5],  **
- but calculated differently, or calculated elsewhere it might be a very different
story. In UK even, there is a large and increasing userbase for ATLAS.ti,
comparable I'd say, to NVivo's (also increasing) user base
(treating NVivo as a separate software from "NUD.IST"see ** below).

After the 3 dominant  packages,  **N6[N4N5],  NVivo, ATLAS.ti,  (in no
particular order),   users of WinMAX 99[-MAXqda]  are the next very sizeable and again, increasing group of users in UK.

(My _impressions_  are the result of my role in CAQDAS Networking Project,
talking to and teaching literally thousands of users over the last 7 years.
In a year I run about 40 events for the project, another 20 or so around the
country each year, this produces an awareness of whats in place in institutions,
perceptions of demand for software courses, and many many telephone conversations
provide the background for impressions that are hopefully not too
inaccurate)

**Its worth remembering, that concerning "NUD.IST",  there are now 4
softwares in use out there - all with the name NUD*IST somewhere in their
title or history - N4 ('NUD*IST classic') N5, and now N6 (dropping the
NUD*IST name as far as possible) ...and further, NUD*IST Vivo or for short
'NVivo'; the last mentioned offering an additional set of possibilities beyond
those offered by the the rather separate NUD*IST stream of softwares. The fact that the two
separate streams were developed by the same software company is crucial in
terms of intra software compatibility, and of course they ARE close
relatives,  but if one were wanting to be fair and
accurate about levels of popularity of individual softwares it might be
helpful to be a bit more specific when using the term 'NUD*IST'.  NVivo for
instance provides a different range of  data handling tools, compared with
N6[N4N5],  - just as ATLAS.ti or The Ethnograph do.

My impressions are that on the European 'mainland' in certain countries,
other softwares are in wider use - especially in Switzerland and Germany,
possibly also Spain.  In Germany and Switzerland, ATLAS.ti is probably the
dominant software overall, followed in Germany by WinMAX99 [-MAXqda]

In Netherlands, I'd guess that NVivo, N6[N4N5],  Kwalitan and  ATLAS.ti all
share the user base (rather vague, but I couldn't even come close to guessing which was more
dominant - I've taught in several places in the Netherlands in events featuring all those packages). Kwalitan (developed by Vincent Peters) has been traditionally used a lot in Netherlands as a teaching tool for QDA, and will therefore be quite well established relative to its position outside the Benelux states. In the U.S and Australia, N6[N4N5],  and Nvivo almost certainly produce the largest user groups, with significant pockets of The Ethnograph and HyperResearch; but in the U.S as well,  ATLAS.ti is increasing its share of the userbase.
 
all that ....i.e. of those using the code based 'theory building' software programs
under discussion so far)

I know there are plenty of other areas where the softwares are used, but my
information about them is much more sketchy.  I know for instance that Arab
speaking world are having a difficulty using any, since 'right to
left' languages are a problem for most of these CAQDAS packages.  (I wait to be
contradicted!)

The needs of market researchers are probably somewhat different to a social
researcher (mostly to do with rate of turnover) - and I wonder how other
software tools would rate for the very selective, occasional use of software
that you mention Elena?
For instance there are other ways of handling qualitative data - which may
be more to do with statistical content of language? There's a whole range of
text analysis software out there which processes qualitative data for the
examination of the word or language content much more quickly - producing
word lists and word indexes, text retrieval, with formulae for identifying
text patterns, statistics about content, often as an automatic process of
data import. e.g.  CISAID, Sonar professional, Textpack, Concordance,
Wordsmith.
....more info at Harald Kleins site for that sort of software if anyone else
is interested.
http://www.textanalysis.info/

see also

http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/

cheers

Ann Lewins
CAQDAS Networking Project:  Dept of Sociology
University of Surrey
GUILDFORD   GU2 5XH
+44 (0)1 483 25 94 55
mobile  +44 (0) 7966 541 518
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]>Elena Bezborodova
To: [log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 8:56 PM
Subject: qualitative data analysis and software

Dear all,

I have recently joined QUAL SOFTWARE and would be very pleased for any assistance you can give me. I am in the final stage of my two-year MBS research programme titled ‘Exploring IT Applications for Qualitative Data Analysis’ at Letterkenny Institute of Technology (Ireland). The study aims to investigate practice and patterns of using qualitative data analysis techniques and computer aided qualitative data analysis software. In the first phase of the research I have examined more than seven thousand articles representing 18 leading marketing journals over a period of 10 years. In the next phase, eighty-eight Irish market research companies were surveyed (a response rate of 52% was achieved).

The results provided a profile of published projects and projects carried out by companies and an evaluating of companies attitudes toward qualitative software.

However, lots of questions still remain unanswered. As research professionals working with qualitative software you are the best people to address these outstanding issues to. I will be very grateful if you could find time to respond to any of them. Please, e-mail me at [log in to unmask]" target=_blank>[log in to unmask] with your comments or for further details and clarifications. Your participation is highly appreciated. Thank you all for your help in this matter!

 

  1. It was identified that there is a shift toward a higher degree of methodological convergence in research projects where analytical software is used. Do you agree with the opinion that computers can facilitate the process of methodological convergence?  Will the development of computer technology lead to the emergence of new methodologies, or does it just allow for doing thing simply better rather than differently (i.e. cannot lead to emergence of converged methodologies)?
  2. Findings indicate the growth in usage of less structured qualitative techniques in published projects. Growing popularity of mixed design projects and positive attitudes toward methodological convergence were also noted.  NUD.IST is found to be the most popular software package. How would you comment on that? Why there is an increase in the number of projects affiliated to the qualitative approach and converged design?
  3. What factors do you think encourage researchers in employing qualitative software? Which one has a greater influence: data attributes (i.e. handling data complexity) or process attributes (i.e. facilitating process systematisation). Are there other drivers?
  4. Research pointed toward perceptual differences regarding qualitative software between:

q       Respondents with more versus less experience of qualitative research

q       Respondents with more versus less experience of software

  1. It was found that software is employed occasionally (in specific circumstances and on certain stages of analysis) rather than regularly. How would you comment on that? Is this a proper pattern in software use or just an interim stage in development of qualitative software usage?
  2. The study revealed that researchers not using software expressed rather negative comments on the role of qualitative packages in qualitative research. They stated that the usage of software is limited due to various reasons. On the other hand, companies who used software expressed overall satisfaction with usage, which is growing gradually after five years of software experience. Why do you think the reluctance toward software use exists?                                      ! ;          

Thank you very much!

 

Elena Bezborodova,

 

Postgraduate research student

Letterkenny Institute of Technology

Port Road

Letterkenny

Ireland

                                                                             

     

 

 



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