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Indeed Daniel!  And building on to that:  the difference between that and
the 'usual' realist process of developing a rough theory first, to test
through the literature... the differences between theory building and theory
testing... the relationship between induction, deduction and
retroduction/abduction...

 

Sorry but I don't have time to contribute to the writing itself.

 

Cheers

Gill

 

From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Daniel Reeders
Sent: Monday, 3 June 2013 1:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

Hi all,

 

Long time reader, first time poster.  

 

A while back on the list there was a question about 'where does theory come
from' in realistic reviews and narrative syntheses. (Answer: from the theory
stork, of course.)

 

While people are thinking about using NVIVO for realistic meta-analysis, I'd
like to suggest it could also be a useful opportunity to talk through some
of Glaser and Strauss, Merton and colleagues' thinking on generating theory
inductively.

 

Cheers,
Daniel Reeders

Melbourne, Australia

 

 

From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Geoff Wong
Sent: Sunday, 2 June 2013 6:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

Thanks for leading on this Anthony.

I am happy to help on this. My feeling is that we will need some 'good'
examples and I am happy to contribute to these.

As for journals, open access is ideal, as others can get access, but the
downside is that we have to pay to publish :-(

I would agree with Trish on her suggestion as BMC have taken realist stuff
before:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedresmethodol/

Another option is BMJ Open:

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/

Geoff

On 2 June 2013 06:37, Anthony Zwi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Maybe I should put my hand up and see who else might be interested to join
in... have two colleagues with me on my side for starters.... 

 

Where would you seek to publish?   

 

Best

Anthony

 

 

Anthony Zwi
Professor of Global Health and Development
School of Social Sciences 
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences I The University of New South Wales 
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia I CRICOS Provider code number 00098G

Rm G25 Morven Brown Bldg
Tel: +612 93859403 <tel:%2B612%2093859403> ; + 61 (0)423 696490
<tel:%2B%2061%20%280%29423%20696490>   

Research Gateway:
https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-anthony-zwi#contact
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/HEARDatUNSW
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/GlobalHlthUNSW
School Web Site:    http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/

We acknowledge the Traditional owners, past and present, of the land on
which we work. Our main campus is on the Land of the Eora people.

  _____  

From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Trisha Greenhalgh
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 10:25 PM


To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

It's about time someone wrote a PAPER on the use of NVIVO in realist
reviews.

 

Prof Trisha Greenhalgh

Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
Blizard Institute
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Yvonne Carter Building
58 Turner Street
London E1 2AB
t : 020 7882 7325 (PA) or 7326 (dir line)
f : 020 7882 2552
e:  <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
Twitter @trishgreenhalgh 

 

 

 

From: Geoff Wong <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving
Standards" <[log in to unmask]>, Geoff Wong <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2013 09:39:52 +0100
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

I would echo many of the insightful and practical comments made so far. 

 

1) Broader to more specific

Totally agree on this one. You pretty much need to read and re-read
documents, so on each reading you can start with more 'vague' nodes (codes)
and get more specific as understanding grows.

I have personally avoided code trees unless I know in advance that the tree
is not going to change. It is more flexible and easier to change sets.

The 'great' thing about NVivo is that you can keep recoding the same section
of texts as many times as you like.

For me NVivo provides an easier way to code and find data than using a
highlighter pen and post-its.

I don't expect it to do any of the analysis for me and so have not used any
of the more 'sophisticated' functions.

 

2) Teamworking

This is a tricky on. I only have version 8. In the past I have used 7 and 2.
The 'sharing' functions are meant to have got better on newer versions so I
can't help you much on this one.

It may be worth piloting how you are going to use it first as a team on a
small subset of data before doing anything else.
Anthony makes a god point about reviewers being next to each other. That
helps. I also agree with Gill, teams need to meet and discuss what they
think they have found on a regular basis.

One way we have tackled this 'problem' in the past is to break down the task
in to blocks of work. So, for example, a different reviewer could work on
their allocated bit of a programme theory. Their coding and findings could
then be shared later.

However, I accept that this might mean you end up creating a number of
different NVivo files (or projects as they call it in NVivo), as opposed to
one 'master' file for the project.

 

Good luck

 

Geoff

On 1 June 2013 01:09, Gill Westhorp <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Great answer Anthony and very useful!  Thanks...

Gill 

 

From: Anthony Zwi [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 9:34 AM
To: Gill Westhorp; 'Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving
Standards'


Subject: RE: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

Hi Gill

I'm not in a position to give full details now but will follow up at  later
point if of interest.  

Our approach was similar to that described by you (Gill) in your post in
response to Sue - although we had two team members working in adjacent deks
in the same room - so much easier to coordinate coding and discuss issues
along the way.  We used it in part to organise data e.g. quotable segments
of a pdf of an article which provided a valuable illustration of any of
context, mechanism or outcome.  We also used it to code and classify issues
and identify illuminating text.  .  

For example, in examining the evidence as to how and in what ways
community-based disaster risk management helped reduce social and economic
impact of disasters (recently completed realist review awaiting publication
of report - thx Gill for your input too to our process :-) ) we found that
one contextual factor which influenced the ability of community based
organisations to promote change was an enabling environment for civil
society organisations.  Authors will not necessarily describe the context in
the way we are looking at it - but they might comment on the fact that the
particular CSO has existed for some time, and somewhere else that it is
consulted by local authorities, and in another section of the article that
it is influential at local level - and these insights would be all be coded
as "enabling environment".  Then when doing the analysis we might group
together all the text coded as "enabling" to get a more complete set of all
the enabling factors, plus how they appear to be operating, along with
relevant quotes and examples - thus building up an understanding that is
very much in tune with realist analysis.  This level of textured analysis is
greatly supported by using a such software.

I don't think we maximised use of NVIVO because we had time constraints ++
and it does take time, but it was still valuable.  Personally I think that
using NVIVO can help at various levels given that one can code and recode or
double code in NVIVO and hence every time you look at an article again you
can add texture or refine categories.  You can also write memos in relation
toa particular article and you can code your memos to find at a later point
ideas you were thinking about or exploring.

Personally I think that this is of particular use in generating ideas and
examining emergent theory and mechanisms because these too will become
refined over time with more clarity of how they operate and in what
circumstances - all of which might be usefully categorised and coded using
NVIVO.  We didn't try use the more sophisticated features of NVIVO e.g.
generating models or doing any deeper NVIVO-supported analyses.

Hope that helps. I should also add that it was two of my colleagues that did
most of this work under my supervision - they might throw up more of the
frustrations... but I think they found it useful.

Best
Anthony 

 

Anthony Zwi
Professor of Global Health and Development
School of Social Sciences 
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences I The University of New South Wales 
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia I CRICOS Provider code number 00098G

Rm G25 Morven Brown Bldg
Tel: +612 93859403 <tel:%2B612%2093859403> ; + 61 (0)423 696490
<tel:%2B%2061%20%280%29423%20696490>   

Research Gateway:
https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-anthony-zwi#contact
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/HEARDatUNSW
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/GlobalHlthUNSW
School Web Site:    http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/

We acknowledge the Traditional owners, past and present, of the land on
which we work. Our main campus is on the Land of the Eora people.

  _____  

From: Gill Westhorp [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 9:32 AM
To: Anthony Zwi; 'Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving
Standards'
Subject: RE: Using NVivo for data analysis

Hi Anthony

How did you go about it, and what strengths and weaknesses did you discover
in the process?

 

Cheers

Gill 

 

From: Anthony Zwi [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 8:55 AM
To: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards; Gill
Westhorp
Subject: RE: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

Dear All

We have also used it in a realist synthesis and in a metanarrative review to
identify underlying themes within a body of literature.

Anthony

 

Anthony Zwi
Professor of Global Health and Development
School of Social Sciences 
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences I The University of New South Wales 
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia I CRICOS Provider code number 00098G

Rm G25 Morven Brown Bldg
Tel: +612 93859403 <tel:%2B612%2093859403> ; + 61 (0)423 696490
<tel:%2B%2061%20%280%29423%20696490>   

Research Gateway:
https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-anthony-zwi#contact
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/HEARDatUNSW
Twitter:                 http://twitter.com/GlobalHlthUNSW
School Web Site:    http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/

We acknowledge the Traditional owners, past and present, of the land on
which we work. Our main campus is on the Land of the Eora people.

  _____  

From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Gill Westhorp
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 8:03 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Using NVivo for data analysis

Hi Sue

My team is currently using NVivo9 in a realist synthesis.  Do you have more
specific questions?

Cheers

Gill

 

From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sue's UBC e-mail
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2013 4:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Using NVivo for data analysis

 

Hi,

 

I was wondering if there is anyone who has experience using NVivo 10 for
data extraction and analysis. It allows you to load PDFs of academic
articles and extract data directly and well as grey literature reports etc.
I am interested in learning about other researchers' experiences in using
data analysis software for a realist synthesis.

 

Thanks

Sue

 

 

 

Sue Mills PhD

Clinical Associate Professor

 

School of Population and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine
The University of British Columbia
2206 East Mall
Vancouver, BC   V6T 1Z3
Tel: (604) 827-1444 <tel:%28604%29%20827-1444>    Fax: (604) 822-4994
<tel:%28604%29%20822-4994> 

Cell: 604-338-4232

www.spph.ubc.ca