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; + 61 (0)423 696490 

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; + 61 (0)423 696490 

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   Fax: (604) 822-4994

Cell: 604-338-4232

www.spph.ubc.ca