Statistical and Mathematical Software

The following video provides an overview of qualitative analysis using NVivo.

Analysis in NVivo (Windows) by QSR International (YouTube)

NVivo projects typically include the following tasks:

• Creating a new project file and importing research materials
• Coding data
• Capturing thinking in memos
• Creating cases for each participant
• Creating or editing a classification (e.g., a person classification to capture demographic characteristics) and linking it to each case
• Running queries
• Visualising data
• Saving and backing up the project

To create a new project file and import research materials:

1. Open NVivo 12 from the Start menu, or a desktop shortcut if installed.
2. Select the Blank Project tile and enter the file name, description, and location on your computer for the file.
3. From the Import tab, select Files
4. Select the files to be imported and click the Import button.

The following video shows how to start a new project and import files.

Importing with NVIvo 12 (Windows) by QSR International (YouTube)

Deductive coding

If you are taking a deductive approach, you will have a list of pre-defined codes and want to create nodes for these and then code your sources to the relevant node.

To create a New Node:

1. From the Create tab, select Node.
2. In the New Node dialog box, enter a Name and Description (optional) for the node. If the node name is very long, you can create a Nickname which will be shorter and quicker to use in the quick coding bar.
3. To incorporate reference from child nodes within the parent node, select the Aggregate coding from children checkbox.
4. Select a Color to specify the colour of coding stripes (optional).
5. Click OK.

To code to an existing Node:

1. Select the unit of text you want to code in the data file
2. Click on the text, then drag and drop it over the required node.

Inductive coding

If you are taking an inductive approach to coding, you attach codes to units of data as you analyse your files. To do this in NVivo:

1. Select Nodes in Navigation view.
2. Select the unit of text you want to code in the source item, then drag and drop it into List View, over the prompt “Drag selection here to code to a new node”
3. In the New Node dialog box, enter a name and description (optional).
4. Click OK.

The following video demonstrates different ways of coding in NVivo:

Coding in NVivo 12 (Windows) by QSR International (YouTube)

Renaming Nodes

1. In List View, select the Node to be renamed.
2. Right click and select Node Properties.
3. Enter desired changes to the name and click OK.

Merging Nodes

After you have been coding your data for a while, you may notice that you have created two similar nodes and need to merge the contents of both into one node.  

To merge two nodes:

1. In List View, select the node to be merged into another node.
2. Right click and select Cut.
3. Select the destination Node.
4. Right click and select Merge into Selected Node OR Merge into New Child Node (the latter selection requires you to name the new child node)
5. Select the checkboxes for the options you wish to be included in the merge.
6. Click OK.

Deleting Nodes

1. In List View, right click on a Node.
2. Select Delete.

A node can also be deleted by selecting it and hitting the Delete key.

All coding will be lost for deleted nodes. Consider renaming or merging nodes instead.

Uncoding

Sometimes you may need to uncode a reference from a file or a node – perhaps the coding was inappropriate, or you may have inadvertently coded the data to the wrong node.

Where data is coded at multiple nodes, you can uncode data from one node without uncoding from the others.

To uncode a reference/s from a file:

1. Open the file and select the reference to be uncoded.  
2. From the Document tab, select Uncode.
3. In the Select Project Items dialog box, tick the node/s you want to uncode from and Click OK.

To uncode a reference/s from a node:

1. Open the node and select the reference to be uncoded. 
2. From the Node tab, select Uncode.
3. In the Select Project Items dialog box, tick the node/s you want to uncode from and Click OK.

Creating Node hierarchies

When working with nodes you can create hierarchies of nodes as you develop concepts. For example, you may have the following nodes relating to mentoring and want to create a hierarchy with mentoring as a higher-level concept.

(NVivo qualitative data analysis software; QSR International Pty Ltd. Version 12, 2018)

To do this, select the negative and positive experiences nodes and drag and drop them over the mentoring node. This action makes the moved nodes Child nodes and mentoring the Parent node.

(NVivo qualitative data analysis software; QSR International Pty Ltd. Version 12, 2018)

References coded at Child nodes are not automatically included in the Parent node. To include the coding of Child Nodes in the Parent Node you can turn on aggregation by editing the properties of the parent node. To do this simply right click on the parent node, then select Aggregate Coding from Children.

Your participants share common characteristics (e.g., gender, age, etc.) that you can group together to aid your analysis. In NVivo, Case Classifications are used to define these groups and their attributes.

Incorporating demographic data involves the following steps:

1. Create or edit a Case Classification (e.g. People).
2. Set up attributes and values.
3. Create Cases for each participant and code each participants’ data file (e.g., interview transcript) to the respective case; link the case nodes to the classification
4. Open the classification and specify attribute values for each participant.

Create classifications and cases

Step 1: Create or edit a Case Classification

Classifications can be created by editing a pre-defined classification, importing a classification sheet or by building your own classification in NVivo.

To edit a pre-defined Case classification:

1. From the Create tab, click Case Classification.

2. In the New Classification dialog box, select Add one or more predefined classifications to the project, tick the Person checkbox and click OK.

Step 2: Set up attributes and values

Open the pre-defined classification by clicking on the + sign. The attributes (Name, Sex, Age Group, etc) can be edited/deleted and additional attributes can be added if required in your project.

To edit an attribute and set values from a pre-defined classification:

1. Right click on the attribute (e.g., Sex)

2. Select Attribute Properties and make the desired changes (e.g., change the name of the attribute to Gender)

3. On the Values tab, click Add

4. Enter the name of a value (e.g., Male)

5. Click Add to enter the name of another value (e.g., Female)

6. Define the default attribute value (optional) that is set when participants’ are linked to the attribute (useful time-saver if many participants in the study share the same value (e.g., more females than males)

7. Click OK

To delete an attribute:

1. Right click on the attribute (e.g., Country of Birth)

2. Select Delete and Click Yes to confirm deletion

Step 3: Create cases for each participant, code each participant’s data to the case, link the cases to the classification

In this step, the classification is linked to the case of each participant so that all attributes in the classification are available for the participant.

Classifications must be linked to the case node that represents the participant, not to the data file (e.g. the participant’s interview transcript)

To create cases for each participant:

1. Select all the data files that represent your study participants.

2. Right Click, then select Create as, Create as Cases. Creating cases from the files in this way codes the file to the case. (If you create case nodes from the ribbon (Create > Case) or by right clicking into List View, you will need to create each case individually and manually code the file to the case).

3. In the Select Location dialog box, set the location to store your case nodes (e.g., the Cases folder)

4. In the Assign to Classification drop down menu, select your classification (e.g., People).

Step 4: Specify values for each participant

1. Select the classification, right click, then select Open Classification Sheet.

2. A spreadsheet will open in Detail View and you will see the names of your cases.

3. For each case set specific values for each attribute by clicking on the inverted triangle and selecting the appropriate value.

Visualisations can be used throughout each stage of your research project.

The following types of visualisations are available:

• Charts

  Present or explore your research data. Types include: bar, column, pie, bubble, heat maps and radar charts.

• Hierarchy charts

  See patterns in coding or view the attribute values of cases and files.

• Mind maps

  Brainstorm your ideas

• Concept maps

  Map concepts and their connections

• Project maps

  Represents project items and their linkages

• Comparison diagram

  Shows what two items have in common and where they differ

• Explore diagram

  A dynamic diagram focusing on one project item, explore connections between items by stepping forwards and backwards

• Cluster analysis diagram

  Find patterns by seeing similarities and differences between files or nodes

• Sociograms

  Displays social networks as a diagram