Qualitative Methods with Nvivo Software: A Practical Guide for Analyzing Qualitative Data

From 1995–2016, there has been a 15-fold increase in qualitative scholarship in the social sciences, but the rigor and quality of published work has ranged widely. Little scholarship provides concrete, pragmatic explanations of (and directions regarding) the execution of systematic, high-rigor qualitative analysis. The present article guides the developing qualitative researcher through technical and procedural aspects of analyzing qualitative data with specific attention to reliability and rigor. Guidance addressing transcription, importing data, forming coding pairs, performing initial/open coding (examples of three types), determining core themes, systematic team-based coding, maintaining a data audit…