Qualitative Data Analysis
Currently, Research Computing Services has 20 concurrent licenses for Atlas.ti v24 Cloud. If you are interested in using Atlas.ti for your qualitative data analysis, please contact Janet Keener at janet@etsu.edu. Data stored in the Atlas cloud CANNOT contain any PHI/HIPAA data! If you are saving any of your files to the Atlas cloud, they must be appropriately de-identified first. This should only be considered a temporary storage location for research data. Longer-term storage should use one of the university-approved locations. As always, please contact RCS if you need assistance.
NOTE: Atlas.ti licenses are ONLY available to ETSU employees and students! You MUST
request an account at Atlas.ti first using your ETSU email or it will not work for
you.
How Atlas.ti may be useful for narrative analysis: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468794121999008
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) tools are applications intended to assist with qualitative research. CAQDAS tools are used to help analyze and gain insights into data prior to interpretation. CAQDAS tools help researchers systematically sort, organize, structure, and otherwise manage data; create transcripts, create memos, assign codes, assemble codes into categories or themes, generate word frequency searches, and create mind maps.
SAGE Research Methods, an online repository of user guides for researchers, is a service provided through the Sherrod Library. You will find a broad spectrum of very practical guides when searching for "qualitative data" or "qualitative research." If you are new to qualitative research, start with the video link below.
Below are Open Source and Free Qualitative Data Analysis Applications:
AQUAD: Originally developed by Günter Huber at the University of Tübingen for analysis of textual, audio, video, and image data, a detailed listing of features can be found at AQUAD Features.
QDA Miner Lite: This is the free version of QDA Miner developed by Provalis Research. To compare features and download QDA Miner Lite, visit Provalis QDA Miner.
Qigga: QDA and reference manager software originally developed at Cambridge University and now continued as open source on GitHub. You can read about features on the Cambridge site but you'll need to download it from GitHub. Not for the technically faint-hearted.
Qualcoder: Developed by Colin Curtain of Australia as a fallout of his PhD work using RQDA. If you like RQDA, this may boost your research to include audio and video.
RQDA & QCoder: If you are a fan of R or R Studio, you will enjoy coding data with RQDA. (ranked #5 in the table below)
Taguette: The Taguette team, led by Rémi Rampin, developed Taguette to "bolster fair and equitable entry" into qualitative data analysis. Check out the features for text analysis.
Below are Qualitative Data Analysis Tools Showing Cumulative Score (Editor plus Aggregate User Scores) from Predictive Analytics Today:
Application |
Score |
Price |
| Atlas.ti | 17.2 | Free for 5 concurrent users via RCS |
| Quirkos | 17.2 | $340 |
| NVIVO | 16.7 | $640-$1,847 |
| MaxQDA | 16.6 | $520-$750 |
| RQDA | 16.5 | FREE |
| CAT (Coding Analysis Toolkit) | 16.3 | FREE |
| Libre QDA | 16.2 | FREE |
| fs/QDA | 16.2 | FREE |
| Weft QDA | 16.1 | FREE |
| GATE (General Architecture for Text Engineering) | 16.1 | FREE |