Qualitative analysis software

Articles on using and learning Qualitative Analysis Software in general, and Quirkos in particular. Also known as CAQDAS software or QDA software tools.

General qualitative software articles

For those about to embark on a qualitative Masters or PhD thesis, we salute you! More and more post-graduate students are using qualitative methods in their research projects, or...

Comparing qualitative software with spreadsheet and word processor software
An article was recently posted on the excellent Digital Tools for Qualitative Research blog on how you can use standard spreadsheet software like Excel to do qualitative analysis. There are many other articles describing this kind of approach, for example Susan Eliot or Meyer and Avery (2008). However, it’s also possible to use word processing software...

Does software lead to the homogenisation of qualitative research?
In the last couple of weeks there has been a really interesting discussion on the Qualrs-L UGA e-mail discussion group about the use of software in qualitative analysis. Part of this was the question of whether qualitative software leads to the ‘homoginisation’ of qualitative research and analysis...

Practice Projects and learning Qualitative Data Analysis Software
Coding and analysing qualitative data is not only a time consuming, it’s a difficult interpretive exercise which, like learning a musical instrument, gets much better with practice. However, lots of students starting their first major qualitative or mixed method research project will benefit from completing a smaller project first...

Stepping back from qualitative software and reading coded qualitative data
There is a lot of concern that qualitative analysis software distances people from their data. Some say that it encourages reductive behaviour, prevents deep reading of the data, and leads to a very quantified type of qualitative analysis...

Reflections on qualitative software from KWALON 2016
Last week saw a wonderful conference held by the the Dutch network for qualitative research KWALON, based at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. The theme was no less than the future of Qualitative...

Include qualitative analysis software in your qualitative courses this year
A new term is just beginning, so many lecturers, professors and TAs are looking at their teaching schedule for the next year. Some will be creating new courses, or revising existing modules,...

Using qualitative analysis software to teach critical thought
It's a key part of the curriculum for British secondary school and American high school education to teach critical thought and analysis. It's a vital life skill: the ability to...

Fracturing and choice in qualitative analysis software
Fundamental to the belief behind starting Quirkos was a feeling that qualitative research has great value to society, but should be made accessible to more people. One of the problems that we...

What can CAQDAS do for you: The Five-Level QDA
I briefly mentioned in my last blog post an interesting new article by Silver and Woolf (2015) on teaching QDA (Qualitative Data Analysis) and CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data...

The CAQDAS jigsaw: integrating with workflows
I'm increasingly seeing qualitative research software as being the middle piece of a jigsaw puzzle that has three stages: collection, coding/exploring, and communication. These steps...

Is qualitative data analysis fracturing?
Having been to several international conferences on qualitative research recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the future of qualitative research, and the changes happening in the...

Paper vs. computer assisted qualitative analysis
I recently read a great paper by Rettie et al. (2008) which, although based on a small sample size, found that only 9% of UK market research organisations doing qualitative research were using...

Analysing text using qualitative software
I'm really happy to see that the talks from the University of Surrey CAQDAS 2014 are now up online (that's 'Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software' to you and me). It...

Quirkos tutorials, guides and comparisons

7 unique things that make Quirkos awesome
Quirkos is now 3 years old! To celebrate, we’re taking a break from our regular programming of qualitative method posts to remind everyone why Quirkos is the best qualitative analysis software around...

Quirkos vs Nvivo: Differences and Similarities
I’m often asked ‘How does Quirkos compare to Nvivo?’. Nvivo is by far the largest player in the qualitative software field, and is the product most researchers are familiar with. So when looking at the alternatives like Quirkos...

How Quirkos can change the way you look at your qualitative data
We always get a lot of inquiries in December from departments and projects who are thinking of spending some left-over money at the end of the financial year on a few Quirkos licences...

Making qualitative analysis software accessible
Studies and surveys seem to show that the amount of qualitative research is growing, and that more and more people are using software to help with their qualitative analysis (Woods et al. 2015)...

Tips for managing mixed method and participant data in Quirkos and CAQDAS software
Even if you are working with pure qualitative data, like interview transcripts, focus groups, diaries, research diaries or ethnography, you will probably also have some categorical data about...

Sharing qualitative research data from Quirkos
Once you've coded, explored and analysed your qualitative data, it's time to share it with the world. For students, the first step will be supervisors, for researchers it might be peers...

Teaching qualitative analysis software with Quirkos
When people first see Quirkos, we often hear them say My students would love this! The easy learning curve, the visual feedback and the ability to work on Windows or Mac appeal...

Tips and advice from one year of Quirkos
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Quirkos being released to the market! On 6th October 2014, a group of qualitative researchers, academics and business mentors met in a bar in...

Freeing qualitative analysis from spreadsheet interfaces
The old mantra is that a picture tells a thousand words. You've probably seen Hans Rosling's talks on visualising quantitative data, or maybe even read some of Edward Tufte's books...

10 reasons to try qualitative analysis with Quirkos
Quirkos is the newest qualitative research software product on the market, but what makes it different, and worth giving the one-month free trial a go Here's a guide to the top 10 benefits to...

Levels: 3-dimensional node and topic grouping in Quirkos
One of the biggest features enabled in the latest release of Quirkos are 'levels', a new way to group and sort your Quirks thematically. While this was always an option in previous...

How to organise notes and memos in Quirkos
Many people have asked how they can integrate notes or memos into their project in Quirkos. At the moment, there isn't a dedicated memo feature in the current version of Quirkos (v1.0),...

Upgrade from paper with Quirkos
Having been round many market research firms in the last few months, the most striking things is the piles of paper, or at least in the neater offices - shelves of paper! When we talk to small...

True cross-platform support
Another key aim for Quirkos was to have proper multi-platform support. By that, I mean that it doesn't matter if you are using a desktop or laptop running Windows, a Mac, Linux, or a tablet,...

Quirkos release information

Welcome to Quirkos Web
Quirkos Web has all the main features of Quirkos in your browser, with no software to install, and available on any device.

Quirkos 2.4 is released!
This free update brings a number of improvements, bugfixes and new features, and is avialable from today. It includes a major speed bump for global users of Quirkos Cloud, improved search and new ways to recode themes.

10 new things in Quirkos 2.0!
This week we are releasing the first major update for Quirkos, Version 2! A huge thanks to all our beta testers who have been putting the new version to the test for the last few months, and sharing their suggestions for improvements.

Announcing Quirkos v1.5
We are happy to announce the immediate availability of Quirkos version 1.5! As always, this update is a free upgrade for everyone who has ever brought a licence of Quirkos, so download now and enjoy the new features and improvements...

Quirkos 1.4.1 is now available for Linux
A little later than our Windows and Mac version, we are happy to announce that we have just released Quirkos 1.4.1 for Linux. There are some major changes to the way we release and package our Linux version, so we want to provide some technical details of these, and installation instructions...

Quirkos version 1.4.1 is here
Since Quirkos version 1.4 came out last year, we have been gathering feedback from dozens of users who have given us suggestions, or reported problems and bugs. This month we are releasing a small update...

Quirkos version 1.4 is here!
It's been a long time coming, but the latest version of Quirkos is now available, and as always it's a free update for everyone, released simultaneously on Mac, Windows and Linux with...

An early spring update on Quirkos for 2016
About this time last year, I posted an update on Quirkos development for the next year. Even though February continues to be cold and largely snow-drop free in Scotland, why not make it a...

What's in your ideal qualitative analysis software
We will soon start work on the next update for Quirkos. We have a number of features people have already requested which we plan to add to the next version, including file merge, memos, and a...

Quirkos for Linux!
We are excited to announce official Quirkos support for Linux! This is something we have been working on for some time, and have been really encouraged by user demand to support this Free and...

Quirkos 1.3 is released!
We are proud to announce a significant update for Quirkos, that adds significant new features, improves performance, and provides a fresh new look. Major changes include: PDF import Greater...

Quirkos v1.1 is here!
We are excited to announce that the first update for Quirkos can now be downloaded from here! Version 1.1 adds two main new features: batch import, and mutli-language reports. If you...

Spring software update for Quirkos
Even in Edinburgh it's finally beginning to get warmer, and we are planning the first update for Quirkos. This will be a minor release, but will add several features that users have been...

Quirkos is launched!
It's finally here! From today, anyone can download the full 1.0 release version of Quirkos for Windows or Mac OS X! Versions for Linux and Android will be appearing later in the month, but since...

Announcing Pricing for Quirkos
At the moment, (touch wood!) everything is in place for a launch next week, which is a really exciting place to be after many years of effort. From that day, anyone can download Quirkos, try it free...

Quirkos is just weeks away!
It's been a long time since I've had time to write a blog article, as there are so many things to put in place before Quirkos launches in the next few weeks. But one-by-one everything is...

Touching Text
Presenting Quirkos at the CAQDAS 2014 conference this month was the first major public demonstration of Quirkos, and what we are trying to do. It's fair to say it made quite a splash! But...