Quirkos 2022 Unwrapped: A Year in Research!

2022 has been a busy year at Quirkos - we launched Quirkos Web, our browser-based version, and we’ve been working on some secret big new features due to arrive in 2023. It’s also been a busy year for the researchers using our software!

This year, there were at least 180 scholarly papers and monographs, and 140 postgraduate theses, which cited Quirkos in their methodology, making up a total of over 320 research outputs! The outputs are incredibly varied and range across a wide number of topic areas, from all over the world. Research topics include public health, education, national identity, marketing, disability studies, law and criminology.

To celebrate the achievements of our users, we have prepared a list of a few featured papers published this year which used Quirkos as part of their qualitative methodology. We've only included open access papers so they can be read by as many people as possible. Please remember that this is a tiny sample of hundreds of brilliant qualitative research projects, and they are not intended as 'endorsements' of using Quirkos, but we think it shows the varied ways people are using Quirkos to help articulate complex stories and drive change!

Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina, Philippe Burny, Ioan Banatean-Dunea, and Dacinia Crina Petrescu
How Climate Change Science Is Reflected in People’s Minds. A Cross-Country Study on People’s Perceptions of Climate Change

Petrescu-Mag et al. conducted semi-structured interviews to explore Belgian and Romanian participants' perceptions of climate change and its causes. They used Quirkos to create and code broad themes within their interview transcripts, using our great visual interface to easily compare the results.

Ireson, Jane, Amy Taylor, Ed Richardson, Beatrice Greenfield, and Georgina Jones
Exploring Invisibility and Epistemic Injustice in Long Covid—A Citizen Science Qualitative Analysis of Patient Stories from an Online Covid Community

Long Covid has a unique position, being documented as a chronic illness through personal experiences shared online before it was able to be researched. This paper draws on the written experiences of an online Long Covid community in the UK, and suggests that peer support and supportive healthcare experiences are a crucial intervention to help people with Long Covid feel validated and experience a better quality of life. Quirkos was used to manage and analyse the textual data, with the sources being collaboratively coded between two different pairs of coders using thematic analysis principles.

LeBlanc-Omstead, Stephanie, and Elizabeth Anne Kinsella.
“Come and Share Your Story and Make Everyone Cry”: Complicating Service User Educator Storytelling in Mental Health Professional Education

LeBlanc-Omstead and Kinsella used semi-structured interviews and observations to produce qualitative data-informed recommendations for critically and ethically employing service user educators in training for mental health professionals – especially tackling the risk of their contribution becoming a performative 'spectacle'. Their reflexive analytical framework was designed to centre marginalised voices and discourses, with Quirkos being used to visualise and organise the themes.

Chapman, Melanie, Jan Gilbertson, Jodie Bradley, Chris Damm, Vicky Farnsworth, Annie Ferguson, Alison Owen, Bernard Stafford, Bethany Taylor, Angela Tod, and Dan Wolstenholme
Being Warm Being Happy: Understanding Factors Influencing Adults with Learning Disabilities Being Warm and Well at Home with Inclusive Research

A crucial piece of work given the current energy crisis, Chapman et al. used an inclusive methodology to report on the experiences of fuel poverty among people with learning disabilities, to explore the unique impacts of fuel poverty on this demographic. Quirkos allowed them to generate a useful thematic framework for the data collected.

Nasir, Nada, Carri Hand, and Suzanne Huot
Examining Social Relationships among Older Muslim Immigrants Living in Canada: A Narrative Inquiry

Nasir, Hand and Huot conducted narrative interviews with aging Muslim Lebanese immigrants in Canada who were at increased risk of social isolation, to understand their experiences of social connectedness, community and family. To aid their analysis, they coded the interviews in Quirkos using an iterative and reflexive coding methodology.

Watson, Cynthia, Tricia Templet, Gwen Leigh, Lisa Broussard, and Laura Gillis
Student and Faculty Perceptions of Effectiveness of Online Teaching Modalities

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic leading many higher education faculty to turn to online teaching methods, Watson et al. conducted surveys and focus groups with students and faculty to identify which methods were perceived as especially effective. They used grounded theory in Quirkos to analyse the open-ended survey questions and focus group discussions. Constant comparison was used alongside investigator triangulation to help the team evaluate the quality of their analysis.

Thepsourinthone, Jack, Tinashe Dune, Pranee Liamputtong, and Amit Arora
It’s a Man’s World: A Qualitative Study of Gender and Sexuality amongst Australian Gay Men

Thepsourinthone et al. conducted semi-structured online interviews with Australian gay men to analyse their experiences of gender norms and masculinity, finding that they had a conflicted positionality in which they were expected to perform both masculinity and femininity successfully in different social circles and contexts. Quirkos was used as a "visually intuitive" way to organise the study themes, with methodologies drawn from thematic analysis and socio-ecological theory (studying people situated in the context of their environments).

Das, Dipto, and Bryan Semaan
Collaborative Identity Decolonization as Reclaiming Narrative Agency: Identity Work of Bengali Communities on Quora

Das and Semaan studied posts on the Bengali-language Quora, to explore how this community is using narrative to decolonise their identities in spite of the continued influence of colonialism on internet spaces. Through Bengali Quora, communities were able to collaboratively define concepts like colonialism, without using the language of the coloniser. The analysis was completed in Quirkos with open coding and inductive analysis.

Sherborne, Virginia, Angela Tod, and Bethany Taylor
The Psychological Effects of Mesothelioma in the UK Military Context From the Carer’s Perspective: A Qualitative Study

Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Sherborne, Tod and Taylor interviewed carers of UK veterans with mesothelioma, to offer insights on how the psychological effects of the condition may differ from the general population due to the differing emphases of UK military culture and values. Quirkos was used to help facilitate analytical and reflexive discussion between the co-authors.

Ing, Grace Phang, Jennifer Kim Lian Chan, Tze-Yin Lim, and Mia Bella R. Fresnido
Key Success Factors, Marketing Opportunities and Challenges: A Case Study of Bonco Virgin Coconut Oil

This study considered sustainability challenges and successes of marketing in the coconut oil industry, by interviewing the customers and business operators of Bonco Virgin Coconut Oil. Quirkos' visualisations are used throughout the article to demonstrate the team's hierarchical coding structure, arrived at collaboratively as they coded together and checked one another's codes within the software.

Waboso, Nwakerendu, Laurel Donison, Rebecca Raby, Evan Harding, Lindsay C. Sheppard, Keely Grossman, Haley Myatt, and Sara Black
“We Can Play Tag with a Stick”. Children’s Knowledge, Experiences, Feelings and Creative Thinking during the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Waboso et al. explored how children in Ontario coped with the anxieties and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic from a relational perspective: how they adapted their activities and interactions with family and friends. Using semi-structured remote interviews, the team used Quirkos to code the data, with one researcher sorting the data into broad categories and the others refining and developing the coding structure.

Buckland, Christa, Debra Hector, Gregory S. Kolt, Jack Thepsourinthone, and Amit Arora
Experiences of Young Australian Mothers with Infant Feeding

This study sought to identify if there were unique barriers to young Australian mothers completing the recommended duration of breastfeeding for infants. The researchers found that while the issues and challenges experienced were not unique to this demographic, two were exacerbated by comparison to other demographics of mothers: a sense of lacking peer support (e.g. fewer friends of the same age who had also experienced breastfeeding), and a heightened sense of societal judgment. The semi-structured interviews were analysed iteratively in Quirkos with an inductive approach. Three coders collaborated to analyse and discuss the emerging themes.

Harris, Jody, Sarah Gibbons, O’Brien Kaaba, Tabitha Hrynick, and Ruth Stirton
A “Right to Nutrition” in Its Social, Legal, and Political Context: How International Human Rights Translate to Zambian Realities

Harris et al. reviewed legal/policy documents and completed interviews and focus groups to examine how successfully the human right to nutrition is enacted in Zambia. Many of the Zambian participants felt that this human right is invoked more rhetorically than practically, as its scope was significantly narrowed when incorporated into national law. Quirkos was used to organise and code the interview and focus group transcripts, using an open coding methodology.

Peake, Rebecca, and Larissa E. Davies
International Sporting Success Factors in GB Para-Track and Field

Peake and Davies' study fills a gap in the study of elite international sport by highlighting the unique success factors in para-track and field. They used a mixed-methods approach, including semi-structured interviews with GB para-athletes, coach and support staff, with the interview data being analysed in Quirkos with thematic template analysis. This allowed the researchers to build upon themes identified in existing literature, but also flexibly add new themes. They found that factors that influenced success in para-track and field included the fulfilment of specific support and equipment needs, and a lack of existing research to understand the best training practices for para-track and field athletes with specific impairments.

Something that struck me was that so many of the research teams (across the hundreds of articles which used Quirkos, not just this small sample!) coded together on Quirkos as a team, doing reliability checks and developing their themes collaboratively. I think this highlights the strengths of Quirkos as a collaborative platform for inspiring discussion and allowing teams to be more reflexive in their analysis.

As a personal aside – as a new addition to the Quirkos team this year, it’s been heartening to see the amazing work our users have been up to. At a time where I’m reflecting on what I’m thankful for, I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to support people to do such important qualitative work!

Want us to feature your paper using Quirkos, or feature in a guest blog post? @ us on Twitter @QuirkosSoftware and we’ll retweet your research outputs, or email info@quirkos.com to informally pitch a blog idea!

And best wishes for you and your research in 2023!