What is Qualitative Data Analysis Software?
Qualitative Data Analysis software is used by scientists and business researchers to discover and understand patterns, such as customer sentiment, in surveys and feedback submissions presented in a variety of text and media files. Most common software for qualitative data analysis are presented below, but researchers can use either licensed or free software, which can be found on-line.
MAXQDA
"MAXQDA is a world-leading software package for qualitative and mixed methods research. It is one of the most comprehensive programs in the field and is used by thousands of researchers in more than 150 countries around the world. MAXQDA helps you collect, organize, analyze, visualize and publish your data. It supports various methodological frameworks, including grounded theory, literature reviews, exploratory market research and qualitative content analyses, giving you maximum flexibility to analyze what you want, the way you want. MAXQDA also gives you the freedom to analyze an increasingly diverse range of data types. You can import documents, PDF files, tables, images, media files, Twitter tweets, YouTube comments, geo references, bibliographical data, and more – and start analyzing them quickly and easily." (www.maxqda.com, 2020)
fs/QCA
"Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a new analytic technique that uses Boolean algebra to implement principles of comparison used by scholars engaged in the qualitative study of macro social phenomena. Typically, qualitatively oriented scholars examine only a few cases at a time, but their analyses are both intensive -- addressing many aspects of cases -- and integrative -- examining how the different parts of a case fit together, both contextually and historically. By formalizing the logic of qualitative analysis, QCA makes it possible to bring the logic and empirical intensity of qualitative approaches to studies that embrace more than a handful of cases -- research situations that normally call for the use of variable-oriented, quantitative methods." (www.u.arizona.edu/, 2020)
ATLAS.ti
"ATLAS.ti is a powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data.Sophisticated tools help you to arrange, reassemble, and manage your material in creative, yet systematic ways. ATLAS.ti keeps you focused on the material itself. Whether your field is anthropology, economics, criminology, or medicine: ATLAS.ti will meet your qualitative analysis needs!" (www.Atlas.ti, 2020)
webQDA
"webQDA is a software to support the analysis of qualitative data in a collaborative and distributed environment. Although there are some software packages that address non-numeric and unstructured data(text, image, video, audio) in qualitative analysis, there are few that can be used by several researchers in a collaborative work environment and distributed as the Internet can offer. webQDA is a software directed to researchers in different contexts, that need to analyze qualitative data, individually or collaboratively, synchronously or asynchronously.
webQDA follows the structural and theoretical design of other programs available in the market, differentiating itself by providing online, real-time collaborative work and a service that supports the research process." (webqda.net, 2020)