Research. Relate. Realize

QSR NVivo 7Lyn and Tom Richards, founders, QSR International

This is a very brief overview of the main parts of a projectin NVivo 7, and the processes supported. It is designed toaccompany demonstration of the software.

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Why NVivo Seven?

• Totally new & redesigned software– So not just NVivo three

• Updates NVivo 2 and the NUD*IST line (N6)– So it’s seven

• Designed for the future, not a re-vamp of past versions, styles and approaches– Early adopter of new technologies– Ready for new 3-D “Longhorn” OS– Annual major upgrades from now on

• Free for site licences and maintenance agreements

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So what’s it look like?

Familiar?

Orderly?

Normal?

It’s meant to!

And…

Manageable!

Customize it, to suit your style.

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New Screen Layout

Navigation Bar with Group

Buttons

Each project part has its own folder

(you can create your own to order items)

Projects

Simple navigation, Microsoft Outlook style, between the main parts of a project

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Project Security and Integrity

• All data in a project, including all Sources, are kept in a single securely encrypted database file.

• So porting and backing up is trivial.

• No chance of others tampering with documents, no need for insecure doc file update log files…

• In fact, absolute project database integrity, even through computer crashes.

Projects

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Save and Undo

Saves are not automatic, but reminders are.

Why?

Projects

UNDO!At last, the qualitative researcher’s pace and process is protected.Dropdown list shows

last five actions.

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So a project will look like this

Examples that follow use the Sample Project that ships with the software…

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\ Documents\NVivo 7 Samples

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What are your data sources?

Sources comprise Documents,

Externals and Memos

Plus folders you create

Make a new document and edit in NVivo

Sources

or import straight from

Word

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Use Externals to bring other data in

• Create and link to external files

• Format for coding

• Edit to include any illustrations or links to tape segments etc.

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And your concepts and ideas?

Nodes – five sorts of containers for categories and coding1. Free Nodes (unordered)

2. Tree Nodes (for category/subcategory cataloguing)

3. Cases (for interviewees, people, places etc.)

Represent people, places, topics, concepts - entities4. NVivo 7 introduces a thoroughly new sort of node:

Relationships Not representing entities, but making statements.

5. And the final sort of node? Matrices (tables of qualitative crosstabs, in which the data for each cell is coded at a node.)

Nodes and Coding

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First - free and tree nodes

Create them “down” from design or “up” from the data.

Nodes and Coding

Cut, copy, merge, paste to design the node system, using trees to catalog ideas

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Coding at nodes

Code by drag and drop or many rapid methods

Nodes and Coding

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Viewing coding at nodes

View coding in 7 live stripes on source or node content and new Coding Density stripe showing all nodes.

Nodes and Coding

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Cases – to hold what you know

• In your study, what is a case? – Make a case node and

code all material it. – Auto-coding does this

• Cases can have values of attributes– Attributes store information

about those people, places, organizations…

Nodes and Coding

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Attributes - of Cases

• Attributes (like Gender) are properties you create for Cases

• View as tables (“Casebooks”) of Case Nodes versus Attributes

• Assign a value for the Attribute to each Case Node

• Casebooks can be imported and exported, e.g. to Excel™ or SPSS™

Classifications

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Relationships – making statements

• A relationship joins two Project Items

• A relationship makes a statement:– ‘volunteering requires time’– ‘family values encourage motivation to volunteer’

• Code the relationship with the evidence for the statement it makes

Nodes and Coding

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What’s so new about Relationships?

• Relationships can be (and can code evidence for)– Descriptions, analytical claims, hypotheses, properties of

things, etc.

• Display them in networks or groups in the Modeler– Complex theories, event & process nets, structures and

organizations

Nodes and Coding

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Sets are more flexible

• Sets can now contain a mixture of Sources and Nodes (including Case Nodes).

• Use them for temporary and changing collections e.g. ‘To review’

• Use them as scopes for Query searches

• Collect them as outputs of Queries (for further study and Querying) e.g. ‘Women who report excellent marriages’

Sets

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And links come in three sorts

Three types of links

1. Annotations are similar to comments in MS Word™– Can list & inspect them globally– Can optionally be text-searched

2. See-Also Links• to any Sources or Nodes or other project item• or to any passage in any Source

3. Memo Links• any Source or Node can have its own Linked

Memo.

Links

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Find - locates Project Items

• Look for them by name

• The Advanced Find option can handle complex criteria for finding project items

The Find Tool

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Query – in plain language

• Queries are ways of locating specific content

• Queries can be saved for future use– Re-run them later when data have changed – command

files effect– Edit them to make a similar but different search– Four sorts of query – text, coding, matrix and compound.

Query

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Text Search - like Web search engines

Query

Looking for either of 2 text items

Check here to save the

query

Stemmed search?

Can choose if text-search

Annotations too

Set the scope of the search

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Many options for Query resultsQuery

What to do with the results? If you just

preview, you can go on to save as a

node, etc.

Including some context with finds

(spreading) can be a good idea, especially

for text search

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The hidden power of Text Search

Read Help on Text Search Queries to learn about the hidden power of Text Search:– Items with finds are listed with a relevance

weighting– Boolean search: e.g. for items containing

“social interaction” but not “community”.– Use wildcards * and ? (like in Word™)– Proximity (how close do you want “fear” and

“threat” to be in a search item?)– What weighting do you want to give different

words?

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Coding Query: Simple & Advanced

• “Simple” looks for coding of one node in the search scope.

• “Advanced” allows the statement of many criteria in a natural English way.

Query

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Matrix Queries – see it in tables

• Choose the rows for the table…

• Then the columns…

• Then how rows and columns are related in cells…

• Then Run to make the table

Query

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The result is a Matrix that’s live

• Show counts of Sources, words…

• Inspect a cell’s content – it’s a Node

• Export numerical table as Excel or tab-separated file

• Good one? Store as Matrix Node for future use.

Query

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Models

• New format, new functions – can include connectors, images. • Live to data. Add associated items. (Use Find to select if there are

many!)

Models

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Making layered models

• Use groups to layer models• Add associated items to show patterns of analysis

Models

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Print Reports or export Reporting projects

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Coding Comparison Reports

• Compare coding by two coders in two identical documents

Reporting projects

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What of your legacy QSR Projects?

• Opens N4, N5 and N6 projects, and NVivo 1 and 2 projects.

• Converts them to NVivo 7 projects

Option to make Cases of all Documents (since Cases are more central in NVIVO 7)

Merging Projects

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Multiple Projects

• Run multiple projects together

• Copy/paste content between projects

• Project merging is done by import of one project into another – and you can import just the structure (e.g. all nodes but no content) or the entire project.

Merging Projects

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Where to go next? Of course, there’s Help

• Help! Online includes interactive “movies” of Getting Started tutorials. Using NVivo advice is integrated online in the Help files, Working with your Data

• Please use Help!

• The QSR website has contact details of trainers and consultants around the world, a wonderful network of help and expertise.

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And full teach-yourself tutorials…

• 10 tutorials for NVIVO 7 are free on the web at

– www.sagepub.co.uk/richards

– or for a pdf, www.lynrichards.org.• They go with the 10 chapters of Handling

Qualitative Data by Lyn Richards (London, Sage, 2005). – Use them alone or with the book.

– Work from the web or print out the .pdf file.

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And there’s the Forum – please use it!

• The QSR Forum offers web-based discussion answering questions and providing ideas and research strategies. http://forums.qsrinternational.com.

• Please use it! Post your comments, suggestions and experiences with NVivo 7, and learn from others’ comments and experiences.

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Come to the conferences

International conferences on use of QSR software.

Strategies in Qualitative Research

using QSR software,

University of Durham, 13-15 Sept, 2006.

http://www.qual-strategies.org.

Call for papers out now: deadline June 1st.

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And finally, our thanks - to

• You for coming;• CAQDAS organisers for their work in creating this event;• Everyone who uses and feeds back on the software;• Qualitative researchers, for the challenges of

making software that will work with their methods.

Contacts? For licenses, sales, information, etc about the software,

info@qsrinternational.com To report problems in the software, go to Support on

the website.For us personally; lyn@lynrichards.org