Methodological innovations in computational support : Data Integration

Dates

Start date: 1 September 2008
End date: 15 September 2011

Summary

The Data Integration stream is evaluating and documenting procedures for CAQDAS-based methodological integration by:

(i) employing selected qualitative software packages to conduct secondary analysis of qualitative data on the social factors in response to natural environmental risk arising from climate change;

(ii) comparing findings from these procedures to the statistical analysis of the quantitative data in these datasets. QSR NVivo, MAXQDA and ATLAS.ti variously provide means of importing quantitative data and linking with qualitative datasets, converting qualitative codes into quantitative variables and allowing their export to statistical packages.

We will also include the hybrid software suite that includes QDA Miner 3 which starts from a different epistemological starting points, as it offers traditional CAQDAS functions which can be used alongside enhanced quantitative approaches to the analysis of large datasets (e.g. multidimensional scaling, heatmaps, dendrograms, proximity plots). Such tools answer a wider range of research needs, often associated with policy research, public/media/academic discourse, or analysis of Internet and e-mail data.

Outputs and Guidance

For outputs created under QUIC's work on Data Integration, please see the materials within the Analysing Survey Datapages.  This material includes guidance for users of various CAQDAS packages as well as documentation that addresses some of the key issues to think about when analysing open-ended survey questions.

Researchers:   Graham Hughes, Jane Fielding