Qualitative Data Analysis Resources: Basics

There are many different approaches to analysing qualitative data. This article aims to bring together resources and articles around some of the more common types of analysis, so that you can easily find what you need.

We recommend two useful overviews:

Qualitative analysis of interview data: A step-by-step guide is a YouTube video by Kent Löfgren, which shows the basic steps involved in data analysis (though it doesn't discuss different types of analysis). If you've never analysed qualitative data before, this is a nice starting video.

Social Science Session 9: Analysis of Qualitative Research - this useful resource discusses how to approach qualitative data analysis, and discusses some of the different approaches such as framework analysis.

Analyzing Qualitative Databy Hilary Nixon gives another useful overview of the qualitative process and how data is analysed, with some real-life examples. 

Developing Themes:

Qualitative Data Analysis - Coding & Developing Themes, a video presented by James Woodall, gives a slightly more indepth look at how themes are developed from codes, with real-life examples.

Different Approaches: 

The approach you take to coding your data will assist you in analysing your data by helping you to find different angles or windows into the text. It's important to consider your approach thoroughly, because different approaches suit different purposes. Two examples are given below.

The Framework Method

A common method to coding is the Framework Approach, which is often preferred by researchers since it provides a clear method for analysing the data, and can also create an audit trail of how the categories arose from the data by using charts which the researcher creates in Word, Excel or on paper. The following resources discuss the practical use of this method:

Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research (Gale et al) 

Framework analysis: a worked example of a study exploring young people’s experiences of depression (Parkinson et al)

Qualitative data analysis: the framework approach (Nurse Research,er 2011)

Line by Line coding

Line by line coding is generally associated with approaches such as Grounded Theory, or approaches that use discourse analysis, where it's important to look at the data in a very indepth way, in small chunks. This can (but doesn't always) result in a greater number of codes than other approaches. 

Grounded Theory - Line-by-line Coding this YouTube video by Graham R Gibbs (all of whose videos we recommend!) explains the process of coding line by line, with practical examples. 

Open Coding by Khandkar gives an excellent step-by-step example of a transcript coding practice using a grounded theory, line by line approach, and provides a rich description of how and why the codes and categories are created.