QSR NVIVO 7

1. QSR NVIVO 7 A Preview in September 2005 Tom Richards, Chief Scientist, QSR International DISCLAIMER The build of NVIVO 7 previewed and discussed here is pre-beta-test and seven months in advance of the public release version in late February 2006. Functionality and performance will change by the public release version, especially as a result of beta-testing. Hence this version should be understood only as a guide to what is coming.

2. Why NVIVO Seven? • Totally new & redesigned software • So not just NVIVO three • Also supersedes 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

3. NVIVO 7 Converts Legacy QSR Projects 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)

4. Project Security and Integrity Projects • 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.

5. Multiple Projects Projects • Run multiple projects together • Copy/paste content between projects • Project merging will now be part of the NVIVO program • to be released in Version 7.1 before midyear).

6. Features for handling large projects Projects • NVIVO 7 is designed to handle extremely large projects as well as very small ones • Also, users can optimize performance for large projects • Web-browser style “inverted index” text search is insensitive to amount or length of documents.

7. Saves are not automatic, but reminders are. Why? You can undo the last five changes, but not beyond the last save. Save and Undo Projects

8. New Screen Layout gives simple navigation Projects Select a folder (you can create your own too) Folder’s items appear in List Pane Contents of selected item appear in tabbed Detail Pane Navigation Bar with Group Buttons

9. Drag-and-drop coding Change the Layout Projects List pane side by side with… Detail pane is great for…

10. Or undock any (or all) of the Detail Views! Projects You can then minimize them down to the taskbar to avoid clutter

11. Sources: the data material Sources Sources comprise Documents, Externals and Memos Click a folder to list its items here Click an item to open its contents below Plus folders you create

12. Conversion to .RTF not needed Code pictures and table cells Comprehensive word-processor You can keep documents in user-created folders In fact you can make your own sub-folders just about anywhere. Import Word™ .DOC files directly Sources

13. External Sources support multimedia control Sources • Externals are Sources for referencing documents you can’t include in (or don’t want to copy into) the project database • Web pages, video files, papers and books, etc. Use the External itself to transcribe, summarize, comment on the referenced material. Use the automatically created tape count stamps on the External to locate audio-video passages for replay

14. Memo Icons Sources and Nodes can have Memos Sources • Every Source and Node can have its own unique Memo • Use Memos for discussions about their own Source or Node • Free or unattached Memos can also be created • Useful for more research topic discussions • Memos, like any Source, can be coded, and given links and annotations.

15. Five types of Nodes Nodes and Coding • Nodes are NVIVO’s concept categories • First four represent people, places, topics, concepts, attitudes etc., and their combinations. That is, they represent entities. • Free Nodes (unordered) • Tree Nodes (for category/subcategory cataloguing) • Cases (for interviewees, people, places etc.) • Tables (i.e. Matrices) • Relationships (patent pending) • Not representing entities, but making statements.

16. Give nodes nicknames Nodes and Coding Nicknames for nodes speed up referencing them when coding

17. Cases are much more central Nodes and Coding • Why? Because only Cases have attributes • Not Sources such as interview docs, not other Nodes • Attributes are intended for demographic information about people, places, organizations, etc. • Cases are where people, places, organizations etc. belong. • Use Relationships instead, to express information about other things • E.g. interview document information • Make a point of collecting all interview material for an interviewee at a case node for them. • Auto-coding group interviews makes this easy.

18. Relationships – an entirely new sort of Node Nodes and Coding • A relationship joins two Project Items • They are part of the relationship • A relationship makes a statement: • ‘Adrian (works with) Allen’ • ‘Outsider (causes) attitudes\negative’ • Code the relationship with the evidence for the statement it makes • Hint: use transitive verbs for relationship names • ‘causes’, ‘cannot get on with’ • Then the statement made is clear: • ‘Annette cannot get on with Adrian’

19. Coding at Relationships is new and exciting Nodes and Coding • You can code for what you read is being said, not just for topics. • Outsider (causes) attitudes\positive • Then open the relationship Node to see everything said about outsiders bringing about positive attitudes. • Then open the related Nodes to see what you have on those topics • Outsiders • Attitudes\positive • What’s in the related nodes will usually be a lot more, and a lot less specific – they’re just topics • And even intersecting them doesn’t home in on this relationship, this claim that outsiders cause positiveness. In general it will have more, and less.

20. Importance of Relationships Nodes and Coding • “Ordinary” nodes refer toentities • People, concepts, places, topics, emotions, etc. • Since Relationships make statements, they can be (and can code evidence for) • Descriptions, analytical claims, hypotheses, properties of things, etc. • Display them in networks in the Modeler • Complex theories, event & process nets, structures and organizations

21. Let’s do some Coding Nodes and Coding • Drag-and-drop Coding is easy (but create new nodes first!) • Can name Nodes (& Sources) in any language. • Can also find text in any language.

22. Coding context Nodes and Coding • Can show context in Node Detail View • Can also spread coding to its context

23. Viewing Coding Nodes and Coding • Can highlight coding at any node, in Detail View of a Node or Source • Can show up to seven coding stripes and a coding density stripe: • Stripes for a node stay in the one track and with a unique color • Stripes are live both to highlighting their text and to accessing their node.

24. Auto-coding is streamlined Nodes and Coding • For questionnaire-type documents, code by paragraph number • Code by heading text and levels for group interview documents:

25. Linking is extended and streamlined Links • Three types of links • Annotations are similar to Ms. Word™ • Can list & inspect them globally • Can be text-searched like Sources

26. Sources and Nodes can have a Memo Link Links • A Memo belongs uniquely to a single Source or Node • Use it for commentary on its original • Or make a “free-standing” Memo for research notes • Memos can be coded and linked like other sources • But not with Memo links!

27. See Also Links – extended hyperlinking Links • All in-text links are handled by See-Also Links • Indicated by red wavy underlines • A passage can have multiple See Also links • You can link to just about any Project Item, not just Sources and Nodes • You can also link to any passage in any Source

28. See Also links can give file & web page access Links • We have an External interview ‘Tiffany’ linked to an audio file • We have an interview Document ‘Paula’ referring to a passage in that audio. • Put a See Also Link on Paula’s comment, linked to the passage in the External • Now we can go straight from Paula’s comment to the audio (and also to the External).

29. Sets are now more flexible Sets • 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 e.g. ‘Divorced women’ • Collect them as outputs of Queries (for further study and Querying) e.g. ‘Women who report excellent marriages’

30. Attributes are properties of Cases Classifications • Attributes were described earlier in connexion with Case Nodes • Attributes can be organized as tables of Case Nodes versus Attributes • Cells hold the value of the Attribute at the Case • Case Tables can be imported and exported, e.g. to Excel™ or SPSS™ • [Attribute tables are not yet implemented]

31. Relationship Types Classifications • When creating a Relationship, it has to be of a chosen Type, which involves: • Its name (“works with”, “causes” etc.) • Its direction • None, like ‘associated’ • One-way, like ‘causes’ or ‘loves’ • Two-way like ‘is married to’

32. The Find Tool locates Project Items The Find Tool • Look for them by name:

33. Advanced Find The Find Tool • The Advanced Find option can handle complex criteria for finding project items:

34. Grouped Find The Find Tool • Grouped Find is for locating items (the Range) that relate to any of a number of selected items (the Scope) [not yet implemented] • Example: find all Free Nodes (the Range) coding Interview Documents (the Scope) • Result will list each Document and the Free Nodes that code it.

35. The Query System – the powerhouse of NVIVO 7 Query • Queries are ways of locating specific content • Queries can be saved for future use • Re-run them later when data have changed • Edit them to make a similar but different search

36. Text Search is similar to Web search engines Query Check here to save the query Looking for three text items Can text-search Annotations too Use these to set the scope of the search E.g. stemmed search for ‘give’ will find ‘giving’, (English only)

37. Many options for Query results Query What to do with the results? If you just preview, you can go on to save as a node, etc. Last 3 items save the scope items that had finds, as a set or as sibling nodes. Including some context with finds (spreading) can be a good idea, especially for text search

38. 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?

39. Coding Query can be “Simple” or “Advanced” Query • “Simple” looks for coding of one node in the search scope. • “Advanced” allows the statement of many criteria in a natural English way.

40. Table Queries tabulate many queries at once Query • Choose the rows for the table… • Then the columns… • Then the operator to make the cells… • Then Run to make the table

41. The result is a Table Query • Show counts of Sources, words, etc. • Inspect each cell’s content like a Node • Export numerical table as Excel or tab-separated text file • Store as Table Node for future use. • Give it a Memo, link it to other items.

42. Compound Queries Query • These will enable mixing of other types of query • [Not yet implemented]

43. Reports provide project profiles Report Tool • Use them to get information on any area of a project

44. Print Reports, save as .DOC, .PDF etc. Report Tool

45. Coding Comparison Reports Report Tool • Compare coding by two coders in two identical documents

46. Models are hardly implemented yet Models • Here’s a model of some relationships + their coded evidence

47. And here’s the final wrap-up! • No Using NVIVO book this time from Lyn Richards  • Instead it’s a whole book in the Help files, Your Research in NVIVO 7      • It’s a “conceptual help” to read by itself as a book • But also it’s carefully linked into the top-notch “procedural help” • why as well as how for each topic, e.g. coding at relationships • Handling Qualitative Data by Lyn Richards (London, Sage, 2005) will have new tutorials for NVIVO 7 on their website www.sagepub.co.uk/richards