1. QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS WITH ATLAS.ti 8 WINDOWS
Ricardo B. Contreras, PhD
Applied cultural anthropologist
Director
Training & Partnership Development
Corvallis, OR
USA
training, sales and general inquiries:
+1 (866) (toll-free US and Canada)

2. Course program Outline Conceptual introduction Day 1 Hands-on work
Creating the project
Setting up a project
Data segmentation
What does ATLAS.ti do?
Day 2
Qualitative research
Coding
Qualitative data analysis
Memo writing
Data-level work in ATLAS.ti
Day 3
The objects of an analysis project
Analysis and outputs
Analysis tools
Conclusion

3. What atlas.ti?
Software in the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS category).
Software that facilitates the qualitative analysis of research data.
Software that helps making the analysis process:
Organized
Transparent
Integrated
Grounded in the evidence
Software that facilitates the triangulation of research data collected through multiple methods of data collection, such as:
Semi-structured/unstructured interviews
Focus groups
Field notes/observations
Archival research/literature reviews
Photo-voice/photo elicitation methods
Ethnographic videos
Twitter/Evernote/reference management software

4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS
Natural setting
Researcher as key instrument of data collection
Multiple methods
Complex reasoning through deductive and inductive
Focus on participants’ meanings
Emergent design
Reflexivity
Holistic account
Creswell 2013:45-47

5. Qualitative Data analysis: analytic strategies
Sketching ideas
Taking notes
Working with words
Identifying codes
Reducing codes to themes
Counting frequency of codes
Relating categories
Relating categories to analytic framework in literature
Creating a point of view
Displaying the data
Data analysis in qualitative research consists of preparing and organizing the data (i.e., text data as in transcripts, or image data as in photographs) for analysis, then reducing the data into themes through a process of coding and condensing the codes, and finally representing the data in figures, tables, or in discussion.
Creswell 2013:180

6. DATA LEVEL WORK WITH ATLAS.ti: A CONVERSATION WITH THE DATA
Codes
Networks
Memos
Comments
Quotations
Segmenting the data
Writing
Coding
Diagramming

7. The objects of an analysis project
Documents
Quotations
Codes
Memos
Links
Networks
Groups
THE OBJECTS
They exist in relation to
each other
Object must be integrated
in the analysis project
Avoid a compartamentalized
approach

8. Objects of the project: the Primary documents
Sources of information Different formats: Text Graphic Audio Video Google Earth No size limitation

9. Objects of the project: Quotations
Segment of the document
Quotations can be of any size
Quotations are independent
objects: they may or may not
be linked to codes
Quotations can be hyperlinked
within and across documents

10. Objects of the project: codes
Word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data (*).
Codes are normally linked to quotations
(but they do not have to be).
Coding can be done manually or automatically.
Codes can be grouped with each other and can be
Represented semantically in network views.
* Saldaña, J. 2009:3.

11. Objects of the project: memos
Analytic memos are somehow comparable to researcher journal entries or blogs-a place to
“dump your brain” about the participants, phenomenon, or process under investigation
by thinking and thus writing and thus thinking even more about them. (*).
Spaces for integration.
Spaces for reflection.
Spaces for making sense.
Memos can be linked to quotations, codes
and other memos.
* Saldaña 2009:32.

12. Objects of the project: links
Links are the connections between
elements of a project, e.g.:
Links can be of two kinds:
A document and a group
First-order or semantic
A document and a code
Code to code
A code and a quotation
Quotation to quotation (hyperlink)
A memo and a code
Second-order or non-semantic: All other links
A code and a code
A quotation and a quotation

13. Objects of the project: networks
Graphical representations of
linkages
Two types of networks:
Unnamed linkages
Named linkages (semantic)
Visualization of how pieces
are coming together
Concepts maps, cognitive maps,
folk taxonomies

14. Objects of the project: groups
Grouping of documents, codes, memos and networks
Grouping according to shared attributes and characteristics
Groups allow for interrogation across cases and conceptual domains

15. Analysis tools Word clouds/Word lists Code co-occurrence explorer
Co-occurrence table
Query Tool
Splitting codes
Code-PD table

16. Analysis tools: Word cloud
Word frequency counts of:
Documents
The documents within a group
A quotation/set of quotations
The quotations linked to a code
The quotations linked to the codes within a code group

17. Analysis tools: Word Lists
Word frequency counts of:
Documents
The documents within a group
A quotation/set of quotations
The quotations linked to a code
The quotations linked to the codes within a code group
Tables in ATLAS.ti format and Excel

18. Analysis tools: the co-occurrence explorer
Qualitative exploration of code
co-occurrences
Co-occurrences: two codes code the same quotation
or quotations that touch each other (e.g, one
within the other or one overlapping the other)
Co-occurrences are spatial associations
between codes
Co-occurrences tell about the context

19. Analysis tools: the co-occurrence table
The table shows number of times
two codes co-occur with each other
The table shows an indicator of the
intensity of the co-occurrence
between two codes (c-coefficient)
From the table, it is possible
examine the quotations in which two
codes co-occur
The table can be exported into Excel

20. Analysis tools: the query tool
It retrieves data in the form of quotations
by codes or combination of codes, across
documents or combination of documents
Codes are combined with codes through
Boolean, Semantic and Proximity operators
Documents are combined with documents
Through Boolean operators

21. Analysis tools: code-document table
Code frequency counts
Number of quotations by code or
code family across documents or document
groups
Number of words that make up
the quotations linked to a code, or code
group, across documents or document
Output in Excel

22. Analysis tools: splitting codes
Redistribute the quotations linked to one
Code across a set of sub-codes
Allows to move from the general to the
Specific
Allows to build categories

23. Teamwork Unlimited number of coders Collaboration in server
Collaboration across computers
Unique user IDs for each coder
Merging projects two by two
Project resulting from merging contains
work from all coders
Note: Inter-rater reliability tool not
Available as of January

24. References cited
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Densin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2011). Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of qualitative research. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th ed., pp. 1-19). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Saldaña, J. (2009). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Silver, C., & Lewins, A. (2014). Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide (2nd ed.). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

25. Thank you! ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH
Hardenbergstr. 7
D Berlin
Germany
training, sales and general inquiries:
+1 (866) (toll-free US and Canada)