Microsoft Excel: While some researchers rely on sophisticated analytic software designed for qualitative research, others cannot afford these packages and need to rely on the everyday software they already have on their computers. Excel is such a software that can benefit researchers, whether using in conjunction with another package or one its own.
- Access:
- Microsoft 365 is available to the university community.
- A free version is available to all.
- Resources:
- Webinar on Teaching and Learning Excel Data Analysis by Dr. Charlotte Brookfield, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University.
- Book Using Microsoft Excel for Social Research by Dr. Charlotte Brookfield
- Access: A five-day free trial is available to all.
- Resources: The Ultimate Guide to Qualitative Research by ATLAS.ti.
Dedoose: We recommend Dedoose especially for collaborative research projects.
- Access: A 30-day free trial is available to all.
- Resources: Dedoose Support YouTube channel.
- Access: A 14-day free trial is available to all.
QDA Miner: One special feature is that one can export results to Tablea, which allows the use of advanced interactive data visualization tools.
- Access: A 14-day free trial is available to all.
- Resource: Video on QDA Miner Overview.
- Access: A 14-day free trial is available to all.
Taguette: A simple open-source qualitative data analysis tool that allows you to tag your data––that way you can export it for analysis. It is a great free resource, but therefore a bit limited/specific in its capabilities.
- Access: Free to all.
Additional Software for Qualitative Research
Qualtrics: A powerful survey tool and may be a nice complementary resource for recruitment, demographic information, etc. Note that there are many qualitative scholars who argue open-ended survey questions are a part of survey research and not necessarily qualitative research, whereas others argue open ended surveys are useful for some forms of content analysis.
- Access:
- The Default & Standard Accounts are available to the university community.
- A 30-day free trial is available to all.
- Resources:
- Qualtric Corner Webinar Series and additional assistance resources by EHE’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Collaboration (ORIC).
- Qualtrics Support Site for Ohio State Users.