CAQDAS -

These are software tools that assist in the analysis of qualitative data, which usually comes in the form of text, but can include audio, images, and video.

The tool has to perform at least one of the following functions, ideally more¹

• Content searching tools
• Linking tools
• Coding tools
• Query tools
• Writing and annotation tools
• Mapping or networking tools

To understand the language of the tools, and the functionality, a good overview can be found in

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sociology/research/researchcentres/caqdas/files/2009ChoosingaCAQDASPackage.pdf

Tools that fulfil some of these requirements can be found on the following lists:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_qualitative_data_analysis_software
• A great list: http://www.sosciso.de/de/software/datenanalyse/qualitativ/?wctsort=lizenz&wctinvs=1
• http://www.content-analysis.de/software/qualitative-analysis
• http://www.quarc.de/software_overview_table.pdf - from 2004
• https://sophia.smith.edu/~jdrisko/qdasoftw.htm - from 2006
• Online tools are also an option http://info.leximancer.com/ and http://dedoose.com/ and http://discovertext.com/

Of course, the question is which tool is the best? And from my perspective, are there any Open options?

• This was asked on ResearchGate
• and on Quora

Some options:

• One of the more capable and open options is RQDA;
• one recommended for smaller, simpler tasks² is FreeQDA;
• and another tool that is active is QDAP
• This is also active - CATMA

notes

• http://www.libreqda.edu.uy/
• http://cat.texifter.com/ - ASP.net based
• http://www.axiis.org/ - visualisation

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