Software for so-called qualitative analysis: collections of unstructured data (text, images, audio, video and geographic maps) can be coded/tagged, searched in advanced ways and visualised in co-occurence matrices, word clouds and network diagrams among others. By attaching comments you can leave in-context instructions for yourself and fellow researchers and memo's are meant for building up ingredients of the research report.
Next to manual input (also on mobile devices), you can also import what you prepared in other QDA-tools, literature manager Zotero (export elements, RIS, include annotations) or Excel. Additionally "AI coding" can help, but keep paying attention to whether the result is what you want and is by the rules set for AI use (simplified: input/output/sharing/quality/references/etc by the rules?)
- The functionality of ATLAS.ti is explained well in text, images and video at atlasti.com under "Learn". The site is also well-indexed by Google, so elements are well findable by your specific search terms.
- The help functionality of the tool itself also links to the on-line content
- If you want a thorough explanation about not only the tool, but also qualitative analysis in general and the different strategies for cooperating, I point you to the Dutch book by Susanne Friese, in the Saxion library collection
- You can make an appointment for support through libraryservices@saxion.nl, though there they don't use it as routinely as many a researcher.
- Many are used to the word "tagging" for what atlas.ti calls "coding". The latter however means something rather different to many software programmers: writing software, which others might call writing syntax.
- Even in material by ATLAS.ti itself, sometimes a "quotation" is called a "quote", which sounds an awfully lot like "code".
- Even though "data" is not the usual term many a qualitative researcher uses for interviews/content/information/etc in ATLAS.ti projects, regulations for research data certainly apply.
ATLAS.ti's handling of files works a little different from most applications, which is why we strongly advise to also read the tab "file management".
Go to servicedesk.saxion.nl, hit "Applications" and DO read the few sentences of explanation on top