A Systems Approach to Qualitative Data Management and Analysis

The basic components of qualitative data analysis are systematically organized and described. The authors propose a system centered on a database architecture with four elements that correspond to the fundamental types of information collected in the research process: (1) characteristics of the sources where answers to research questions are sought, (2) primary information collected from the sources, (3) secondary information generated to assist in the interpretation of the primary information, and (4) characteristics of the coders who generate the secondary information. The authors describe a process for constructing each of the four database elements, including criteria for inclusion of data in each element. The proposed system supports the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluate qualitative coding schemes, to assess intra- and intercoder agreement, to recognize meaningful patterns in qualitative data, and to describe the underlying symbolic and sociocultural systems reflected in the data objects.