At this meeting a few of the software vendors attended and some very useful discussions were held on the challenges of archiving research projects that had been analysed in CAQDAS software, thus returning to the topic above. I proposed that idea of true data exchange between softwares from simple export from a package to a data archive, as asia rcs data the latter is likely much easier. Here at the UK Data Service we already offer advice to researchers on what to keep from CAQDAS projects, and also authored stand alone step by step modules and instructional exercises on data handling in NVIVO9. Examples include keeping:
Clean transcripts, anonymised where needed (any flavour, minimal to Jeffersonian);
Speaker tags and some header information (including a transcription template );
A data list – data item by classification /category (finding aid, we provide a data list template) and export to quantitative data where possible
Final coding frame – any open format;
Date-ordered time-stamped researcher memos, for example, set out like a research diary.
The meeting agreed that even a simple prompted checklist of what to keep from a qualitative project undertaken using CAQDAS could be really helpful.
Five: Making the most of UK Data Service open datasets for teaching CAQDAS and research methods.