Module 1

 

Module 1

Preparing for the Analysis of Literature Review Articles

Overview

The purpose of Module 1 is to get you prepared to use Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) tools to analyze documents you are considering including in your literature review. There are a variety of tools and strategies for you to consider. Examples of these types of tools are Altas.ti, NVivo (that are supported through the library) and free tools like Excel, and Voyant Tools Links to an external site.. 

This beginning module will also demonstrate how to build on tools you are already using like citation management tools (Endnote Basic, and Zotero), or Excel to clean and organize data, or IHMS CMap Cloud Links to an external site. to visualize your data. Researchers often have a tendency to jump immediately into deep article reading without completing a pre-reading, pre-analysis or sorting process, which may help from getting lost in the weeds.

At the end of Module 1, you will be able to :

  • Use free tools like Voyant-Tools or concept mapping software to visualize topic and subtopics
  • Export data you already have in citation management tools like Zotero or Endnote Basic that can be used in NVivo or Atlas.ti
  • Clean and prepare textual data for import into Atlas.ti, Nvivo, and Excel
  • Describe tools and strategies that can facilitate a pre-analysis of abstracts, and help manage and curate articles and resource

Module 1 Activities

Before Beginning this Module

  1. Gather at least five articles that you would like to explore related to your research topic. If you use a citation management tool like Zotero or Endnote, add those articles and resources into a folder in that software.
  2. If you aren't sure how to find articles/sources, visit the 5 Top Searching Strategies Modules or use other library instructional materials, like the Online Marriott Library One-Stop Resource to find articles, books, dissertations or book chapters on your topic for preliminary analysis.
  3. If any of the sources you have selected are in an image format (where a page of text is in the form of a picture, not text that you can drag across and select) you will need to convert that article to text. Open up the pdf in Adobe Acrobat Pro (or other OCR software), click on the Edit PDF icon on the right side of the screen and it will convert the picture to text. 
  4. Decide on a method to journal or log what you are finding as you review sources. You will record insights you are having and information you are gleaning from this preliminary process. Use a paper journal or use Microsoft Word, or a note taking tool like OneNote, or Evernote.

 

Digging into the Module

There are several ways you can approach this preliminary analysis process. To get started, you will need to make a decision about what CAQDAS tool you want to use to analyze your sources. Will you use Atlas.ti, NVivo or Excel? The library supports both Atlas.ti and NVivo and you can access that those software packages on all of the computers in the Marriott Library (Mac & PC). You can also borrow a laptop from the Knowledge Commons on the 2nd floor of the library to access the software remotely. Your disciplinary department may have a preference for the tool you should use.

1. Preliminary Visualization with Free Tools

  1. Load articles up into Voyant-tools Links to an external site. for analysis. You can use this tool to see word clouds (cirrus) and word frequencies for your sources.
    Voyant-Tools Tutorial [Video 9:17 min] Links to an external site.
  2. Having trouble conceptualizing your topic? Sometimes a concept map can help you see the subtopics better. You can just layout a map on paper or try using the CMAP cloud Links to an external site. to create one. Here is a map Download map created across a year of doing boundary crossing research. As I found new topics while searching, I would add them to may map. it helped me narrow down to just the subtopic of identity that I am focusing on now.
  3. Open Knowledge Maps Links to an external site. are another way to visualize your topic. This tool still in beta is not a comprehensive tool but it can provide a visualize that might help give you ideas as you think about your topic.
  4. Connected Papers Links to an external site. also provide a network of papers around a topic, or around one particular paper.


2. Using Atlas.ti or NVivo

Using an export from Endnote Basic or Zotero for analysis

      1. If you have your sources in a citation management tool, you can export them as a text file (.csv or tab delimited text), create a cleaned up excel file (.xlsx) and then import into either Atlas.ti or Nvivo as a single file. 
      2. First, you'll need the get the citation information from Zotero or EndNote into an Excel document.
      3. Exporting data from Zotero to use in NVIVO or ATLAS.ti [Video: 3 minutes]. Links to an external site.Exporting data from EndNote to use in NVIVO or ATLAS.ti [Video: 2 minutes] Links to an external site.
      4. Then you'll need to clean up the Excel document,Cleaning up Excel document with data from EndNote [Video: 6:30 minutes] Links to an external site.
      5. Then, you can import the Excel document into ATLAS.ti or Zotero. Importing an Excel document into ATLAS.ti [Video: 2 min] Links to an external site.
      6. Each row of the spreadsheet will contain a different article or source. Each row should contain an abstract for each source - that is what you will be coding.
           

Other options for adding files for analysis in Atlas.ti and NVivo

    1. One way to analyze the sources in Atlas.ti or NVivo is to copy and paste abstracts from each article/source into a separate Word file; if you have 10 articles you will have 10 word files. Each file would then be uploaded into Atlas.ti or NVivo. Since each abstract is separate, you will be able to query the coding results and look at patterns across the sources. The advantage to this method is you can run word frequency queries on the files, without including the extraneous information from the articles.
    2. The fastest way to upload and analyze the articles/sources is to upload all the pdf files directly into Atlas.ti or NVivo. The advantage to this method is you can go through each pdf and just code the abstract. But you could also go back and just code the conclusion, or the introduction if needed since all of the text will be in the project file.
      Adding PDFs and Word Documents to NVIvo for data analysis Links to an external site.
      Adding PDFs and Word Documents to ATLAS.ti for data analysis [Video: 2 min] Links to an external site.

3. Using Excel to do coding of source data

    1. In addition to Altas.ti and Nvivo, you can also code text using Excel. However, Excel will require the most preparation work of all of the options. In addition, you do not have all of the query or visualization tools that are found in Atlas.ti or NVivo. But it is FREE!!  Before copying and pasting into Excel, you will need to parse the text of the abstracts into discreet ideas or concepts so that ideas will be separated into individual cells. Otherwise you will have a the whole abstract in one cell and it will be difficult to code.
      VIdeo for preparing abstract text for analysis in Excel Links to an external site.


What is Next

Now that you have your source data uploaded into Atlas.ti, NVivo or Excel, you are ready to start the start the analysis (see Module 2 and 3).

Supplemental Learning Materials

The links below provide additional resources to help you manage the tools to prepare for data analysis in Altas.ti, Nvivo, or Excel.

Readings

Video Tutorials 

Extra Resources