Organizing large qualitative projects and routinely manage the data flow into a comprehensive database to make a subsequent analysis of the data as efficient as possible.” (Johnson, Dunlap, & Benoit, 2010).
The avalanche of words culminated during a qualitative study during planning, organizing, collecting, managing, storing, retrieving, analyzing, and writing if not organized systematically and managed efficiently can cause a study to crumble. One way to systematically and efficiently manage the mass amounts of words involved in a qualitative research project is to use a structured database program to track and organize data. This approach is known as semi-quantitative coding and analysis of qualitative information.
According to a study done by Johnson, Dunlap & Benoit (2010) Qualitative research and the abundance of words it creates can be managed by “recent advances in computer technology and software have made it possible to manage these mountains of words more efficiently. Organizing large qualitative projects and routinely manage the data flow into a comprehensive database to make a subsequent analysis of the data as efficient as possible.” (Johnson, Dunlap, & Benoit, 2010).
Semi-quantitative includes taking certain segments of text which “is partially converted from textual data into assigned numbers or variables that can be counted and employed like quantitative data sets. The structured qualitative research reported here has generated a coding system that permits individual interview responses to be converted into numeric codes for subsequent quantitative analysis.”(Johnson et al., 2010).
The basis of having a successful qualitative research study is to stay organized. If you use a computer generated database program to accomplish this or another organizational system to accomplish this, it does not matter the main point is to initiate a plan right from the start of the research. Be organized right from the beginning and have a plan already laid out on how you will manage the vast amount of incoming information.
Reference
Grove, S., Gray, J., Burns, N. (2015). Understanding Nursing Research, 6th Edition. [Pageburstl]. Retrieved from https://pageburstls.elsevier.com/#/books/9781455770601/
Johnson, B. D., Dunlap, E., & Benoit, E. (2010). Structured Qualitative Research: Organizing “Mountains of Words” for Data Analysis, both Qualitative and Quantitative. Substance Use & Misuse, 45(5), 648–670. doi:10.3109/10826081003594757