Computer Assisted/Aided Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) is the use of computer software to aid qualitative research such as transcription analysis, coding and text interpretation, recursive abstraction, content analysis, discourse analysis, grounded theory methodology, etc.
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CAQDAS is used in psychology, marketing research, ethnography, and other social sciences. The CAQDAS Networking project[1] lists the following tools. A CAQDAS program should have:
Such software offers an efficient means through which to manage and organize data while supporting rigorous data analysis.[3] The advantages of using this software include being freed from manual and clerical tasks, saving precious time, managing huge amounts of qualitative data, having increased flexibility, and having improved validity and auditability of qualitative research. Concerns include increasingly deterministic and rigid processes, privileging of coding, and retrieval methods; reification of data, increased pressure on researchers to focus on volume and breadth rather than on depth and meaning, time and energy spent learning to use computer packages, increased commercialism, and distraction from the real work of analysis.[4]