About coding

A code in qualitative research is a word or phrase that summarises or captures the essence of a portion of data.

Coding is the analytical process of categorising data.

In NVivo, coding is the process of gathering related material into a container called a Node. When you open a node, you can see all the references in the project coded to the node.

There are several types of codes in NVivo. Theme nodes are codes that represent the themes or topics that you find in your data. Relationships record the connection between two project items. Sentiment codes are positive and negative nodes created by auto coding of sentiment.

Example 1: Fred Smith uses QSR International’s NVivo 12 software. Example 2: John Citizen used QSR International’s NVivo 12 qualitative data analysis software. A Citation may be written in the same way as a reference to a book publisher (note, there is no need to repeat material contained within the body text). A code in qualitative research is a word or phrase that summarises or captures the essence of a portion of data. Coding is the analytical process of categorising data. In NVivo, coding is the process of gathering related material into a container called a Node. When you open a node, you can see all the references in the project coded to the node.

NVivo supports deductive (pre-set coding scheme, often based on emerging themes from a literature review) and inductive (codes generated while examining the collected data) approaches to coding.

Found that NVivo helped me to identify key issues of research questions and assisted in achieving answers. I wrote this guide because I believe it will enable others to explore the numerous opportunities NVivo provides. I found NVivo to be full of helpful and useful devices to assist the researcher’s performance and to complete designated tasks.
NVivo 12 Essentials, 1st Edition, now for version 12.5.0 is our comprehensive guide to the world's most popular qualitative data analysis software. This book has two authors. Bengt Edhlund is a software trainer with decades of experience teaching and writing about research software.

How to code in NVivo

Deductive coding

If you are taking a deductive approach, you will have a list of pre-defined codes and want to create nodes for these and then code your sources to the relevant node.

To create a New Node:

From the Create tab, select Node.
In the New Node dialog box, enter a Name and Description (optional) for the node. If the node name is very long, you can create a Nickname which will be shorter and quicker to use in the quick coding bar.
To incorporate reference from child nodes within the parent node, select the Aggregate coding from children checkbox.
Select a Color to specify the colour of coding stripes (optional).
Click OK.

To code to an existing Node:

Select the unit of text you want to code in the data file
Click on the text, then drag and drop it over the required node.

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Inductive coding

If you are taking an inductive approach to coding, you attach codes to units of data as you analyse your files. To do this in NVivo:

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Select Nodes in Navigation view.
Select the unit of text you want to code in the source item, then drag and drop it into List View, over the prompt “Drag selection here to code to a new node”
In the New Node dialog box, enter a name and description (optional).
Click OK.

The following video demonstrates different ways of coding in NVivo:

Coding in NVivo 12 (Windows) by QSR International (YouTube)

Nvivo 12 User Manual

You can autocode document, memos and externals based on paragraphs or paragraph styles. If you are working with structured documents (like interviews that ask the same set of questions) then autocoding can help you to organize the material into codes for further exploration.

Understand automatic coding in document files

You can autocode based on:

Paragraph styles If you have applied paragraph styles in your documents you can use them to automatically code the content. You can apply paragraph styles in Word before you import the file, or you can apply them in NVivo.
For example—if you have a collection of question/answer interview documents, you could autocode to create a code for each question (based on heading 1 [H1] and heading 2 [H2] styles) and code all respondent answers at the codes.
Paragraphs You can autocode 'by paragraph' if one or more documents are tightly structured—for example, paragraph 1 in each document is about fossil fuel and paragraph 2 is about government policy. NVivo makes a code for each paragraph and uses the paragraph number as the code name. You can rename the codes as required.
Speaker If a document has multiple 'speakers' (for example, the participants in a focus group) you can automatically create a case for each speaker and code the content at the case. This means you can open a case to see everything a particular participant said. You can also assign attribute values to the cases and use them to make comparisons - What do women say?How does it compare to what men say?

Existing coding patterns You can also code using existing coding patterns.
For example, if you have already coded some files to the codes Water quality and Habitat, then you can automatically code additional content containing similarly worded text passages to the codes Water quality and Habitat.
Themes or sentiment Identify themes or sentiment in documents, and code the results to theme or sentiment codes. Automated insights . (This feature is only available in NVivo installations with coding enhancements enabled.)

Nvivo 12 Mac Manual

Autocode documents based on paragraphs or styles

In List View, select the documents you want to autocode.
On the Home tab, in the Coding group, click Autocode.
Follow the steps on the Autocode Wizard.

Wizard step

Description

Step 1

Click Use the file style or structure.

Step 2

Click Paragraph to make a numbered code for each paragraph.
Click Paragraph styles to use consistent paragraph styles to autocode
1. From the Available paragraph styles list, select the styles you want to use for coding.
2. Click the right arrow button >> to add the styles to the Selected paragraph styles list.
  A code is automatically created for each paragraph that is formatted in the selected style, and the text under the style is autocoded to the code. The order of the styles in the list determines how they are nested in the code hierarchy—the first style is the parent of the second and so on.

Step 3

Select where you want to store the newly created codes.

Existing Code to store the created codes under an existing parent code—click Select and choose the parent code.
New Code to store the created codes under a new parent code—in the Name field enter a name for the new parent code. Click Select to choose a different location for the new parent code.
Existing Folder to store the created codes in an existing folder—click Select and choose the existing folder.
New Folder to store the created codes in a new folder—in the Name field, enter a name for the new folder. Click Select to choose a different location for the new folder.

(Optional) Select the Aggregate coding from child codes check box, if you want the content coded to child codes to be shown in the parent code.

Nvivo 12 Manual Instructions

NOTE

If a heading contains reserved characters such as ( / : * ? ' < > | they are replaced by a tilde symbol (~) in the newly created