Managing primary data

Audio transcript

"How do you manage the data you gather when you're undertaking research?

There are a number of software packages, but my favourite is NuDIST. I use it because I'm familiar with it. I can sort the data; I can play with the data; I can write memos to the particular pieces of data that I have picked up, then go back and rewrite the memos - 'what a ridiculous idea that was that I had an hour ago or three hours ago'. I can always come back and revisit it. I can print out copies of the transcripts and the sorted data that I've got. It's such a useful tool.

But I think a lot of people don't really realise that you can use just a word document to do basically the same thing. The software that is developed for qualitative analysis people get a little bit frightened of, because it looks complicated, but you can do wonderful things with it. I think for a person who is just learning how to reduce data, using something such as word and a cut-and-paste facility, it will do it just as effectively. It is a more laborious process, but it is great for a novice who wants to learn how you can pull pieces of data together and then get into the analysis. "

Associate Dean (Teaching&Learning) Arts, Health & Sciences