The method makes sense of large amounts of information so that responses to a research question can emerge. In short, thematic analysis is a way of producing themes from texts such as interview or focus group transcripts. Thematic analysis provides you with the opportunity to go through your data in a methodical and thorough way to identify themes and patterns. Make sure you manage your data by keeping a master list of codes (if coding by hand) and backing up any work you complete in analysis software.Ĭompleting a clear and organized analysis of qualitative data is extremely important. This ensures that your readers are aware of the process you followed. Transparency is key! Your methods for analysis should be clearly described and documented. Having someone review it will support validation of your codes and themes, and reduce bias. Everyone looks at qualitative data slightly differently. If possible, walk through your process and codes with a colleague or team member. This is definitely a learn-by-doing method. It takes practice and you won’t get it right on the first go. This will stop you from getting carried away and over-coding data that is not relevant.ĭon’t rush! Leave yourself plenty of time for qualitative data coding and analysis. As online communities have grown, Computational Social Science has rapidly developed new techniques to study them.Read, read, and read your data again! Coding is only efficient when you are completely familiar with your entire data set.Īlthough this is an exploratory method, keep the purpose of your research in mind. However, these techniques require researchers to become experts in a wide variety of tools in addition to qualitative and computational research methods. Studying online communities also requires researchers to constantly navigate highly contextual ethical and transparency considerations when engaging with data, such as respecting their members' privacy when discussing sensitive or stigmatized topics. To overcome these challenges, we developed the Computational Thematic Analysis Toolkit, a modular software package that supports analysis of online communities by combining aspects of reflexive thematic analysis with computational techniques. Our toolkit demonstrates how common analysis tasks like data collection, cleaning and filtering, modelling and sampling, and coding can be implemented within a single visual interface, and how that interface can encourage researchers to manage ethical and transparency considerations throughout their research process. Martín Abadi, Ashish Agarwal, Paul Barham, Eugene Brevdo, Zhifeng Chen, Craig Citro, Greg S.

Thematic analysis in nvivo