NVivo

Measuring Intercoder Reliability

You can run a coding comparison query to compare coding completed by two users or two user groups to measure intercoder reliability (ICR), or the degree of agreement between the users or user groups. In NVivo, intercoder reliability is measured by two statistical methods:

• Percentage agreement: the number of content units on which coders agree (to code or not to code) divided by the total number of units, reported as a percentage
• Cohen's kappa coefficient: a statistical measure that takes into account the amount of agreement expected by chance, expressed as a decimal in the range 0 to 1 (where values equal to 0 indicate no agreement and 1 indicates perfect agreement)

To achieve the most accurate measurement of ICR, be sure to establish and apply a consistent unit of observation before coding.

1. Open the NVivo project that contains both users' or user groups' coding
2. In the menu bar, click on the Query tab
3. Click Coding Comparison
4. For User Group A and User Group B, select the users whose coding you want to compare
5. Select the files in which you want to compare the coding (e.g., Select Files and Externals to compare all data files and externals but not memos; Select Selected Items to compare selected data files, externals, and/or memos, etc.)
6. Select the codes in which you want to compare coding (e.g., Select All Nodes to compare all codes in the selected files; Select Selected Codes to compare selected codes in the selected files)
7. Under Calculations Based On, select your unit of observation (i.e., character, sentence, paragraph)
8. Click Run Query

Identifying and Visualizing Word Frequency

You can run a word frequency query to identify the most frequently occurring words in your files.

1. In the Menu Bar, click Query
2. Select Word Frequency
3. Choose where you want to search for matching text (e.g., all files in your project or selected files)
4. OPTIONAL: Under Finding Matches, select include Stemmed Words if you want to include words with the same stem (e.g., look for "play" and also find "playing") when finding matches
5. OPTIONAL: Under Display Words, choose to display all the words found in the selected project items or a specified number of the most frequent words in the selected project items
6. Click Run Query

After you run a word frequency query, click on the Summary or Word Cloud tab to see different views of the results

• Summary: displays a list of the most frequently occurring words
• Word Cloud: displays up to 100 words in varying font sizes, where more frequently occurring words are in larger fonts

Stop Words

You can exclude less significant words (e.g., conjunctions, prepositions) that may not be meaningful to your analysis when running a word frequency query. To do so:

1. Select the word you want to exclude from the query results (e.g., "like," "um")
2. In the Menu Bar, under Query, click Add to Stop Words List
3. Re-run the query

Running Coding Queries

You can use a coding query to find content that has been coded. Coding queries can help you explore patterns and see relationships between themes.

1. In the Menu Bar, click on the Query tab
2. Select where you want to search for coding (e.g., all files in your project, selected files)
3. From the drop-down menu, select All of the Following Are True (i.e., all of the criteria you specify in the rows below are true) or Any of the Following Are True (i.e., any of the criteria you specify in the rows below are true)
4. Define your criteria (e.g., all of these codes, any of these codes, any case where)
5. Add additional criteria by clicking the Add button to the right of the last criteria in your list
6. Click Run Query

View Results

Click on the tabs displayed at the top to see different views of the results:

• Summary: displays a list of files that contain the content that matches the query criteria
• Reference: displays the content that was returned by the query

Running Crosstab Queries

You can run a crosstab query to check the spread of coding across cases and demographic variables. For instance, you can use a crosstab query to identify how often participants have referred to a particular topic or compare what demographic groups (e.g., age, education level) have said about a particular theme.

Cross-tabulating Codes and Cases

1. In the Menu Bar, click on the Query tab
2. Click Crosstab
3. In the Nodes panel, click on the plus (+) sign and select the codes to include
4. Under Show Nodes Against, select Cases
5. In the Cases panel, click on the plus (+) sign and select the cases to include
6. Under Search In, select the scope of the query
7. Click Run Query

To save the results of your query, click Save Results. Saved query results will appear in the Query Results folder.

Cross-Tabulating Codes and Attributes

1. In the Menu Bar, click on the Query tab
2. Click Crosstab
3. In the Nodes panel, click on the plus (+) sign and select the codes to include
4. Under Show Nodes Against, select Attributes
5. Select the classification for the attributes and then choose one or two attributes
6. Under Search In, select the scope of the query
7. Click Run Query

To save the results of your query, click Save Results. Saved query results will appear in the Query Results folder.

Creating Mind Maps

You can create a mind map to brainstorm ideas, explore initial expectations or theories, or help confirm the structure of your codes.

1. In the Menu Bar, click the Explore tab
2. Select Mind Map
3. Enter a title for your mind map
4. On the right-hand side, select a layout and adjust the font and shape, if desired
5. Type a label for the main idea and then press Tab
6. To add a subordinate idea, click Child. Type a label for the child node and then press Tab
7. To add an idea at the same level as the child node, click on the child node and then click Sibling. Type a label and then press Tab
8. To add an idea that is not connected to any other idea on the map, click Floating Idea. Type a label and then press Tab

Creating Codes from Mind Maps

After you have created a mind map, you can turn your ideas into project codes. The structure of the mind map is used to create the hierarchy of the codes. To create codes from your mind map, click on Create as Nodes.

Exporting Mind Maps

After you have created a mind map, you can export it for later reference. To export your mind map, right-click on the mind map, select Share, and then choose PDF or Image.