QualCA (pronounced quokka, like the small Australian marsupial) is a lightweight in-browser R Shiny app for extracting and coding texts for qualitative analysis. This app is in alpha, so any feedback would be appreciated.
Open the app in your browser by accessing https://palm-lab.github.io/QualCA. The app will take a short moment to load.
- Organize your corpus as a CSV file, such that the each document is a different row and the document text is contained in one column. The first row in this CSV should contain appropriate headings for your columns.
- Upload your corpus CSV to QualCA using the button on the left-side menu. A menu will appear below to select the CSV column that contains the to-be-coded text, in case the corpus contains mutliple columns.
- If you are returning to the QualCA app, you can upload your previously saved codebook CSV using the button on the left-side menu to continue your analysis.
- Press on the Coding tab on the left-side menu to begin your qualitative analysis. You can scroll through the documents by pressing the 'previous' or 'next' buttons in the Document Viewer pane of the app. You can also type in a numeric value into the Document # bar to navigate to that document.
- To add an extract to the codebook, highlight the text in the document using your cursor and press the 'Add Selected Text as Extract' button in the Codebook pane. When clicked, the highlighted text will appear in the Extract column, and will be highlighted in blue in the Document Viewer.
- You can then add a Code or Theme to an extract by double clicking on the relevant cell within the codebook table, and typing the new Code.
- A Counter pane in the top-right of the app shows how many extracts are associated with each Code. You can edit a Code by double clicking on it in the Counter, and typing in the new Code. This will change the Code for all extracts associated with the previous Code.
- If you would like to add an existing code to your soon-to-be added extract, select the code within the Counter before highlight the to-be-extracted text. This will automatically apply the code to the extract in the Codebook.
- To save your progress, you can click the Download Codebook button in the left-side menu. The Codebook is saved as a CSV file, which you can upload to QualCA on your next visit.
- If you would like to review your coding so far, you can open the left-side menu and click the "Reviewing" tab. On this tab, the Counter will be shown in the top-left, displaying the codes so far and the number of instances for each code. Click on a code in the Counter to display the extracts that are associated with that code to the side.
- Click on an extract from the list to display the document containing that extract below in the Document Review box. This will provide you with the context for the extract. Note that only the bottom-most extract in the list will be displayed if more than one extract is selected from the Extracts list.
The QualCA app is hosted on Github Pages using the shinylive package, and makes use of this helpful StackOverflow answer by user GGamba.
This app was created for an ongoing research project with Carly Stagg, Natasha van Antwerpen and Ella Moeck, who brought knowledge on how to conduct qualitative analysis, shared what would be desirable features, and tested earlier versions of the app.
Clinton Hadinata provided debugging help and useful advice on how to handle overlapping intervals.
William Ngiam created this app while employed as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide.