QSR International is a qualitative research

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...

 software developer

Software developer

A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...

 based in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, with offices in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. QSR International develops qualitative data analysis (QDA) software products, NVivo

NVivo

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis computer software package produced by QSR International. It has been designed for qualitative researchers working with very rich text-based and/or multimedia information, where deep levels of analysis on small or large volumes of data are required.NVivo is...

, NVivo Server and XSight

XSight

XSight is computer software developed by QSR International for qualitative data analysis . It is a tool that aids researchers or individuals who are undertaking short term qualitative research analysis on projects involving non-numerical data...

. These are designed to help qualitative researchers organize and analyze non-numerical or unstructured data

Unstructured data

Unstructured Data refers to information that either does not have a pre-defined data model and/or does not fit well into relational tables. Unstructured information is typically text-heavy, but may contain data such as dates, numbers, and facts as well...

.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...

 is used to gain insight into people's attitudes, behaviours, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 or lifestyles. It's used to inform business decisions, policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

 formation, communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

 and research. Focus groups, in-depth interviews, content analysis

Content analysis

Content analysis or textual analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as "the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws."According to Dr...

 and semiotics

Semiotics

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...

 are among the many formal approaches that are used, but qualitative research also involves the analysis of any unstructured material, including customer feedback surveys, reports or media clips.

History

• NUD*IST, which stands for, 'Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing, Searching and Theorizing', was first developed by Tom Richards in 1981 as software to support social research by Lyn Richards. Tom and Lyn Richards went on to form QSR International in 1995 .

• John Owen became CEO of QSR International in 2001 .

• QSR released the first version of NVivo
  NVivo
  NVivo is a qualitative data analysis computer software package produced by QSR International. It has been designed for qualitative researchers working with very rich text-based and/or multimedia information, where deep levels of analysis on small or large volumes of data are required.NVivo is...
  
  , designed to guide researchers from questions to answers, in 1999 .

• The company released the first edition of XSight
  XSight
  XSight is computer software developed by QSR International for qualitative data analysis . It is a tool that aids researchers or individuals who are undertaking short term qualitative research analysis on projects involving non-numerical data...
  
  , enabling researchers to work through information and get to analysis faster, in 2004 .

• In 2005, Professor Lyn Richards' book 'Handling Qualitative Data: A practical guide' was first published .

• In 2006, QSR International became a Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
   Gold Partner and released NVivo 7 and XSight 2.0. XSight 2.0 was incorporated into the syllabuses of Australia's Victoria University
  Victoria University
  Victoria University may refer to:* Victoria University, Australia, Melbourne, Australia* Victoria University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh* University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada...
  
   and Malaysia's Sunway University College . In the same year, XSight was also incorporated into the syllabus of the University of Southhamption's new MSc Marketing Analytics degree .

• In 2007 QSR partnered with Hulinks to deliver NVivo 7 in Japanese
  Japanese language
  is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
  
   - the first Japanese qualitative research software . In the same year, Dr. Patricia Bazely's book, Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo was first published .

• QSR released NVivo 8 in March 2008 and in August 2008 released Simplified Chinese and Spanish
  Spanish language
  Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
  
   versions of NVivo 8 . A Japanese version of NVivo 8 followed in November of the same year . French and German language versions of NVivo 8 were released in April 2009 .

• In 2009 the second edition of Professor Lyn Richards' text, 'Handling Qualitative Data: A practical guide' was published.

• In 2010 QSR released NVivo 9 and NVivo Server 9 .

• In 2011 QSR released an update to NVivo 9 featuring five new languages: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Simplified Chinese. A separate Japanese language version of NVivo 9 was made available too. The release also included new support for Framework analysis, a research methodology developed by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).

Scale of operation

QSR International is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and has offices in both the United Kingdom and United States . The company also has a global network of resellers and trainers .

Products

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) software package that was first released in 1999. The latest release, NVivo 9 allows users to import, sort and analyze audio files, spread sheets, databases, digital photos, documents, PDFs, bibliographical data, rich text and plain text documents. Users can interchange data with applications like Microsoft Excel

Excel

Excel may refer to:* Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet application by Microsoft Corporation* Excel , a brand of chewing gum produced by Wrigley's* Excel , a crossover thrash/punk band from Venice, California...

, Word

Word

In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...

, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 SPSS

SPSS

SPSS is a computer program used for survey authoring and deployment , data mining , text analytics, statistical analysis, and collaboration and deployment ....

 Statistics and EndNote

EndNote

EndNote is a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. It is produced by Thomson Reuters.- Features :...

. It also allows users to perform text analysis and create visualizations of their data. The software is certified for use with Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

 operating systems . NVivo 9 has also been verified as Citrix Ready .

NVivo Server is designed to let users of NVivo 9 analyze and manage NVivo 9 projects centrally so teams can work together in the same project at the same time .

XSight is software for commercial market researchers or those undertaking short term qualitative research projects. The software provides a range of analysis frameworks for importing, classifying and arranging data; tools for testing theories and connections between items; and the ability to visually map and report thoughts and findings .

Evolution of qualitative data analysis software

The first generation of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (QDA) software emerged in the mid to late 1980s and involved basic word processors and databases with a focus on data management. The programs were designed to help qualitative researchers manage unstructured information like open-ended surveys, focus groups, field notes or interviews.

Second generation QDA software introduced functions for coding text and for manipulating, searching and reporting on the coded text. The approach of employing software tools for qualitative analysis was initially developed in the social sciences arena but is now used in an extensive range of other disciplines.

The third generation of QDA software goes beyond manipulating, searching and reporting on coded text. It assists actual analysis of the data by providing tools to help researchers examine relationships in the data and assist in the development of theories and in testing hypothoses. Some software supports rich text, diagrams and the incorporation of images, movies and other multimedia data. Other programs have tools that enable the exchange of data and analyses between researchers working together collaboratively.