Documenting and Archiving the Research Process

Abstract

When it comes to quality criteria and standards in qualitative research, the criteria of plausibility, confirmability, reliability, credibility, and auditability each play a significant role. Ensuring these criteria are met involves comprehensively documenting the research process throughout every stage of a project—from its conception, through the data collection phase, to the final analysis. MAXQDA lets you do all this easily and effectively. Every stage of the data analysis process can be documented: the original recordings of interviews, the transcriptions, videos and source material synchronized with these recordings, records of the interview conditions, the developed categories and their definitions, the category system and its development, and much more. On the one hand, you have the analysis and presentation of the results, and on the other you have a record of the complete research process. This chapter focuses on the latter: how the progression of a project can be documented and archived. We will therefore examine some of the features and functions of MAXQDA that we have already covered from this fresh perspective and introduce some additional functions designed specifically for this purpose.