R QUALITATIVE DATA

ANALYSIS (RQDA)
PACKAGE:
• MAKING SENSE OF DATA
• Helps take the place of what we used to do
manually
• Highlighters
• Even if you have simple categories, it can get messy
• Positive Opinion
• Negative Opinion
• Subcategories show up
INTRODUCTION
• Free Package in the R platform
• Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux
• GUI Application (Graphical User Interface)
• A graphical user interface is a visual way for you to
manipulate the syntax by a mouse or keyboard
• Each package is maintained and supported by the author, but
not warrantied
• “CRAN checks” report any potential notes, warnings, and
errors associated with a package
• Rule of Thumb: Play with the R program before you work on
anything professional and know your data
Installation for Windows

•Step one, Install GTK+ (because RGtk2 depends on GTK+, you need to
install it before install RGtk2). For windows user, download GTK+ and
install it. For Debian-based Linux users, you may use sudo apt-get install
libgtk2.0-dev to install GTK+ developer library. In Fedora use yum install
-y gtk2-devel to install. For other Linux users, you may have to manually
install GTK+, download the source tarball, and follow the instructions of
installation. You can refer to this page for installation of RGtk2.

•Step two, Install R. Go to CRAN, download R and install it. For Linux
and BSD users, you can download binary version of R or the source code.
For Windows users, you can download the binary version of R from the 
download page. More instructions about installing R are in the 
R Installation and Administration Manual.
•Step three, Launch R for further installation. It can be launched as a normal
application in Windows, or by command R within a shell terminal in Linux and
FreeBSD. Then, you can see the prompt “>”,which indicates that R is ready for
further commands.

•Step four, Install relevant R packages by

command: install.packages("RQDA",dependencies=c("Depends", "Imports")) . If
you want to use the developer version of RQDA, you can use this command after
you have installed RQDA by using the
command: install.packages("RQDA",repos="http://R-Forge.R-project.org",
type="source").

•Step five, Launch RQDA using command library(RQDA) from within R. Then

you can see the RQDA GUI. For Debian Linux users, there is a apt repositories,
you can follow the guidelines there.>
• TIPS: INSTALLING RQDA
• Make sure to add the “dependencies=TRUE”
argument when you install packages. This allows
the download of all other packages that the
package of interest depends on to function.
install.packages(“RQDA”, dependencies = TRUE)
Start your Project:
• Click the "New Project"
button, name and save the
project or click the “Open
Project” button to open an
already created project.
•  Click on the “Settings”
button and enter your
name to set the name of
the coder and press OK.
This allows for coding from
different people to be
distinguishable.
 Import Files:
• Click the "Files" tab and then the
"Import" button, locate and select
your plain text file and click OK.
• To read your file within the RQDA
program, select the file and click on
the “Open” button or double-click on
the file you want to open.
• To show a subset of files, such as all
uncoded files, right-click on a file in
the RQDA “Files” tab and scroll down
to the “Show” button on the drop
down menu. Click on the “Show
Uncoded Files Sorted by Imported
Time” option. This is useful to quickly
filter your files so that you know
which you still need to code.
• Coding Files:
•  Open the file you wish to code and
click on the “Codes” tab.
•  Click on the “Add” button to add new
code names and press OK.
•  Highlight a text segment in your file,
select the code you wish to use in the
“Codes” tab and press the “Mark”
button to code a segment of your
interview.
•  Double-click on a code to retrieve all
of the text associated with a code.
•  Undo the coding by highlighting a
coded segment of text and pressing the
“Unmark” button.
• Add Code Categories:
•  Click on the “Code Categories”
tab and click the “Add” button,
type in the new code category
name and press OK.
•  To add codes to your code
category press the “Add to”
button and select the code you
want to add. This can help with
theory building or filtering your
codes so that you can display
specific types of codes together.
• Add Cases to your File:
•  Add new case names in the same
manner that you added the names
of new code categories and codes.
•  Right click on the case, click on
“Add files,” and then select the
desired file to add to link to the case.
•  Cases represent your unit of
analysis. In the webinar example, the
cases are participants. This is a
helpful feature because you can then
attach attributes to participants and
conduct a qualitative comparative
analysis using another R package.
• Add Attributes to your Cases:
•  An attribute can be thought of as a
variable (numeric or categorical).
•  Add new attribute names in the same
manner that you added the names of new
code categories, codes, and cases.
•  To attach an attribute to a specific case
select the “Cases” tab, right-click on the
case of interest, click on “Add/Modify
Attributes,” enter the variable value, click
on the white space beneath the value so
that the row highlights blue and press
Save and Close.
•  This is useful because coding can be
retrieved for comparison by attribute or
qualitative comparative analyses can be
conducted using R syntax.
• Add File Categories:
•  Add new file category
names in the same manner
that you added the names
of new code categories, new
codes, cases, and attributes.
•  Select the file category
you wish to populate with
files, click on the “Add To”
button and select the files
you want to add to it and
press OK.
• Writing Memos:
•  To attach memos to a
Project or any of its
associated components (e.g.,
Files, Codes, Code Categories,
etc.) press the “Memo”
button in the associated tab.
•  The only tab that does not
include the “Memo” button is
the “Cases” tab, and you can
right-click on the case and
select “Case Memo” to add a
memo about your cases.