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Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4
Working with bibliographic data and full texts from reference managers ...................... 5
The RIS file format for bibliographic data .............................................................................................. 6
Export literature data from Citavi, Endnote, Mendeley, or Zotero ......................................................... 7
Import and automatic pre-coding in MAXQDA ..................................................................................... 9
Working with literature data ............................................................................................................... 12

Organizing and analyzing literature and summaries with MAXQDA............................ 13
Creating literature reviews with MAXQDA ............................................................... 14
Work phases when creating a literature review................................................................................... 15

Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 25

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Introduction
Working with specialized literature is a core element of many scientific disciplines. It is difficult to imagine
a report for a project, master’s thesis, or dissertation in which previous research has not beensystematically analyzed and presented (Creswell, 2016, pp. 58–66). As more and more publishers maketheir journals and publications accessible online, the creation of literature reviews has become easierand more efficient. MAXQDA is suitable for day-to-day work with literature and the creation of literature
reviews (for example, the preparation of theory chapters and research reports) as well as for systematic
reviews and the preparation of research results in meta-analysis. In particular, MAXQDA can be used to
manage notes and create summaries to support the writing process. When working with literature,
bibliographic information (author, year of publication, etc.) must be distinguished from the content of
the literature. MAXQDA focuses primarily on the content and is not a specialized reference management
software, however, data from such programs can be imported into MAXQDA for further processing.
In this guide:•Working with bibliographic data and full texts•

Importing data from reference management programs and (online) databases•

Everyday tasks with literature and summaries•

Conducting literature reviews•

Options for creating systematic reviews

Note: This booklet is an expanded and updated version of the chapter “Working with Bibliographic
Information and Creating Literature Reviews” contained in the book “Analyzing Qualitative Data with
MAXQDA. Text, Audio, Video" by Udo Kuckartz & Stefan Rädiker (2019) published by Springer, Cham.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-15671-8

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

5Working with bibliographic data and full texts from reference managers
MAXQDA offers you the option to import bibliographic data from reference management programs
such as Mendeley, Endnote, Citavi and Zotero. Like MAXQDA, these reference managers use project
files, meaning databases, containing all collected bibliographic information. The smallest unit of such a
project is a bibliographic reference (author, title, etc.) which may also contain links to websites,
keywords, abstracts, full texts and other information.
MAXQDA is compatible with all reference management programs that are able to export their literature
databases in RIS format, which is a standard format for bibliographic information. This is the case withall mainstream literature management programs such as Citavi, DocEar, Endnote, JabRef, Mendeley andZotero, i.e. you can transfer selected or all literature entries from these programs to MAXQDA. With thefollowing programs it is possible to import the assigned full texts into MAXQDA in addition to theliterature references:•

Citavi•Endnote•Mendeley•

ZoteroWhen imported into MAXQDA, each literature entry becomes its own text document. If full texts areimported, MAXQDA automatically connects the full text to the literature entry with an internal link. The
individual information in the literature entries is automatically coded for later analysis so that, forexample, all titles or abstracts can be compiled and searched. The attachments can be automaticallycoded during the import with the keywords assigned to them, and the notes for a literature entry canbe saved as a document memo with the corresponding attachment. The following picture shows that
MAXQDA creates two document groups when importing references including associated full texts,"REFERENCES" and "REFERENCES - ATTACHMENTS", in this case only one reference has been imported(Bryman 2007) and the full text has been saved in the document group for attachments.

6

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

File breakdown into references and attachments when importing RIS data

The RIS file format for bibliographic data
RIS is the short form for “Research Information System Format”. RIS files are simple text files in which
all exported literature entries are listed one after the other. RIS files contain so called “tags”, which
consist of two letters and are followed by the corresponding information. Important tags include forexample:TY – Type of reference, always marks the beginning of a new entry
ID – Unique identification number for each entry
AU – Author
TI – Title
PY – Publication date
ER – Closes entry, always located at end of entry
A detailed description of all RIS format tags can be found on Wikipedia at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIS_(file_format). An example of RIS source data is listed below:
TY - BOOK
AU - McLuhan, MarshallAU - Fiore, Quentin
TI - The medium is the message: An inventory of effects
PY - 1967
CY - New York, NY
PB - Bantam Books
ER -Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

7

Export literature data from Citavi, Endnote, Mendeley, or Zotero
Before importing literature data into MAXQDA, you must export the desired data from your literature
management program in RIS format. Exporting works in a similar way for all four programs.
Export from Citavi
1. Select all entries to be exported in the list of references on the left. If you want to export all entries,
no selection is necessary.
2. Start the export wizard via File > Export > Export... In the first step it may be necessary to add the"RIS" filter via + Add export filter.
3. In the next step, select Save to text file: and click Browse... to specify the file name and location for
the file.
4. If you want to perform exports of this type again in the future, save the procedure as an "export
template" as a last step.
Export from Endnote
1. Select the literature entries you want toexport.
2. Select File > Export… from the main menu.
3. Enter a file name and select a directory.
4. Set the file type to “Text Only” and theoutput style to “RefMan (RIS) Export” asshown in the following picture. If this output
style is not available, open the selection list
and select “Select Another Style…” at thetop, where you can search for the output
style.
5. Click Save.

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Export from Mendeley
1. Select the literature entries that you want to export.
2. Select File > Export... from the main menu.
3. Assign a file name and select a location.
4. Set the file type to "RIS - Research Information Systems (*.ris)".
5. Click Save.
Export from Zotero

1. Right-click on a collection and choose Export Collection…
Alternatively, choose File > Export Library… from the main
menu to export the entire library.
2. In the appearing dialog select “RIS” as the format.
3. If you want to export the notes and the associated files(especially the full texts), make sure to check thecorresponding boxes for Export Notes and Export Files.
4. After clicking OK, assign a file name and select a directory.
5. Click Save.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

9Import and automatic pre-coding in MAXQDA
RIS files can be imported into MAXQDA via Import > Reference Manager Data. A selection dialog box
will then appear in which the relevant file with the extension RIS or TXT is selected. During the import,
the following occurs:•

A document group “REFERENCES” is created in the “Document System”.

•

All literature entries are added to the newly created document group as individual text documents.
The entries are sorted alphabetically and marked with their own symbols.

•

The document name consists of the surnames and first names of the authors as well as the year. In
the case of two authors these are linked with “&”, in the case of three or more authors only the
first author is mentioned and “et al.” is added.

Bibliographic informationas text documents

Keywords as codes
Link to full-text PDF

Imported literature data in MAXQDA

10

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA•

In the “Code System” a code “REFERENCES” with the two subcodes “RIS” and “KEYWORDS” isgenerated. The code “RIS” contains all RIS tags used in the import file as subcodes, e.g. “Type ofreference” or “Abstract”. The code “KEYWORDS” contains all keywords assigned in the literaturereferences as subcodes.

•

When importing, all references are automatically coded by coding each text section with thecorresponding RIS code.

•

Each keyword in the literature reference is coded with the corresponding keyword in the code
system.

•DOI links are inserted into the text as hyperlinks, so that you can access the online version of apublication directly if required.

If attachments are imported, the following will also happen:• A document group “REFERENCES > ATTACHMENTS” is created in the “Document System”.
•

All attachments are imported into this document group as separate documents.

•

The documents retain their file names and are sorted in alphabetical ascending order of theirreferences. The sorting of the document names is therefore not necessarily alphabetical and thesame document names may occur several times, e.g. if there are several documents with “Table ofContents”.

•

Comments in the attachments are imported as in-document memos, highlights in the text ascoded segments.

And if references and attachments are imported:•

Internal links are additionally created, which link the literature reference with the corresponding
attachments, so that you can jump back and forth between literature reference and full text with asingle click. In the literature reference, the internal link can be found in the “Link to PDF (L1)”
section (the name comes from the RIS format and also applies if it is a file format other than PDF).
In the appendix, the internal link is placed at the beginning of the document.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

11

Five pieces of information which may also be important for future selections are also stored as document
variables:•

RIS_Type (Type of Reference) – text variable•

RIS_Author (First Author) – text variable•

RIS_Title (Title) – text variable•

RIS_Reference-ID (Identification number) – integer variable•

RIS_Year (Year of publication) – integer variable

These variables are created as system variables and cannot be changed by the user.

Imported variable values for each document

12

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Working with literature data
Following the import and automatic pre-coding, the bibliographic data is made available in MAXQDA
as normal text. This means the data can be searched, coded, linked, edited and have memos added forfurther qualitative and quantitative content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2019). Now you can answer
questions such as:•

How often are specific authors named?

•

Which topics are represented?

•

How has the focus on specific topics shifted?

•

Are there more journal articles or monographs on a specific topic?

•

To what extent have journal article titles changed over time?

Here are three different initial ideas for starting your analysis:
1. Right-click on a keyword in the code system and select the function Activate Documents Containing
this Code. MAXQDA will then activate all literature entries and attachments to which this keyword
has been assigned.
2. Double click on “RIS > Abstract” to open all abstracts in the “Coded Segments” overview. Start the
Smart Coding Tool by clicking on the symbol bearing the same name in the toolbar to encode andsystematize the abstracts.
3. Activate the document group “REFERENCES” and activate the code “RIS > Title” to list all titles inthe “Retrieved Segments” window. In this window, click on the Word Cloud icon to start an analysisof the (most common) words in the title.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

13

Organizing and analyzing literature and summaries with MAXQDA
Working with literature – both online and offline – is one of the most important activities not only inresearch and teaching, but also in NGOs, institutions and for the purposes of market research. Typicaltasks when working with literature include finding and reading relevant publications, identifying andmarking important points, understanding arguments, and extracting, compiling and comparing texts.
MAXQDA is an excellent tool for these daily tasks. In a series of blogposts, Elgen Sauerborn (2014) and
Uta-Kristina Meyer (2014) describe how they create summaries and notes while reading relevant
literature for their research, and manage them with MAXQDA. Based on their work and our own
experiences, we suggest the following procedure:
1. As far as possible, all available literature sources for the research are imported into a MAXQDA
project.
2. Summaries are created as individual documents in MAXQDA, whereby the reference information(author, year, title) is used as the document name, ideally in the exact citation style which will be
used in the later bibliography. Consequently, authors can be easily searched for in the “Document
System” by their document name.
3. In-document memos, further information about the sources can be managed, such as questions
arising from particular arguments, criticism of particular publications, or whether the source isimportant for your own work.
4. The “Code System” is created following the chapters of the report, with codes following the sameorder as in the later work. Summaries or parts of the original documents suitable for citation will be
coded with these codes.
5. As the report is written, the corresponding codes are activated so all of the important coded
segments are compiled in the “Retrieved Segments” window.
6. This basis makes writing easy, eliminating the risk of overlooking an important point or reference
and helping the user to “write up” the work.
7. After completing the work, the sources, summaries, notes, and coded segments remain available.
When you’re working on a similar topic at a later date, this work can be accessed, creating afoundation on which to add further references and summaries.

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Creating literature reviews with MAXQDA
What is meant by the term “literature review”? Arlene Fink provides the following definition: “A
research literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating,and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars,
and practitioners”. (Fink, 2010, p. 3)
A literature review as explained in this way is conducted on a specific topic or research question. The
objective is to determine the current state of research and/or the scientific discussion with regard to aparticular field of knowledge. The focus may be on different pre-determined aspects, for example
theoretical or methodological aspects. A literature review represents a specific form of secondary
analysis, as it is not a matter of new, independent research but rather a review of research that has
already been conducted. A literature review, like an essay, is frequently written by an individual
researcher. It systematically presents substantial research results, identifies controversies, andsummarizes the state of scientific discourse in a specific field. A literature review is always an explanatory
text, not simply a list of sources.
Literature reviews can be created as embedded reviews (embedded within a dissertation or research
report, for example) or as stand-alone reviews. The latter are frequently referred to as “systematic
reviews”. As a rule, systematic reviews are concerned with the research results in relation to a specificquestion, and with identifying any gaps in the research. This is not usually the case with generalembedded reviews, which is not to say that these are unsystematic or eclectic. Traditionally, however,stand-alone reviews focus more heavily on quantitative aspects.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

15Work phases when creating a literature review
Based on the work of Fink (2019), Boland et al. (2017), Hart (2017), Gough et al. (2017) und Heyvaert
et al. (2016) six phases for the creation of a literature review can be identified:
1. Formulation of research questions and objectives of the review. The research question should be
precisely formulated in order to lead the review.
2. Selection of bibliographic databases, which today are normally online databases.
3. Determination of search terms within these databases.
4. Application of practical and methodological criteria for the selection of high-quality scientific
literature.
5. Conducting the review. This includes, among other aspects: importing bibliographic data andeventually full texts; definition of variables such as author, year of publication, etc.; thematic codingof significant text segments, writing notes and summaries.
6. Synthesis of results and writing up the review, either in the form of a qualitative description of results
or in case of a quantitative meta-analysis as a calculation of statistical characteristic values andmeasures.
MAXQDA can provide valuable support in all phases, particularly in the thematic and content
development of primary sources in phases 5 and 6. Before describing the possibilities offered by
MAXQDA for this type of work, the differences between MAXQDA and reference management
programs such as Endnote, Citavi, Mendeley, Zotero, etc. should be considered. Endnote and the likeallow the collection, management and citation of primary, online and offline sources. The focus of these
programs is the management of bibliographic input and the creation of bibliographies corresponding
to the different regulations of a large number of scientific journals and publishers. For example, thewidely-used Zotero program (www.zotero.org) searches for bibliographic information in online catalogs
and booksellers such as Amazon, and allows this information to be stored in a local database and to beprovided with keywords and metadata. Reference lists can later be exported in various citation styles(for example, in the widely-used APA style). While reference management programs focus on the
bibliographic data, MAXQDA focuses on the content and allows for the thematic coding and systematic,
qualitative and quantitative analysis of this content. MAXQDA is therefore not primarily used for thecollection of bibliographic data (although this is possible), nor for the creation of reference lists for16

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

publications. However, as described above, MAXQDA allows the user to import bibliographic data fromreference management programs.
But now, we return to a description of the phases of creating a literature review with MAXQDA.
Literature reviews are valuable not only as overviews of the current state of knowledge in a particularfield, they also situate the research within a wider context and debate within the scientific community.
The six phases of creating a literature review are described in greater detail below.
Phase 1: Formulation of research questions and objectives of the review
Similar to a research project, a literature review begins with the formulation of the research field andquestion(s) as well as the objectives. However, the question is formulated somewhat more broadly thanwould normally be the case for a research project. If the focus is overly narrow, sources that are relevant
but do not initially appear to be central to the research could be overlooked. In MAXQDA, the researchquestion and objectives are best presented in the form of a free memo (via Analysis > Free Memo) as in
the following example:
Memo title: Literature search on data analysis and integration in mixed methods research
The goal of the literature search is to evaluate the current state of debate concerning the topic of data
analysis/integration in mixed methods research. Well-known authors in the mixed methods researchcommunity see the integration of qualitative and quantitative as the primary challenge of mixed
methods research. The review aims to compile the most important positions. Since mixed methods
discourse is conducted in English, only English-language literature should be taken into account. The
review will cover the years 2014-2016 and will be limited to the leading journal on this topic, the Journalof Mixed Methods Research.
Phase 2: Selection of bibliographic databases
The next step is a targeted search for sources that could present information about the topic in question.
In a traditional library, literature is identified by means of keywords and keyword catalogs, retrieved
from the shelves, then taken to the workspace and placed on the desk. When working with computersand searching in appropriate databases, the principle is similar. The researcher explores databases andscientific journals, saves search hits, and selects sources that are presumed to contribute to the review.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

17

Next, it is important to decide exactly where and what to look for; in other words, to select thebibliographic databases and define the search terms. Normally the databases are online, and hundredsof public and private databases exist. The most popular international databases are PubMed (Medicine),
MEDLINE (Medicine), ERIC (Education science), JSTOR (various), LexisNexis (economics and law),
PsycINFO (Psychology), Social Science Citation Index and Sociological Abstracts (social sciences) (Fink,
2019, pp. 17–21). Also to be noted are private databases such as Springerlink, the portal for the Springer
International Publishing AG, and the databases of journals and periodicals such as that from Sage
Publications, which is indispensable for research in the fields of methods and methodology.
A further consideration is whether to include only English-language sources in the search.
Phase 3: Determination of search terms
After these specifications, the next step is to determine search terms. These could be single words or
combinations of multiple words. Nearly all databases offer the possibility for advanced searches, in which
you can formulate more complex conditions, for example linking search terms with the logical operators
AND and OR.
Example: In the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR), a search is conducted for all entries
concerning the theme “data analysis”. The search is restricted to the years 2014-2016. Other possible
search terms would be “triangulation” and “integration”, but in the following example the search is
restricted to “data analysis”. The search on the JMMR website (https://mmr.sagepub.com/search) resultsin 57 hits.
In the next step, the compilation of results on the website can be checked for relevance on the website,or the full list of results can be imported into MAXQDA and checked there. In this example, it is more
efficient to import the results into MAXQDA. When exporting from the Sage Publications website, it isimportant to ensure that both the citation and the abstract are exported. The RIS format should beselected from the list of available formats. The file can be imported into MAXQDA via the menu function
Import > Reference Manager Data.

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Phase 4: Application of practical and methodological criteria for the selection of high-quality scientific
literatureThis phase concerns the selection of relevant literature, that is to say the literature that was found in the
database search is now examined to determine if it falls within the narrower area of the researchquestion, and whether it fulfills the objectives of the review.
Practical as well as methodological criteria of this selection process should be documented. Practical
criteria are those which relate to the practical accessibility, language, and type of publication. For
example, for a study on environmental awareness in Europe, only results in the most common languages,
possibly only in English, would be considered. In addition, the search would be restricted to only themost important social science journals. Methodological criteria for this review could be, for example,
the quality and manner of sampling, or the “seriousness” of the institution carrying out the study. It is
possible that for methodological reasons, sources based on online surveys would be excluded because
they used a convenience sample. For the earlier example of the literature review of data analysis in mixed
methods research, all of the bibliographic search hits were imported into MAXQDA. The sources now
appear in the “Document System”. The following figure shows how MAXQDA appears after thisinformation is imported.

Imported RIS file with search results in “Journal of Mixed Methods Research”

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA19

The RIS format tags are found in the “Code System”. Here it can be seen that an abstract is available
for only 49 of the 57 sources. The list of document variables displayed on the right shows that five tags
are also available as variables for later selections, namely type of publication, author, title, ID, and yearof publication.
The next step is to systematically read each abstract in order to decide if the source is relevant or not. It
is advisable to set up two (or more) new document groups to in the “Document System” to which theresults can be moved according to their relevance. The names of the document groups should indicate
their functions, for example “Relevant sources” and “Less relevant sources”. Sources that do notcontribute to the review can be deleted immediately. If there is any doubt concerning where to assign
a source when reading the abstract, the full text can be obtained by clicking the link coded with the tag„DO_DOI“ or with the tag “UR_Web/URL” in the “Document Browser”. This will open the information
page in the Sage Publications database, which contains a link leading to the full text (assuming you haveaccess to the sources via your library). Reading the full text provides a solid basis on which to classify the
text as relevant or less relevant.
Other variables which allow the user to make selections or comparisons and recognize trends can be
defined in this phase of the literature review. For example, the variable “RIS_Year” allows for thecreation of a table or chart showing the distribution of sources by year.
There may be other primary sources outside the results of the database search that should be includedin the review. In principle, all types of sources, including audio and video sources, can be imported into
MAXQDA. Sources such as books that cannot be borrowed may only be available as scanned copies.
Such scanned sources can also be included in the literature review.
Hints for scanned sources: If no digitized version of a relevant source is available, the only option is touse scanned pages. This results in a photo or PDF file. Using software such as Adobe Acrobat, you canperform an OCR text recognition procedure. This is strongly recommended, as subsequent searches canbe performed for words in the text and all word-related functions in MAXQDA including MAXDictio arealso available for use.

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

If the sources have been classified according to their relevance, particularly relevant publications can beimported as full texts. It is best to create a new document group (for example, “Primary literature”) andto download and import full texts into this folder. Ideally, the full text and bibliographic reference should
be linked:
1. Open the full text.
2. Open the bibliographic reference in the “Second Document Browser”.
3. Highlight the first word (or first paragraph) in the full text and select Insert Internal Link (Start) fromthe context menu.
4. Highlight the first word (or first paragraph) in the bibliographic reference and select Insert Internal
Link (Target) from the context menu.
For many databases, particularly private databases, you may only download full texts if you haveauthorization to do so. This is the case at most universities, and all members of the university may haveaccess. It may be necessary to log into the university network via VPN.
Phase 5: Conducting the review
The process of conducting a literature review varies depending on the nature of the research questions
and the objectives of the review as well as the range of the sources. In addition, the process depends
on the time available for the preparation of the review. If little time is available, you have to restrict thematerial and tighten the formulation of practical and methodological criteria (see Phase 4). In this case,your review will be based mainly on the abstracts and not on the more extensive full texts. The following
are some of the possibilities MAXQDA offers for conducting a literature review:
Working with word clouds
What are the central themes of a text and the key terms that are used? These can be easily explored byright-clicking on the full text and selecting the Word Cloud option. Alternatively, you can create a word
cloud for parts of the bibliographic data (titles or abstracts) by retrieving the relevant segments andstarting the word cloud function in the “Retrieved Segments” window. Nonsensical words or words
that are not relevant in the context of the review can be added to the stop list.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

21

Exploring full texts and working with memos
In view of the abundance of publications available on almost every topic, it is often hard to read anentire book or journal article. Using the context search in the “Document Browser”, you can search
specifically for the presence of key terms, which greatly reduces the extent of text passages that need
to be read intensively. Questions which arise, alongside ideas and core statements, can then be stored
as memos attached to the corresponding text passages. The overall assessment, evaluation and criticism
of a text can be stored as a document memo in the “Document System”.
Emphasizing important text passages
Reading a text and underlining important points is a common practice. You can work in the same way
when creating literature reviews in MAXQDA: five distinct colors are available for color coding text
passages. The marked passages can be easily located at a later time. In some cases, it may be useful tomark the text passages with a thematic code rather than color coding.
Exploring the frequency of words and terms used in the sources
Using the word frequency function (part of the MAXDictio module), you can analyze the frequency ofwords in one or more documents. In addition, a differentiated word frequency analysis can be
performed on documents, document groups and document sets. As with word clouds, nonsensicalwords can be added to the stop list and excluded from the analysis.
Writing summaries
Summarizing text and extracting interesting passages is one of the classic techniques of literature work.
In MAXQDA, a document group “Summaries” should first be defined, in which all summaries andexcerpts are stored. Next, select the option New Text Document from the context menu of this new
document group. A new document will appear in the “Document Browser” in Edit Mode, where you
can start to write a summary. If the full text has been imported, it can be opened in the “Second
Document Browser”, allowing the user to read the source text and write the summary concurrently. The
text segment and the corresponding summary can be linked using document links.
The name of the summary should also contain the author and year; furthermore, the summary should
be linked to the bibliographic reference using the procedure described above.

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

Automatic coding of text segments
The text can be searched for interesting key words and the results coded automatically using thefunction Analysis > Text Search & Autocode. The range of text passages to be coded can be freely
selected by the user (search hit, sentence, several sentences, paragraph). Following automatic coding,the coded segments can be retrieved and explored further.
Manual thematic coding of significant text passages
It is possible to code the relevant text passages when the primary text is available, which is normally thecase with journal articles. In this case, working with thematic codes that are as close as possible to theresearch questions in the scope of the review is recommended. By means of specific labeling, you cantag passages that are suitable for later quotations. For this purpose, a specific code, for example“Suitable for quotation” can be defined. Alternatively, the comment function or a weight score can beused. For each coded segment, a short comment can be added, in this case for example, “Quotation”.
Later, in the Overview of Coded Segments, you can sort by the comment column so that all potential
quotes are listed together. It is also possible to assign a weight score to any coded segment. Later, you
can retrieve just the text passages which have been coded under a selected theme or allocated a specificweight score.
Distinguishing, coding, and statistically analyzing different dimensions
For a specific content area in the literature, for example the research design, specific dimensions can be
identified and defined as subcodes, for example “Explanatory sequential design”, “Exploratory
sequential design”, or “Convergent design”. Using the option Subcode Statistics in the context menuof the “Code System”, the frequency of the different design types can be determined and displayed asa table or graph.

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

23

Visual representation of themes and sources
MAXQDA’s visual tools can also be used very effectively for literature reviews. We assume here thatthematic coding of relevant texts has already taken place, either manually or using automatic coding ofsearch items.
•

The Code Matrix Browser displays the themes covered and their respective frequency per text in acomparative table.

•

The Code Relations Browser displays the simultaneous occurrence of pairs of themes in acomparative table.

•

The Single-Case Model (available in Visual Tools > MAXMaps) represents the coded themes andtheir respective frequencies for a selected source in a schematic diagram.

•

The Single-Code Model (also available in MAXMaps) displays a selected theme and its coded
segments, the code memo and the memos linked to the code in a schematic diagram.

Writing thematic summaries and creating summary tables
This technique uses MAXQDA’s function Analysis > Summary Grid . This makes it possible to write
thematic compilations and present them in comparative tables (“Summary Tables”). In order to use thistechnique, it is a prerequisite that relevant text passages have been thematically coded beforehand.
Quantitative evaluation of themes
Quantitative aspects can also be relevant to literature reviews. For example, it is possible to sort andcount sources according to variables (e.g. year of publication) and answer questions such as “How are
the sources distributed over time?” or “Has the investigation of the topic ‘Data analysis/integration’increased or decreased during the period of study?” Statistical tables with absolute and relative
frequencies as well as bar and pie charts can be created for thematic codes and subcodes in MAXQDA.
More complex analyses including correlation analyses can also be carried out with the STATS module in
MAXQDA.
Phase 6: Synthesizing your results and writing up the review
After most of the work has been completed in the first five phases, it is time to summarize your findings.
When writing your review, the preparatory work of the first five phases comes into effect, that is to say,

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

the results of the previous work should prepare you to write a well-structured text. In other words, you
can build on the memos prepared in phases 5 and 6, as well as the displays such as summary tables,and visual representations, to write up your review.
There are two types of reviews:
1. A review in the form of a qualitative description of results (descriptive literature review); occasionally,
quantitative results can also be included, such as the number of sources, their distribution over time,
apparent trends, frequency of sub-topics, etc. The focus, however, remains a qualitative one.
2. A review in the form of a quantitative meta-analysis with calculations of statistical parameters andmeasures. Here, the results of statistical procedures are central, as in the case of a meta-analysis of
attitude-behavior research, where average correlations in various spheres of activity are calculated
and communicated.
According to Fink (2019), both types of literature reviews should always contain the following four parts:•

Purpose and objectives of the review•

Methods and sampling•

Results•

Conclusions

In the case of a quantitative meta-analysis, the methods section should be expanded with particularattention to the description and substantiation of the statistical methods used.
When writing your review, the following MAXQDA tools can provide valuable assistance:•

The Simple and the Complex Coding Query, with which you can locate previously classified text
segments and text passages you have previously flagged as suitable for quotation.

•

Memos, particularly the free memos written in phase 5 of the work on the review, from which you
can copy and insert passages into the final text.

•

Summary tables, with which compressed summaries of sources can be effectively compared andrepresented. You can also integrate summary tables into your review.
The word frequency functions of MAXDictio, with which you can represent the usage of specificsearch items and semantic contexts.
The graphical display options of MAXMaps, which in particular allow you to create concept maps.

••

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

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Bibliography
Boland, A., Cherry, G., & Dickson, R. (2017). Doing a systematic review: A student’s guide (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Creswell, J. W. (2016). 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher. SAGE.
Fink, A. (2019). Conducting research literature reviews: From the internet to paper (5th ed.). SAGE.
Gough, D., Oliver, S., & Thomas, J. (2017). An introduction to systematic reviews (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Hart, C. (2017). Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Heyvaert, M., Hannes, K., & Onghena, P. (2016). Using mixed methods research synthesis for literature reviews.
SAGE.
Kuckartz, U., & Rädiker, S. (2019). Analyzing qualitative data with MAXQDA: Text, audio, and video. Springer
Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15671-8
Meyer, U.-K. (2014, May 28). MAXQDA11 Tip of the month: How I manage my excerpts with MAXQDA [blogpost]. MAXQDA Blog. https://www.maxqda.com/tip-month-manage-excerpts-with-maxqda
Sauerborn, E. (2014, August 18). MAXQDA11 Tip of the month: How I manage my literature with MAXQDA [blogpost]. MAXQDA Blog. https://www.maxqda.com/managing-literature-maxqda

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Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

More information
We hope this guide helped you to get started with your literature review. Of course, MAXQDA offers awhole range of further analysis functions and tools. To name a few examples, you can:•transcribe audio and video files•

import and analyze social media data•

analyze focus groups•

visualize data or results•

conduct a quantitative text analysis with MAXDictio•

generate reports and statistical frequency tables•

automatically summarize data and get code suggestions using the AI Assist add-on

You can find a wide range of resources on our website www.maxqda.com•

free introductory webinars•

online manual•

video tutorials•

list of upcoming workshops•

professional MAXQDA trainer database•research blog, user forum, and more...

MQIC – MAXQDA International Conference
The annual MAXQDA International Conference brings together MAXQDA users from all over the worldin Berlin, Germany. The conference offers a rich program that covers everything related to MAXQDAand mixed methods research. It’s a unique opportunity to network with other MAXQDA users and get
to know the MAXQDA development team. Find out more at www.maxqda.com/conferenceLiterature Reviews with MAXQDA27