Qualitative Analysis Using R: A Free Analytic Tool

R (R Development Core Team, 2011) is a powerful tool to analyze statistical data. In recent years R has gained popularity because the software is free and open source. However, evaluators and researchers do not exclusively use quantitative data. It is possible to perform qualitative analysis in R. Using data from a case study exploring a family psychoeducation recovery course, this article provides users a tutorial on how to perform a qualitative analysis and data visualization using R. Keywords: R, RQDA, Qualitative Research, Thematic Analysis Installing R R is an open source statistical software. The website for The R Project for Statistical Computing where users can download R can be found in the references for this paper. R can be installed in UNIX platforms, Windows, and MacOS. The directions presented in this article are based on R version 3.1.1. Setting the working directory helps users when reading or writing files to a specific location. While this is not necessary to run the R package for Qualitative Data Analysis (RQDA) and other packages used in this article, it will make it easier for R users in the long run as the user will avoid having to search in different folders for files. In R, the symbol # defines a comment. A comment is basically an annotation for the programmer and will not be executed by the program. For example, reading a file from a folder "Case Study" within the "Documents" folder in the C drive would look like: # Set the working directory setwd("C:\\Documents\\Case Study") If using Windows, it is recommended to use double slash when writing the path "\\"; however, if using Mac, use the forward slash instead "/". RQDA The RQDA package is a free qualitative software application that can be used instead of more expensive qualitative software. Huang (2014) states that RQDA is an "integrated platform for both quantitative and qualitative data analysis" (para 1). RQDA is a useful tool for evaluators and students alike. In order to use any package in R, in this case the RQDA package created by Huang (2014), it is necessary to load and install the package in R. This is a one-time procedure; however, if the user wishes to open the RQDA files in a different computer, it will be necessary to install R and the RQDA package again. The first step would be to open R once the software is installed in the computer. To be able to install a package the user must open R and click on the "Packages" top menu. A new drop-down menu will appear from this list. The user should select "Install package(s)" then a new pop up window will appear on the screen. This pop-up window is a Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) mirror. Select the preferred location from the list and click OK. A new window labeled "Packages" will appear on the screen, and from this list it is necessary to locate RQDA. Click OK and allow the RQDA package to download. A window should popup prompting the user to install "Gtk+". The next step is to agree to install this package. To load the RQDA package into R, the user must go back to the "Packages" menu in R and select "Load package..." from the dropdown menu. A pop-up window labeled "Select one" will appear to the user. The user should then select RQDA from the list and click OK. It is important to remember that the RQDA package should only be installed once; however, the RQDA package must be loaded at the beginning of every session. This can be done using the command: library(RQDA). The RQDA package should load and a new pop-up GUI (Graphical User Interface) of RQDA should appear. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Installing RQDA with Code Likewise, the following code can be used to install RQDA. #Installing RQDA install.packages("RGtk2") install.packages("RQDA", dependencies = TRUE) require(RQDA) RQDA() In this syntax, the code will allow the installation of any other packages necessary to run RQDA. …