Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software
Computer-assisted (or aided) qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) offers tools that assist with qualitative research such as transcription analysis, coding and text interpretation, recursive abstraction, content analysis, discourse analysis, grounded theory methodology, etc. Definition. CAQDAS is used in psychology, marketing research, ethnography, public health and other social sciences. The CAQDAS networking project lists the following tools a CAQDAS program should have: Project Exchange Format. In March 2019 the Rotterdam Exchange Format Initiative (REFI) launched a new open exchange standard for qualitative data called QDA-XML. The aim is to allow users to bring  coded qualitative data from one software package to another. Initially support was included in Atlas.ti, QDA Miner, Quirkos and Transana, with implementation pledged from Dedoose, MAXQDA and NVivo. Although this was not the first standard to be proposed, it was the first to be implemented by more than one software package, and came as the result of a collaboration between vendors and community representatives from the research community. Previously there was very little capability to bring data in from other software packages. Pros and cons. Such software helps to organize, manage and analyse information. The advantages of using this software  include saving time, managing huge amounts of qualitative data, having increased flexibility, having improved validity and auditability of qualitative research, and being freed from manual and clerical tasks. Concerns include increasingly deterministic and rigid processes, privileging of coding, and retrieval methods; reification of data, increased pressure on researchers to focus on volume and breadth rather than on depth and meaning, time and energy spent learning to use computer packages, increased commercialism, and distraction from the real work of analysis.