Concluding Remarks

In: Qualitative Text Analysis: A Guide to Methods, Practice &

Using Software

By: Udo Kuckartz

Pub. Date: 2013
Access Date: February 23, 2019
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications Ltd
City: London
Print ISBN: 9781446267745
Online ISBN: 9781446288719
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446288719
Print pages: 159-160
© 2014 SAGE Publications Ltd All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research
Methods. Please note that the pagination of the online version
will vary from the pagination of the print book.
Concluding Remarks

When compared with other methods for qualitative data

analysis, systematic qualitative text analysis has many
strengths:

• It allows you to conduct a methodically controlled,

understandable, and reproducible analysis.
• It is a collection of scientific techniques that can be clearly
described and mastered.
• It offers a broad spectrum of different approaches, each
of which is suitable in situations and with different
requirements.
• It can analyse all of the collected data or the data that has
been selected for secondary analysis.
• It is conducive to working in teams of competent
researchers.
• It becomes increasingly reliable when implemented by
multiple coders.
• It connects a hermeneutical understanding of the text with
rule-governed coding.
• It allows computer-assisted analysis.
• It can process a large amount of text, if necessary.
• It forces researchers to develop a category system that
 includes detailed definitions and typical examples.
• It is a systematic approach that avoids anecdotalism and
the suggestion of individual cases.
• It can be conceptualized as a very open and explorative
approach, such as in the form of a thematic analysis in
which categories are constructed inductively. However, it
can also be conceptualized as an approach that is based
on hypotheses and pre-determined categories, which
means that it is also a theory-driven approach.
• It avoids premature quantification (unlike quantitative
content analysis).

Qualitative text analysis is already used in many countries of

the world by many researchers in many disciplines, including
sociology, pedagogy, political science, psychology,
anthropology, social work, education, and health research. In
some respects, it is still in its early phases. For example, only
recently has a discussion begun which is focused on the
importance of ensuring intercoder agreement. However, we can
be fairly sure that qualitative text analysis will face methodical
improvements in the near future because of the great interest in
this form of systematic analysis.
Finally, it must be noted that qualitative text analysis is a method
that is characterized by the fact that the research question is
of central importance throughout the entire analysis process.
Qualitative text analysis enables you to anchor the empirical
results of your research and develop and test your theories
based on the data.

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