NVivo term

Description

Also known as

Sources

The collective term for your research materials

When you import data into NVivo, it becomes an internal source.

An external source represents data outside of NVivo that cannot be imported (such as a book or archival footage).

Data

Material

Documents

Survey

Transcript

Project items

Node

A virtual container that lets you collect content across sources to group related material together.

Code

Theme

Category

Topic

Concept

Case

A virtual container that represents your research subjects

Units of observation

Units of analysis

Objects of study

Coding

The action of assigning source content to a node or case.

Quotations

Analysis

Tagging

Classifications

A way to add descriptive information to your sources and cases.

Examples   Reference, Journal Article, Person, Organization, Location

Types

Sorts

Classes

Attributes

Aspects of a classification.

Examples

• A case classification of 'Person' might have attributes for age and gender.
• A source classification of 'Journal Article' might have attributes for publication and author.

Variables

Characteristics

Tag

Metadata

Rating

Descriptors

Demographics

Bibliographics

Annotations

Text linked to specific content in a source.

Comments

Reminders

Observations

Footnote

Scribbled notes in the margin