Application of the "textual laboratory" tools of the MaxQda computer program in scientific research - comparative analysis of Polish and foreign research reports

Abstract

Digitization of textual data is now commonplace in many areas of society, and the development of digital techniques is fostering the emergence of new tools used by researchers. The article addresses the issue of the application of computer-assisted analysis of textual data in the procedure of qualitative research from the perspective of its user. Due to the wide scope of the issue being addressed, the question being considered is the applicability of working with a selected program from the CAQDAS family - VERBI Software's MaxQda program. The first part of the article recalls milestones in the development of digital tools that researchers can use to analyse textual data. Next, the metaphor of a "text lab" is explained, describing how to work with the MaxQda program during data reduction and representation. The next section presents the results of a comparative analysis of secondary sources, using data from three sources: Herzing's Publish or Perish citation ranking, ProQuest databases, and the Biblioteka Nauki platform. The corpus of data consisted of research reports in which the authors declared that they used the MaxQda program. The analysis made it possible to identify the program's capabilities on which the authors of the reports focus, as well as the scientific fields that the authors represent. The conclusion reflects on the contribution of modern technology to the development of qualitative data analysis, and provides examples of the dilemmas that a researcher may face during the next stages of computer-assisted analytical work, using their own analytical practice as an example.