The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers

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These 12 constructs form a general set of codes that can be applied to almost any textual data whether these are fieldnotes, interview transcripts, or published texts. They are all grounded in empirical research. Part A (Table 1) of the coding manual thus provides a general set of codes or categories that guide analytic work. Each construct is named and briefly described. Additionally, each descriptor is accompanied by an example of the empirical application of the construct in already published work. The aim of a coding manual is to provide guidance about how to interpret data that is often highly nuanced and represents complex and sometimes very dynamic processes at work. However, no theory, framework, or model can generate a set of codes that will infallibly cover all possible features of data. In this case, guidance about interpretation, rather than scriptural authority, is the primary intention of our coding manual. Detailed guidance on the process of coding can be found in work by Strauss [ 1] and Schreier [ 2]. Qualitative data analysis is the process of examining and interpreting qualitative data to understand what it represents. The purpose of developing this coding manual was to clarify and simplify NPT for the user and to make it more easily integrated and workable in research on the adoption, implementation, and use of sociotechnical and organisational innovations. In qualitative content analysis—as in other forms of qualitative analysis—proliferating constructs can easily make the business of coding ever more microscopic and can mean that it becomes less analytically rewarding. Indeed, the more parsimonious a prescheduled theoretical structure is, the more space it provides for nuanced interpretation and the development of novel categories of data and the analytic constructs that can be derived from them. Hierarchical framing supports a larger code frame and lets you organize codes based on organizational structure. It also allows for different levels of granularity in your coding. Hall A, Wilson CB, Stanmore E, Todd C. Implementing monitoring technologies in care homes for people with dementia: a qualitative exploration using normalization process theory. Int J Nurs Stud. 2017;72:60–70.

Post-submission. Journal peer review is intended to improve papers for publication. In this case, it led to a clearer and more coherent presentation of the methods leading to the development of the coding manual and of the coding manual itself. An important outcome of this process was further simplification of the construct descriptors in Tables 1 and 2. These were also linked to their primary sources in the NPT literature. While coding, make sure that you remind yourself of your aims and coding method. This will help you to avoid directional drift , which happens when coding is not kept consistent.

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May C, Finch T, Ballini L, MacFarlane A, Mair F, Murray E, et al. Evaluating complex interventions and health technologies using normalization process theory: development of a simplified approach and web-enabled toolkit. BMC Health Serv Res. 2011;11(1):245. Morden A, Brooks L, Jinks C, Porcheret M, Ong BN, Dziedzic K. Research “push”, long term-change, and general practice. J Health Organ Manag. 2015;29(7):798–821. Contexts are events in systems unfolding over time within and between settings in which implementation work is done (primary NPT constructs: strategic intentions, adaptive execution, negotiating capability, reframing organisational logic). Example: ‘Participants described the new SDM work as requiring leaders to define the work, and then enrolling others to contribute collectively to the process. Identifying leadership support for SDM was challenging: clinical teams are not simple hierarchical units, and substantial autonomy exists, especially for experienced clinicians’ [ 44]. Sounds like a lot of work, right? Inductive coding is an iterative process, which means it takes longer and is more thorough than deductive coding. But it also gives you a more complete, unbiased look at the themes throughout your data. Categorize your codes with coding frames

Development of the coding manual was informed by the application of methods of qualitative content analysis described by Schreier [ 2]. This approach can be defined as ‘a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text-data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns’ [ 3] and as ‘any qualitative data reduction and sense-making effort that takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts to identify core consistencies and meanings.’ [ 4]. As qualitative content analysis has become more widely used, so too have coding frameworks and manuals that define the ways that data are identified, categorised, and characterised within a study. In qualitative content analysis, researchers are encouraged to develop manuals that describe and explicate definition of the ‘rules’ for coding and categorising data [ 5]. The process of categorisation that follows from using a coding manual is useful because it enables researchers to manage the cognitive burden of searching for and handling multiple constructs and thus enables them to manage a greater cognitive burden of interpretation. Within research teams, coding manuals support the quality and rigour of coding by providing ‘rules’ that are employed by each team member and, in this way, can ensure the consistency of coding. Parsimony can be important too: more is not necessarily better in qualitative investigation and analysis. Reducing the number of codes to those that represent core constructs can be understood as what Adams et al. [ 6], in a different context, have called ‘subtractive transformation’. Keenan J, Poland F, Manthorpe J, Hart C, Moniz-Cook E. Implementing e-learning and e-tools for care home staff supporting residents with dementia and challenging behaviour: a process evaluation of the ResCare study using normalisation process theory. Dementia. 2020;19(5):1604–20. Finally, values coding involves coding that relates to the participant’s worldviews . Typically, this type of coding focuses on excerpts that reflect the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the participants. Values coding is therefore very useful for research exploring cultural values and intrapersonal and experiences and actions.

Thematic coding, also called thematic analysis, is a type of qualitative data analysis that finds themes in text by analyzing the meaning of words and sentence structure. May C. A rational model for assessing and evaluating complex interventions in health care. BMC Health Serv Res. 2006;6(86):1–11. Description: How do people work together to create networks of participation and communities of practice around interventions and their components? [ 11]

The deductive approach can save time and help guarantee that your areas of interest are coded. But you also need to be careful of bias; when you start with predefined codes, you have a bias as to what the answers will be. Make sure you don’t miss other important themes by focusing too hard on proving your own hypothesis. What is Inductive Coding?Once you’ve got an overall idea of our data, are comfortable navigating it and have applied some initial codes, you can move on to line by line coding. Line by line coding is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – reviewing your data, line by line, digging deeper and assigning additional codes to each line.