MAXQDA

MAXqda is software for computer-assisted qualitative data and text analysis. It is mainly used for the support of scientific projects and studies in which interviews, texts and media are analyzed as image, audio and video files content. The aim is to gain insight in the data material, without anticipating the substantive interpretation by the researcher.

Overview

MAXqda aimed at users from the disciplines of qualitative social research, psychology, education, social sciences, criminology, law, medicine, sports science, linguistics, market research, economics, anthropology and others. MAXqda 11 is currently the latest version of the MAX program family, which first appeared in 1989.

Products

The basic version MAXqda provides functions for basic analysis of qualitative data. It contains the system component MAXMaps for graphical illustration of the data. The extended version MAXQDAplus contains the additional module MAXDictio for quantitative vocabulary analysis.

History

In 1989, Udo Kuckartz, Professor of Empirical Educational Science at the University of Marburg, the program for the PC DOS. The version winMAX moved in 1994 to the Windows interface. Regular updates followed that with drag and drop, shortcuts and new visualization capabilities improved and expanded, for example, with the display of encoder strip on the edge of the text functionality. 2001 changed with the sixth version of the name in MAXqda. This version also allowed the work in Rich Text Format. In addition, the add-on module MAXDictio was developed for content analysis using dictionary. With MAXqda 2 more functions were added for visualization and data representation, such as the code matrix browser and code relations browsers. The system component MAXMaps for graphic and contextual interpretation of analytical results was integrated from 2005 onwards in the program. Since 2007 MAXqda geo- references may be directly involved in an ongoing project by Google Earth.

As of 2008, single-user and network licenses can be leased or purchased. Also portable licenses for USB stick available. In early 2010 came MAXqda 10 in a new design on the market. In this version, Word documents can be imported directly into the program. PDF, images, audio and media files can be processed. Many features have been further developed. This includes toolbars, zoom of the open document, color coded representation of locations in the document, visualization of word frequencies by means of word clouds, ad hoc search capabilities in each window, optimized spatial data link and an improved memos control.

The end of 2012 appeared MAXqda 11 for Windows. The new coding emoticode allowed matters to visually code the icons. In addition, the QDA Smartphone application MAXApp was released for iOS devices. An Android version of MAXApp is in preparation. Since February 14, 2014 is available with MAXqda for Mac the first native Mac version.

MAXqda is now available in 15 languages. Using MAXDQA 11, it is possible to work with several research members simultaneously on a project, but currently only if all of the computers used to use the identical operating system. All data of a project are summarized in a. Mx5 file ( Windows) or. MX11 file ( Mac).