13 Working in a team
There are several strategies for organising collaborative work on the same project in QualCoder. Choose whichever best fits your methodological approach and specific working environment.
This approach can be applied to both inductive and deductive coding. It is based on the principle that all team members work on the same project files, albeit not simultaneously.
- You can do this via email so that each person, upon completing their tasks, mails the zipped project folder to the subsequent individual on the list.
- You can also work sequentially on the same computer, using the same project folder.
- If your coordinate the work manually, using a cloud-sharing service like OneDrive or Dropbox to transfer the files is also an option. However, it's critical that a) under no circumstances should two people access the same project simultaneously and b) the project must be fully synced with the cloud service before passing the work to the next individual. The succeeding person must also ensure they have downloaded the latest version from the cloud before beginning their tasks. Be careful: Project versions getting out of sync can lead to complex issues that are challenging to rectify.
- Please do not use REFI-QDA Project export as a routine approach for collaboration when all coders are using QualCoder. Use one of the other options described here instead. If you need to open a project in different software (e.g., Taguette, NVivo, Atlas.ti, MAXQDA, Dedoose, Quirkos), only then should you use the REFI-QDA Project export. It is important to recognise that project features can be lost when transferring a project between qualitative software using the REFI-QDA Project export.
Handle coder-names carefully (see below).
This strategy allows your team to work simultaneously to some extent. It is most effective if you use a deductive coding approach, where the code system doesn't change much during the analysis. If you use it with inductive coding, be prepared to spend some time cleaning up and consolidating the code system when merging the work of different team members.
Follow these steps:
- Create a master project with the code system already defined (if applicable).
- Ideally, import all empirical documents at this stage. Avoid linking to external files as this complicates the distribution of the project.
- Zip your project folder, including all subfolders and files, and send it to your collaborators (or use an USB-stick).
- Decide on a strategy for handling coder names in your team, as explained in the notes below.
- Now, each team member can unzip their local copy of the project and work on it independently, adding codes, codings, memos, etc. However, do not edit the imported text of the empirical documents themselves, since this will potentially cause problems during the merging process later.
- Finally, gather all the local copies and sequentially merge them into your master project, using the process described here: https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/wiki/12-Imports-and-exports#merge-qualcoder-projects
No matter which strategy you use to organize the collaborative coding process, you must decide if you want to use individual coder names or not.
- In most cases, you want to have a unique name for each coder on your team so that individual contributions can be identified even after merging the project together. To achieve this, please check the current coder's name in Files>Settings before doing any work.
- The coder name is 'default' when first using QualCoder. When opening another existing project, please make sure the coder name is set to the name you want to use by checking and updating the Settings before you work on your project. You can either select an existing coder name from the dropdown list or enter a new one and click the Apply button.
- Be aware that in the coding workspaces (text, images, A/V), only the coded segments of the currently selected coder in Settings will be visible. So, if nothing shows, change the coder name using the dropdown box in Settings.
- This also indicates a potential downside of using individual coder names: You cannot easily see what others have already coded in your document (applies only to the sequential work process described above). If you need that, use the same name for all coders throughout.
DRAFT FUNCTIONALITY - DO NOT USE THIS APPPROACH NOW - WILL RISK DATA CORRUPTION
- The simplest method for sequential editing involves saving your project on a network drive accessible to all team members. Caution: Cloud-based shared folders such as OneDrive, Dropbox, etc., are unsuitable for this purpose. You must use a genuine network drive where QualCoder can directly write, such as on your university's file server. Moreover, a very stable network connection is crucial to avoid errors.
- QualCoder can now automatically manage concurrent access. Attempting to open a project that someone else is already using results in an error message. This message also displays the username of the person currently working on the project.
