NVivo for literature reviews

SOWK 554C
Oct 2, 2020

Jeremy Buhler
Data Librarian, UBC Library Research Commons
jeremy.buhler@ubc.ca

https://bit.ly/nvivo-lit-review

"Down" navigation arrows in the slides lead to supporting links (e.g. installation instructions, instructional videos, UBC Library workshops)

To annotate in a Zoom presentation

Never used NVivo

Use it in my research

NVivo is software for Qualitative Data Analysis

available for Mac and PC
free for UBC students, faculty, and staff
supported by the UBC Library Research Commons

Installing NVivo

NVivo support from UBC Library

Why use NVivo?

In the lit review process you're looking for relationships, identifying themes, finding trends, patterns and gaps in the literature. A tool like NVivo is designed around the processes involved in doing this kind of work.

It has features that new access points into the materials you're looking at, making it possible to work across your sources all at once instead of just looking at them one at a time.

It gives you many ways of taking notes and recording your comments and notes as you're working, linking those notes so they're easier to find later

And it keeps everying in one place - your NVivo project is just one file, but that single file can contain your source material, your observations, any work you might to to code the text for themes - ideally in a way that's easier to keep track of.

New ways to access and interact with your material

Record your thoughts as you go

Keep citations, sources, and notes in one place

Learn to use NVivo

Instructional video series (University of Hull)
Excellent introduction to NVivo for Windows in 25 parts
NVivo resources for Windows and Mac

Integration with citation managers

EndNote
Mendeley
RefWorks
Zotero

...or add pdf and other documents individually

Using NVivo with citation managers

Importing from reference/citation management tools

UBC Library citation management support