Dedoose
Let CU MESA Support Your Qualitative Research with Dedoose
Are you looking for an easier way to work through your qualitative research data? Dedoose may be the tool for you. Upload your transcripts, build and refine your own codebook, and apply codes to the passages you identify as meaningful. As you work, Dedoose helps you keep your coding organized so you can compare excerpts, spot patterns, and develop the themes and illustrative examples you need to answer your research questions.
Dedoose Help & Resources
Tips, how-tos, and answers to common questions for current Dedoose users. If you still need an account, use the request button above.
Getting Started in Dedoose
Workspaces are the tabs located at the top of the Dedoose screen or on the home screen. Each workspace provides access to specific tools, tasks, or project data.
Media – The qualitative source material (data) you upload, such as an interview transcript, document, PDF, audio file, video, image, or open-ended survey response. Note: There is an additional charge when using video or audio forms of data.
Before uploading data – things to consider: Add timestamps, line numbers (also an option in Dedoose document settings), page numbers, and bolding (interview questions, interviewer, participant ID, etc.). Does the data need to be anonymized?
For text-based data, a Word document provides the greatest flexibility in Dedoose.
PDFs can also be uploaded, with the option to code the content as an image or as text. If the core of your analysis is text-based, converting the file to a Word document is highly recommended.
Spreadsheets can be uploaded in CSV or Excel format. Projects can also be imported from other software by exporting them in QSDP format, which allows data to be transferred between different platforms.
Tip: Import one file first to ensure the import quality is acceptable, then complete the mass upload.
How to Code in Dedoose
Coding in Dedoose involves selecting a portion of your media (an excerpt) and applying one or more codes to it. Dedoose has three different ways to code text: Longform, Two-Step, and the Quick-Code Widget.
A code is a label used to identify and organize a specific idea, topic, experience, behavior, or concept in qualitative data. In Dedoose, researchers apply codes to excerpts of text, images, audio, or video that relate to that concept.
Example: Lack of Time could be a parent code used to organize more specific ways participants describe time-related challenges.
Parent code / Root code — A broad, top-level code used to organize related codes underneath it. Example: Learning Environment.
Child code / Subcode — A more specific code nested under a parent/root code. Example: Psychological Safety could be a child code under Learning Environment.
Example:
- Parent Code: Lack of Time
- Child Code: Competing Responsibilities – Other work or personal demands limit available time.
- Child Code: Scheduling Conflicts – Activities or obligations occur at conflicting times.
- Child Code: Insufficient Time to Complete Tasks – Participants report not having enough time to complete required activities.
In qualitative research, a category is a broader grouping of related codes used to organize similar concepts. In Dedoose, a Parent Code/Root Code can function as a qualitative category, with related Child Codes/Subcodes nested beneath it, although Dedoose does not formally define Parent Codes as categories.
Dedoose primarily uses the term category for descriptor data, where categories are used to group related descriptor fields and help organize information about participants, cases, or other units of analysis.
Themes
A theme is a broader pattern of meaning developed through analysis of codes and coded data. A theme is an analytic interpretation, not simply a Parent Code or group of related codes.
Example: Codes such as Lack of Time, Competing Responsibilities, Scheduling Conflicts, and Insufficient Time to Complete Tasks might contribute to the theme “Competing demands limit participants’ ability to fully engage.”
Interpreting themes: Analysis goes beyond developing themes. Researchers examine what each theme means, how themes relate to one another, and what those relationships reveal about the research question.
In summary: Codes capture aspects of the data that are relevant to the research question. Themes bring related observations together into broader patterns of meaning and interpretation. Together, themes should tell a coherent analytic story that helps answer the research question.
In Dedoose: Themes are developed by interpreting your coded data. Use tools such as coded excerpts, Code Co-Occurrence, Code × Descriptor charts, and memos to explore patterns and relationships among codes and participant groups. These tools help you develop and refine themes, but the researcher determines what those patterns mean.
Codebook – The full list of codes and code definitions used in a project. Code definitions help ensure that everyone applies the codes consistently. Codebooks can be imported into Dedoose.
To import a codebook: Go to the Codes Workspace → select the exclamation-point icon in the upper-right corner → select Import Codes.
Memo – A note created in Dedoose to capture an analytic thought, question, coding decision, or reminder. Memos can be referenced during analysis, help create an audit trail, and can be linked to most elements in Dedoose.
Explore Your Coded Data
What are you trying to learn?
Decide what you want to learn from your data. Your question will help determine which Dedoose tool or visualization to use.
Filters allow you to narrow your data to specific codes, descriptors, media, excerpts, or other criteria. This can be useful when you want to review a particular subset of your coded data.
Choose the analysis that matches your question.
"Which codes appear together?"
Try: Code Co-Occurrence - Explore where two codes occur in the same or overlapping excerpts.
“Are there differences between groups?”
Try: Code x Descriptor - Compare coded data by characteristics such as role, training year, site, or study group.
"How are codes being used across my files?"
Try: Code Application - Explore how often codes were applied across different media files.
Best Practices
- Know what question you are trying to answer before applying filters. Filters are most useful when they are tied to a specific analytic question.
- Keep track of the filters you use. When a filtered set of data contributes to your analysis, document the criteria used so you can reproduce the process later.
- Return to the source data. Filtering helps you find relevant excerpts, but interpretation should consider the content and context of those excerpts rather than relying only on counts or frequencies.
FAQS
Helpful Resources
- Dedoose Learning Center – Searchable help articles and step-by-step guides. Open resource
- Dedoose Terminology – A useful overview of Media, Descriptors, Excerpts, and Codes. Open resource
- Codes and Coding – Instructions for creating codes, subcodes/child codes, and coding different types of media. Open resource
- Dedoose Support – Use the Learning Center search or contact Dedoose Support for technical questions. Open resource
Dedoose also includes tools for data subsets, code-by-descriptor analysis, code co-occurrence, code weights, team testing, and project exports. These can be useful once your basic coding workflow and analytic plan are established.