(Partial) Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms (alphabetical order)
Note: This is a partial glossary of terms related to “Using NVivo…” This is conceptualized as a quick reference guide only.
Agnostic (as in theory- or method- agnostic): A software tool that is not designed with an underlying theory or method in mind but is sufficiently flexible to accommodate a range of theoretical or methodological approaches
Autocoding (automatic coding): The computerized labeling of data to particular nodes in NVivo either based on text style or on machine learning (from extant human coding)
Bibliographic tool: A third-party software tool that enables the ingestion of bibliographic (citation) data from formally-published contents hosted on repositories (and often contents from the Web and Internet)
CAQDAS: Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (draft slideshow on SlideShare)
Case comparison diagram: A visualization which highlights some of the salient comparisons and contrasts (similarities and differences) between coded cases
Codebook A document which describes the codes and their respective definitions used in coding data; may be pre-defined a priori, may be emergent, or may be created from both pre-defined and emergent (from the data) methods
Classification sheet: A table which enables the description of types of sources or case nodes in a project and the attributes linked to the particular classification (such as a “person” type of “case node” and the respective attributes for that person such as “age,” “education,” and “gender”
Coding comparison: A type of matrix query that enables comparisons-and-contrasts across coded nodes
Coding pattern: A machine-analysis of human coding for machine-emulated autocoding
Cohen’s Kappa coefficient: A similarity calculation of interrater reliability that looks at the disjoint set of two coders’ coded data (as compared to their agreement on what to code and what not to code)
Compound query: A multiple-layered query of types of information in NVivo (from both sources and coded nodes)
Data query: The mining of both structured and unstructured data in NVivo using a range of possible tools
Data repository: A collection of datasets or data
Dataset: A collection of data (of a certain type or of varying types)
De-identification: Removing the identifying features of respondents from a dataset (optimally in a way in which individuals may not be re-identified)
Disambiguation: Removing ambiguity or confusion or “noise” from data
Dynamic: Moving, changing over time
Ego: An individual or self
Entity: A group
Event log: A recording of the human actions taken in an NVivo project (reported out as a text file)
External source: A category of source which contains “proxies” for data which cannot be directly transcoded and ingested into the NVivo project
Extract: A particular element which is taken from a certain location to build a report, a data table, or some other exportable file
Social media platforms: Online spaces that enable human sharing of digital information and interactions through self-created online identities
Static: Non-dynamic, not moving, passive
Structured data: Data that is pre-labeled in spreadsheets with column and / or row headers labeling the data
Synthetic data: Artificial data (created for exemplification or other purposes)
Tag: The folk (non-expert; amateur) labeling of social media contents like images, audio files, video files, slideshows, or other contents
Text frequency count: A machine count of all (generally semantic) words in a document or text corpus (minus those listed in a “stopwords list” or a “delete words list”)
Text search: The extraction of all instances of a particular term or phrase (or related synonyms) in order to capture the “gist” of its usage based on proxemics terms (both prior to the term’s use and following the term’s use)
Unicode: A code set of characters and specifications that enables the inclusion of any written language to be used on computers and the Internet (based on the work of The Unicode Consortium)
Unstructured data: Data that is not structured in tables with labeled rows and columns, such as textual documents, text corpuses, extracted Tweetstream datasets, images, audio files, video, and so on
Facet: A dimension or property of an item (such as a case node)
Generative AI: A technology tool built off of large language models (LLMs) trained on big data using deep learning techniques (typically artificial neural networks) that may be prompted with text and / or imagery to auto-generate a resulting image (based on learned weights from the ANNs and fine-tuning in the tool)
Geolocation: The relating of online data to a physical location on earth (often from noisy data to specific “structured location references”
Graph: A 2D or 3D node-link representation of entities and relationships
Group query: An advanced query that enables the querying of particular groupings of data for in-depth analysis
Hashtag (#): The labeling of microblogging text messages or shared social media contents based on a shared theme or topic or conversation
Graph: A 2D or 3D node-link representation of entities and relationships
Group query: An advanced query that enables the querying of particular groupings of data for in-depth analysis
Hashtag (#): The labeling of microblogging text messages or shared social media contents based on a shared theme or topic or conversation
Image coding: Viewing visuals and coding aspects for meaning (or using computational methods such as object recognition, mood analysis, thematic coding, and other elements for extracting understanding from the visuals)
Ingest: The importation of data into an NVivo project
Interface: The space where a human being interacts with a software tool, including the Navigation View, Ribbon, Find Bar, List View, and Detail View in the integrated workspace
Internal source: Any digital data related to the research project
Inter-rater reliability: A similarity measure to compare how closely two coders code data (as points of agreement and points of disagreement; also known as inter-annotator reliability
Machine reading: The capability for computers to automatically extract relevant data based on algorithms, without human intervention (in relation to the Semantic Web)
Matrix: A table used to compare entities or variables labeled in the rows and columns (with the data in the intersecting cells)
Memo: A note related to a particular object (in terms of context-sensitive memoing)
Metadata: Information about content data (used for various types of datamining and analysis)
Microblogging: The act of sharing short messages, URL links, images, and videos through a microblogging site or related app
Mixed methodology: A form of research which integrates or mixes qualitative and quantitative theories and methods
Multi-methodology: A form of research that uses more than one method of research
Multimedia: Media that consists of a variety of content forms
NCapture: A plug-in or add-on to Google Chrome and Internet Explorer to enable the capturing of website information for use In NVivo as well as dataset extractions from Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In and other social media platforms
NVivo: A qualitative and mixed methods data analysis software tool
.nvp: The file extension for an NVivo project in Windows
Interface: The space where a human being interacts with a software tool, including the Navigation View, Ribbon, Find Bar, List View, and Detail View in the integrated workspace
Internal source: Any digital data related to the research project
Inter-rater reliability: A similarity measure to compare how closely two coders code data (as points of agreement and points of disagreement; also known as inter-annotator reliability
Machine reading: The capability for computers to automatically extract relevant data based on algorithms, without human intervention (in relation to the Semantic Web)
Matrix: A table used to compare entities or variables labeled in the rows and columns (with the data in the intersecting cells)
Memo: A note related to a particular object (in terms of context-sensitive memoing)
Metadata: Information about content data (used for various types of datamining and analysis)
Microblogging: The act of sharing short messages, URL links, images, and videos through a microblogging site or related app
Mixed methodology: A form of research which integrates or mixes qualitative and quantitative theories and methods
Multi-methodology: A form of research that uses more than one method of research
Multimedia: Media that consists of a variety of content forms
NCapture: A plug-in or add-on to Google Chrome and Internet Explorer to enable the capturing of website information for use In NVivo as well as dataset extractions from Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In and other social media platforms
Network analysis: A visual analytical (and statistical) research approach based on the study of ego-based networks or content-based networks
.nvp: The file extension for an NVivo project in Windows
.nvpx: The extension for an NVivo project in the Mac operating system
Node: The basic unit of “code” in NVivo, which may represent concepts, themes, individuals, demographic attributes, or a range of other informational features
Operating system: Software that runs a computer's basic functions, such as Windows, Mac, or Linux
Optical Character Recognition (OCR): The capability for a machine to recognize a particular language character from a photo-scanned document
Path: A sequence of navigation through pages and multimedia (on Scalar, the platform on which the “Using NVivo” text is hosted)
Proxy: Something used to represent or stand in for something else
Node: The basic unit of “code” in NVivo, which may represent concepts, themes, individuals, demographic attributes, or a range of other informational features
Node-link diagram: A 2D or 3D depiction of egos/entities and their interrelationships (defined in a variety of ways depending on the research context)
Operating system: Software that runs a computer's basic functions, such as Windows, Mac, or Linux
Optical Character Recognition (OCR): The capability for a machine to recognize a particular language character from a photo-scanned document
Path: A sequence of navigation through pages and multimedia (on Scalar, the platform on which the “Using NVivo” text is hosted)
Proxy: Something used to represent or stand in for something else
.qdc: A file extension for digital codebooks (that may be used in NVivo, and other CAQDAS tools)...standing for REFI-QDA (The codebook is comprised of the coding categories and descriptions about what goes into each category. None of the coded information is exported out with this codebook. NVivo can take .qdc as an input, and it can also output codebooks in their entirety or portions of code as a .qdc file. .qdc is a type of universal file format type.)
Radial diagram: A data visualization in Scalar based on a radiating pattern from a central point (in Scalar)
Relationship: An undirected or directed linkage between two nodes
Research journal: A chronological record of the research
Screenshot: A screen capture of the visual contents on a computer screen
Semantic Web: A concept of the World Wide Web in which its contents are sufficiently metadata-ed so as to be machine searchable (a concept of Tim Berners-Lee) for a wide range of information mining capabilities
Relationship: An undirected or directed linkage between two nodes
Research journal: A chronological record of the research
Screenshot: A screen capture of the visual contents on a computer screen
Semantic Web: A concept of the World Wide Web in which its contents are sufficiently metadata-ed so as to be machine searchable (a concept of Tim Berners-Lee) for a wide range of information mining capabilities
Semi-structured data: Any data that is not pre-labeled such as data cells in a data table (can include imagery, video, multimedia, and other contents)
Sentiment analysis: A machine categorization of text-based data as very positive, moderately positive, moderately negative, and very negative (on the positive-to-negative continuum)
Social media platforms: Online spaces that enable human sharing of digital information and interactions through self-created online identities
Static: Non-dynamic, not moving, passive
Structured data: Data that is pre-labeled in spreadsheets with column and / or row headers labeling the data
Synthetic data: Artificial data (created for exemplification or other purposes)
Tag: The folk (non-expert; amateur) labeling of social media contents like images, audio files, video files, slideshows, or other contents
Text frequency count: A machine count of all (generally semantic) words in a document or text corpus (minus those listed in a “stopwords list” or a “delete words list”)
Text search: The extraction of all instances of a particular term or phrase (or related synonyms) in order to capture the “gist” of its usage based on proxemics terms (both prior to the term’s use and following the term’s use)
Theme extraction: An autocoding feature in NVivo that enables the automated extraction of the main themes and subthemes in text data
Unicode: A code set of characters and specifications that enables the inclusion of any written language to be used on computers and the Internet (based on the work of The Unicode Consortium)
Unstructured data: Data that is not structured in tables with labeled rows and columns, such as textual documents, text corpuses, extracted Tweetstream datasets, images, audio files, video, and so on
User stream: A listing of microblogging messages related to a particular user account on Twitter (extractable using the NCapture add-on to Google Chrome, in conjunction with NVivo)
Visual mining: The human extraction of information (and insight) from often-interactive visual objects
Visual mining: The human extraction of information (and insight) from often-interactive visual objects
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