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Catherine Pope a Department of
Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR, b ICRF General Practice Research Group, University of Oxford,
Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford OX3 7LS, c Social Policy Branch, The
Treasury, PO Box 3724, Wellington, New Zealand
Correspondence to: C Pope c.pope@bristol.ac.uk
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Contrary to popular perception, qualitative research can produce vast amounts of data. These may include verbatim notes or transcribed recordings of interviews or focus groups, jotted notes and more detailed "fieldnotes" of observational research, a diary or chronological account, and the researcher's reflective notes made during the research. These data are not necessarily small scale: transcribing a typical single interview takes several hours and can generate 20-40 pages of single spaced text. Transcripts and notes are the raw data of the research. They provide a descriptive record of the research, but they cannot provide explanations. The researcher has to make sense of the data by sifting and interpreting them.
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Relation between analysis and qualitative data |
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In much qualitative research the analytical process begins during
data collection as the data already gathered are analysed and shape the
ongoing data collection. This sequential analysis1 or
interim analysis2 has the advantage of allowing the
researcher to go back and refine