Vichara QDA: User Guide

A quick, practical guide to running a qualitative study end-to-end. Vichara supports the full workflow: set up your study, import and code data, build themes, run analyses, and export a report.

1. Set up your study

• Create a project (sidebar → ＋ New). Enter your title, aim, objectives and data type (IDI, FGD, etc.). This frames your work and appears in reports. Edit anytime via Documents → ✎ Edit details.
• Use multiple projects for multiple studies; switch between them at the top of the sidebar.

2. Bring in your data

• Transcription template (Documents view) gives you a clean Word template with speaker turns on separate lines. Transcribing in this format imports perfectly. Avoid putting transcripts inside Word tables.
• Import .docx or .txt files, or Paste text directly.
• Case attributes (Documents view): define variables such as Gender, Age group or Site, then tag each document. These power subgroup comparisons.

3. Code your data (Coding view)

• Select a passage in the transcript, then click a code in the pop-up or the right-hand panel to apply it.
• In-vivo coding creates a code named after the participant's own words.
• Passages can carry several codes (overlaps are shown). Click a highlight to review or remove its codes.
• Manage codes in Codebook: hierarchy (parent and child codes), colours, merge and rename.
• Each code carries a definition, inclusion criteria ("apply when…"), exclusion criteria ("do not apply when…"), an anchor example, its origin (inductive / deductive / in-vivo) and a sentiment. Record your analytic framework and coding approach under "Framework & details" so the codebook is publication-ready.
• Import / export the codebook: Word (for a thesis appendix), Excel/CSV (editable, and the import format: download the template), or REFI-QDA .qdc, the open standard that NVivo, ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA read and write. Imports show a preview with merge options before anything changes.

4. Thematic analysis: Braun & Clarke (Themes view)

Vichara follows the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis. Open Themes → Show 6-phase guide to track your progress:

1. Familiarisation: read and re-read; note first impressions as Memos.
2. Initial codes: code systematically across the data (Coding view).
3. Searching for themes: create themes here and group related codes under each.
4. Reviewing themes: test them with Retrieval and Co-occurrence; do they hold together?
5. Defining & naming: write a clear definition for each theme.
6. Producing the report: pull vivid extracts and export (below).

Approach & framework — inductive, deductive or hybrid

Open Themes → Approach & framework and record how you are deriving themes. This is written into your thematic-analysis report as part of the audit trail.

• Inductive: themes built bottom-up from the data.
• Deductive: themes come top-down from an established framework.
• Hybrid: a framework as scaffold, plus inductive themes for what it misses.

For deductive or hybrid work, choose one of the built-in frameworks — CFIR, TDF, COM-B, socio-ecological model, Health Belief Model, RE-AIM, NPT, WHO health system building blocks, Levesque access to care or Andersen's behavioural model — and press Apply as themes. Vichara creates one theme per domain with the domain definition as its coding rule, and each framework carries its original citation for your methods section.

A coverage table then shows how many codes and segments sit under each domain, and flags domains with no evidence yet. An empty domain is a finding worth reporting, not a failure. Download it with Coverage matrix (CSV).

Thematic analysis report

Themes → ⬇ TA report produces a standalone thematic-analysis output: your approach and framework, the six-phase audit trail with the notes you wrote for each phase, every theme with its definition and origin (inductive or a-priori), its codes, segment and document counts, illustrative extracts, and framework coverage. Choose how many quotes per theme, then download as Word, or take the theme × code matrix as CSV. The same downloads sit under Export & Backup → Thematic analysis.

5. Analyse (Analysis view) & how to interpret

• Code frequency: how often each code appears, and in how many documents. High counts show salient topics; interpret with care: frequency ≠ importance.
• Co-occurrence: how often two codes are applied to the same passage. Strong overlaps suggest related concepts or candidate themes.
• Retrieval: pull every quote for a code, optionally filtered by attribute (e.g., only women). This is your evidence base for writing up.
• Text search: find a word/phrase across all transcripts with surrounding context.
• Word frequency: the most common words (stop-words removed) across the corpus or within one code: a quick sense of language and salience.
• Matrix query: codes × an attribute (e.g., codes × Gender): compare how sub-groups talk about each code.
• Framework matrix: the classic cases × themes grid of framework analysis (Ritchie & Spencer). Each cell shows how many extracts that case contributed to that theme; click it to read them and write your own summary, or press Auto-generate (single cell) or Auto-summarise cells (whole matrix) to draft them from that case's own words. Auto-drafts are flagged draft until you edit and save them, so you always review before use. Comparing summaries across rows is how framework analysis builds its findings. Download as Word or CSV.
• Sentiment & emotion: the valence of each coded extract on a five-point scale (−− very negative, − negative, 0 neutral, + positive, ++ very positive), with negation handled (so "not helpful" reads negative), plus an emotion profile (fear, anger, sadness, hope, shame/stigma, trust) and your strongest extracts. Treat these as suggestions to review, not verdicts: set the authoritative sentiment yourself on each code.
• Evidence table: your quotes laid out as theme → code → supporting extracts with the source and case attributes, ready to paste into a manuscript. Download as Word or CSV/Excel. While coding, click a highlighted passage and press ☆ to mark a key quote, then tick "key quotes only" to build a table of just your best extracts.
• Word tree (KWIC): enter a word and see how participants talk around it: a branching tree of the most common continuations, plus a full keyword-in-context concordance you can export.
• Code map: a network diagram where each circle is a code (sized by how often it's used) and lines connect codes applied to the same passages — it reveals which ideas cluster together. Downloadable for publication.
• Analyse by Codes or Themes: on frequency, co-occurrence, code map and matrix, switch the toggle to roll your codes up into their themes for a higher-level view.
• Reliability (κ): inter-rater reliability. Have a second coder code the same documents (same names) with the same code names in their own copy, export it, and load it here to get Cohen's kappa per code and overall: the standard measure of coding agreement for publications.
• Every chart offers PNG (hi-res) and SVG (vector) download for publication.

6. Write-up: draft your Methods and Results

The Write-up view drafts the two hardest sections of your paper from the project you have already coded. It is a first draft to revise, not a finished manuscript.

1. Open Write-up → Write-up details… and fill in the facts a Methods section needs that are not in your coded data: sampling method and rationale, setting, eligibility criteria, data collection period, transcription, number of coders, ethics approval, trustworthiness strategies, participant demographics (which becomes Table 1) and your Cohen's kappa if you ran one.
2. Press Generate draft.

You get a subheaded Methods (study design · participants and setting · data collection · data analysis · rigour and trustworthiness · ethical considerations) and Results (participant characteristics · overview of themes · one subsection per theme), plus Table 1 participant characteristics, Table 2 theme frequency, Table 3 illustrative extracts, charts of theme coverage, and a reference list containing only the sources your recorded choices actually call for.

Download as Word or save as PDF. Read and revise before submission, and check each number against your coded data.

7. Export, share and back up

• Report as Word (.doc) or PDF (editable / print-ready): includes study overview, themes, codebook, frequencies and all coded extracts.
• Thematic analysis: the TA report (Word), theme × code matrix (CSV) and framework coverage (CSV).
• CSV exports of coded segments and codebook open in Excel, SPSS or R.
• Project backup (.json): export regularly. Projects live in this browser unless saved to the cloud; the backup lets you restore, move computers, or share with a colleague.

Sharing is per project

Save a project to the cloud from Cloud & Sharing, then invite people by email or with a link. Access applies to that one project only — your other projects stay private, and each is shared separately. The share dialog names the project you are sharing so there is no ambiguity. Collaborators can be editors or viewers.

Deleting a project

Each project card on the dashboard has a delete control in its footer. What it does depends on the project: a cloud project you own is deleted for everyone it is shared with; one shared with you only removes your access; a browser-only project is removed from this device. You are always asked to confirm — export a backup first if you may want it later.

8. Learn the method: Vichara Academy

The Academy (sidebar, opens in a new tab) is a free ten-module course in qualitative research: foundations, choosing a design, sampling, interviewing and focus groups, coding and the codebook, thematic analysis, framework analysis, rigour and reliability, ethics, and reporting. Each module has worked examples, diagrams and flowcharts, a quiz you need to pass, and an assignment you complete in your own project.

Sign in to track progress. Complete every module and you can download a certificate in your name — a PDF carrying a certificate ID and a QR code that anyone can scan to verify it at /verify. Quizzes are graded on the server; assignments you mark yourself.

Good practice

• Write Memos as ideas emerge: they become your audit trail.
• Keep coding rules in each code's description for consistency (and inter-coder work).
• Back up (Export project .json) at the end of every session.

Your research data (documents, codes, memos) stays in your browser unless you choose to save a project to the cloud, in which case it is stored on the server so it is backed up and can be shared with collaborators you invite. Analysis inputs are processed in memory and discarded immediately.