Ann Lewins was instrumental to establishing the reputation of the CAQDAS Networking Project as an authoritative source of impartial information about qualitative software. She managed the project from 1994 – 2010, during which time she developed critical expertise in the complex use of a range of software programs. Between 1994 and 2002 (when Christina Silver joined the project) Ann single-handedly organized and taught a series of intensive workshops, encouraged debate via seminars and an internet discussion list, and advised on good practice in a field of computer technology that is now seen as a prerequisite to effective qualitative research, the archiving of work and results.

Christina Silver has worked with Ann since 1998, formally becoming part of the CAQDAS Networking Project in 2002. She has contributed to the development of the awareness-raising and training portfolio of the project, and in 2010 she took over management of the project. She is particularly interested in visual analysis, the relationship between technology and methodology and methods of teaching and learning about CAQDAS in a methodological context. Christina was the lead researcher for the capacity-building outputs of the Qualitative Innovations in CAQDAS (QUIC) project, responsible for the design and implementation of online support materials. 

In 2002 Christina and Ann co-founded Qualitative Data Analysis Services (QDAS), a consortium providing research consultancy and training. Working with a range of academic, government and third sector clients across Europe, they provide bespoke doctoral training for several universities, consultancy services on a variety of research projects and conduct analysis with or for research teams. Much of their work involves supporting researchers to develop systematic and robust analytic strategies for use with qualitative software, and training teams to operate software tools to implement analysis efficiently.   

Using Qualitative Software is the result of a collaboration that started in 1997 when Christina and Ann first met. Our work together since then has shaped how we think about, use and teach qualitative software and this book results from those experiences.

This website is the companion to the second edition of Using Qualitative Software, where you can find 

software-specific and step-by-step instruction. Some CAQDAS developers have been glad to contribute to the creation of these pages and we thank them for that – we name the contributors on the relevant pages. 

We have expanded the second edition of Using Qualitative Software to offer more methodological contextualisation, including more detailed attention for visual analysis and mixed methods approaches.  This is in response to increasing interest from outside academic social science disciplines and increasing requests for descriptions of how to do certain types of analysis using particular software packages. Both these trends speak to the breadth in potential for the use of CAQDAS packages, and the continued need for specific advice about how to use them. 

We aim to highlight excellence, in both the important routine tasks and also in special or unique functions. We felt there was a need to point to particular strengths of software for particular research needs – you can find out about these aspects from the book, where we provide suggestions in each chapter about phases and tasks of analysis and information concerning the general and special provision of tools in these contexts. 

We would like to thank the ever responsive software devel­opers and their support teams, without whom the companion website would not have been developed. Thomas Muhr, Susanne Friese and Scientific Software (ATLAS.ti), Eli Lieber and SCRC (Dedoose), Anne Dupuis and Researchware (HyperRESEARCH), Udo Kuckartz, Anne Kuckartz, Stefan Rädiker, Graham Hughes and Verbi (MAXQDA), Normand Peladeau and Provalis Research (QDA Miner), David Woods, Joseph Woods and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Education Research (Transana).