MAXQDA Update 2018.2 – New Features

MAXQDA has released a free update, MAXQDA 2018.2 which incorporates over 30 improvements and new features, the release notes can be found here. This blog will quickly highlight the new features.

Code Map

A code map is a visual representation of your coded data. This map allows you to see your codes and any potential relationships between them. The closer the plot point is to another point the more they are related.

A code map showing the relationship between codes and identifying clusters

The analyst has the option to identify any clusters. This is done automatically and any plot points that are part of a cluster will be the same colour. The analyst also has the option to show the relationship between the codes as below.

Code map showing the relationships between codes.

Advanced Teamwork Options

These options allow a team more control and options when it comes and sharing and merge data on a project. This is done via a MAXQDA-Exchange-File (MEX).

Analyst 1 exports the MEX file while other analysts (Analyst 2, 3, etc) imports the MEX into their project pack

The analyst exports the relevant document or information from their project file into a MEX file and sends this file to others working on the project who then import the MEX file into their own project pack. As well as the document, codes, memos, paraphrases and variables can be updated during the import process depending on the import settings.

Intercoder Agreement for Groups

The main improvement here is that one can now review different coding approaches across multiple documents at the same time making the process more efficient. The results table has been improved and is now interactive making coding decisions where there is a variance easier to make.

The interactive results page enables easy review and editing

Stats Module Visuals

One of the limitations of MAXQDA was the limited range of charts and visuals especially in the Stats module, this has been addressed in this update with the introduction of group bar charts, histograms and box plots.

The Box Plot allows the analyst to show the spread of the data as well as the upper and lower quartiles and median

Data can also be displayed in the form of a histogram as below.

Histograms are one of the new visuals in the Stats module

In terms of crosstab analysis previously one was limited to presenting the data as a chart, now the analyst has the option to present the data as a grouped bar chart.

Crosstab of Jobs lost by region

Grouped bar chart of the above Crosstab

We are excited about these new features and can’t wait to start using them to provide better and improved insights for you.