NVivo can be a helpful tool to assist with literature reviews as it allows you to organise, summarise and search the literature you have found on your particular topic. When conducting a literature review, if you have already used referencing software (for example EndNote) to store your references, then you can import them to NVivo using the instructions provided in the Importing from EndNote section of this module (or similar if using different referencing software). Alternatively, if you have not uploaded them to referencing software then you can import them from a saved location on your computer using the instructions provided in the Importing materials saved on your computer section of this module.
Once you have added your literature to an NVivo project, you can create codes and search project materials as described previously in this module. This page provides some examples of codes and searches that could help with a literature review, and also explains some other features that might be useful.
In brief, it covers the following:
Note that in order to follow some of the examples provided, you can either use the project you created in the Setting up a project page, or make use of the Virtual Reality and Health sample project (as detailed in the Sample projects page).
Annotations can be used for a range of purposes, including to highlight a word or phrase that needs further definition, or to clarify or comment on a particular aspect of an argument.
To add an annotation to a document, open it and highlight the text you wish to annotate. Then either right click and choose ‘New Annotation’ from the menu that appears, or click on the down arrow for the ‘Annotations’ icon above the document (the icon which looks like a speech bubble) and choose ‘Add Annotation’. Either way, you can then type your annotation.
To show or hide the list of annotations at any time, select or deselect the ‘Annotations’ check box on the menu at the top of the screen, or click on the down arrow for the ‘Annotations’ icon above the document and select or deselect ‘View Annotations’. If you wish to delete an annotation, make sure the annotations are displayed and then select the item number for the relevant annotation, right click and choose ‘Delete’. Note that you can view the list of documents you have annotated by clicking on Annotations in the Navigation View (in the ‘Notes’ group), and can double click on any of these to view the annotation(s).
Memos are documents in your project that you can use to paraphrase what you have read, as well as to store your own personal insights, observations, interpretation and notes. Each memo is generally linked to an item in your project, although you can also create memos which are not linked if wished.
If you have imported from referencing software such as EndNote, the default is for a memo to be created for each reference containing the abstract, keywords and notes. You can check if this is the case for a particular reference by right clicking on it, either in the List View at the middle or in the Details View at the right of screen, and choosing ‘Memo Link’ (or ‘Links’ and then ‘Memo Link’) from the menu. If a memo already exists you will have the option to open or delete the memo; if it doesn’t, you will have the option to link to a new or existing memo. Either way, you can add your own content to a memo by opening it and selecting the ‘Edit’ box above it (once you have finished, click the ‘Edit’ box again to turn the edit mode off). You can also view a list of memos in your project by selecting Memos (or a sub-folder of Memos, for example Analysis memos and Article summaries in the sample project) in the Navigation View (in the ‘Notes’ group), and can double click to open any of these.
You might find that you prefer to code directly from the references in your project, or that you wish to paraphrase and add observations to memos for the items and to code from these instead (or you could do a combination of both).
The process of coding for a literature review is the same as that described in the Codes & coding page of this module, and again you will generally create codes for particular topics and themes that occur in your literature. However, there are also some additional codes that you may want to consider including when using NVivo for a literature review. For example:
If you do create these or similar codes, you can store them together in a Literature Review folder by right clicking on Codes in the Navigation View and selecting ‘New Folder…’ then naming it as required. You can then create the codes in this folder, or can copy and paste (or drag and drop) them there if you have already created them somewhere else.
One of the reasons you might like to create a References code is that you can use it to help you find additional articles on the topic of your literature review. To do this, code the reference section from each of your existing articles to the References code, then run a word frequency query on that code only (by choosing ‘Selected Items…’ and selecting the References code in step 2 of the instructions). You can then double click on any of the words in the search results to view the references containing those words.
You can use a cluster analysis to find out which of your articles are most similar, which can help you decide the best order to read them. To do this, select all or some of your articles then right click and select ‘Visualize’ and choose ‘Cluster Analysis of Selected Items’. When you do this, the articles that appear closer together in the diagram are more similar and so you may find it helpful to read them together.
Finally, if you would like to keep everything together in your NVivo project then you may like to create a working document for your topic. To do this, open the folder where you would like to store the document (or create a new one), then right click in the List View, choose ‘New File’ and ‘New Document…’. Name the document and click ‘OK’, and a blank document will open in the Details View.
The basic Microsoft Word functions for use in your working document will be available in the menu in the ‘Edit’ tab at the top of the screen, and you can turn on or turn off the edit mode by clicking on the ‘Edit’ box as per memos. You can use this document to keep track of your literature search strategies, the databases you use and so on. You can save this document to your computer at a later date if wished by right clicking on it either in the List View or in the Details View, choosing ‘Export’ and ‘Export Document…’ (or just ‘Export Document…’), browsing to choose where you would like to save it and then selecting ‘OK’.