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Source
Description
Document
Text-based material such as interviews, field notes, focus groups, project notes and so on
Video
Video and associated transcript
Audio
Audio and associated transcript
Picture
Picture and associated picture log
In NVivo, 'sources' is the collective term for your research materials.
These materials are categorized into the following types:
Internals
Externals
Memos
Internals are the 'primary' research materials that you import or create inside your NVivo project. Internals can include any combination of the following sources:
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Source |
Description |
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Document |
Text-based material such as interviews, field notes, focus groups, project notes and so on |
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Video |
Video and associated transcript |
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Audio |
Audio and associated transcript |
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Picture |
Picture and associated picture log |
Externals are 'proxies' for the primary research materials that you cannot import into your NVivo project. For example:
Handwritten diaries
Books
Paper-based news articles
Web pages
PowerPoint presentations
You can create an external source and summarize the content of the item—for example, you might enter interesting quotes from an article or summarize the chapters in a book.
If the external represents a web page or a file on your computer you can create a link and easily open it.
Memos are the 'secondary' research materials that you import or create in your NVivo project. They contain your observations and insights about the data you have collected. If required, you can link a memo to the source or node that inspired it. You can also use memos to keep track of your progress through a project. By creating a project 'journal' you can record questions, assumptions and conclusions as you go.
