As your project grows you are likely to build up a large number of sources, nodes, queries and models. You may want to group these items in the following ways:
You can create subfolders for your sources, queries and models to assist in the organization of your project:
You can use folders to organize sources based on their distinct types (e.g. interviews, focus groups and diaries). You could also distinguish further source types (e.g. stages in data gathering).
Queries could be stored in folders relevant to their processes within your project (e.g. by analysis sector, or chapter, or overarching theme).
Models may cover a wide range of analysis areas which can be reflected in folders
In the Volunteering Sample Project
The interview documents, audio and video are stored in a folder called Interviews and focus group documents and video are separately stored in a folder called Focus Groups.
A separate folder called Project Notes keeps documents related to the running of the project separate to it sources of data.
Sets are a swift and flexible way of grouping sources and/or nodes. When you place an item in a set NVivo creates an alias (or shortcut) to it. Hence there is no limit to the number of sets a source or node may be aliased to.
You might use sets in the following ways:
To order and organize a set of pictures - put picture sources in a set and display them as thumbnails to make a 'photo gallery'.
To see stages, progress and changes in data construction, or to manage research timetables (e.g. "Items created this week", "Nodes without coding")
To direct and inform coding (e.g. "Sources not yet coded", "Nodes created since team debate")
To manage coding and auto coding (e.g. "Nodes to discuss and re-describe", "Sources not yet auto coded")
Group items around a theme or an area of analysis
Identify and compare the work of team members, a set for each can contain the interviews they conducted, memos they wrote and nodes they introduced
In the Volunteering Sample Project
The set Simon's Photo Diary contains an ordered set of pictures taken by a research participant. The set Review Coding contains sources that have been coded but need to be reviewed.
