Terminology of Dedoose
There are several terms and concepts related to your account and the application that are helpful to understand before beginning your analysis:
Key Account Terms
User: Yourself or someone else who has an account with Dedoose.
Active user: If you are on an individual plan (standard or student), Dedoose only charges you for the months you log into the application. If you login, you are considered "active."
Account Group: If you are grouped with other users in Dedoose, you are in an account group.
Account Group vs Project Access:
There is a difference between adding someone to your account group and adding someone to your project.
If you add someone to your account group, you are responsible for paying their associated fees. Adding someone to your account group does not add them to any projects or impact project access. If you add someone to your project, you are not responsible for any of their fees. You are simply inviting them to collaborate with you on the specific project you added them to.
Please visit the following guides for more information:
Account Overview: If you are interested in more information on the distinction between account groups and project access, or managing your account
Add User to Project: If you are interested in adding someone to your project to collaborate in real-time
Add User to Account: If you are interested in adding someone to your Account Group and thereby pay for their Dedoose access
Foundational Elements within Dedoose
Dedoose uses several data points to track all of the connections you make during your analysis. Four core elements include Media, Descriptors, Excerpts, and Codes. Below you will find definitions for each.
Media
Media refers to the qualitative data you upload to the application. These can be text-based documents, video, audio, images, open-ended survey data, field notes, and much more.
Descriptors
Descriptors refer to any quantitative, categorical, or demographic information that is directly connected to your media. For example, if you upload an interview and are interested in linking a participants demographics, the time point, survey responses, etc.
Excerpts
An excerpt is a snippet or chunk of a media file that contains something important and meaningful about your research questions that you attach a code to. For example, a quote in an interview or a portion of an image. Much of qualitative and mixed methods analysis focuses on the content within excerpts.
Codes
Coding is a process of systematically categorizing and making meaning of your data. A code is a word or phrase that you create to capture a topic or theme of interest in your data that is applied to an excerpt.
Dedoose uses all of these elements to create a web of connections in your data. You can also use Memos to document your analytical thoughts and notes and link memos to nearly every element in Dedoose.