Saving time without sacrificing rigour - Maintaining data immersion in thematic analysis

Qualitative research is a matter of interpretation, and it is thus important to know and to show which statements lie at the bottom of said interpretation. When using Thematic analysis as defined by Braun and Clarke, rigour is called for and any analysis needs to be based on an amount of data no researcher can remember. It is, however, necessary to have all references at one’s fingertips. The approach described in this research note was designed to make this possible. As the basis of this description, a study on communication in a crisis was used. A systematic approach with IT support through NVivo completed by manual sorting of references led to the creation of theme, sub-theme, code and reference pouches which could be referred to throughout both the preparation of the discussion and the actual writing up. The effort to create these pouches was considerable, but overall, time could be saved. With all data-related details readily available in the pouches, any reference was quick and easy to find. This allowed the vivid illustration of the findings advocated by Braun and Clarke (2023a) within a relatively short amount of time. The described approach has proven useful to save time without the need to sacrifice rigour: it allows, once the preparation has been done, to maintain data immersion throughout the whole research process.