Disclosed in the methods
The study, “Navigating Digital Change during COVID-19: The Role of Leadership in Southern African Parliaments”, surveyed and ran focus groups with 23 digital leaders from the ICT departments of 13 national parliaments and the SADC Parliamentary Forum. It reports that thematic analysis was used to identify and develop its key themes in relation to the research questions, with Evidano and NVivo named as the software supporting that stage.
Why this matters for your work
Researchers transcribed, cleaned, and familiarised themselves with the data, developed initial codes and categories by hand, and only then brought in software for the thematic analysis. The result is an AI-assisted approach that holds up to academic scrutiny while keeping researcher judgement first.
How Evidano fit the workflow
In the study, human researchers handled the early stages. The tool supported the thematic analysis step.
- 1Collect qualitative data
Focus group discussions and open-ended survey responses from digital leaders.
- 2Transcribe, clean, familiarise
Researchers read and cleaned transcripts and reviewed them several times before analysis.
- 3Code into categories
Initial codes were developed and grouped into broader categories and sub-categories.
- 4Thematic analysis with Evidano
Key themes were identified and developed in relation to the research questions.
“Then, thematic analysis was done on the data to identify and develop key themes that emerge from the data that relate to the research questions using Nvivo and AILYZE software.”
Manual analysis vs an Evidano-assisted workflow
Manual line-by-line coding. Slow theme development. Hard to trace quotes to themes. Reporting built from scratch.
Thematic analysis support. Faster theme development. Clickable quotes and citations. Exportable, shareable reports.
Tool use was stated in the methods, the standard reviewers expect.
Researchers coded and familiarised before the analysis step. AI assists, it does not replace.
Informed consent, confidentiality, and participant anonymity were maintained.
Applied to focus group discussions and open-ended survey responses from across the SADC region.