Atlas.ti


ATLAS.ti is a computer program used mostly, but not exclusively, in qualitative research or qualitative data analysis.

Description and usage

The purpose of ATLAS.ti is to help researchers uncover and systematically analyze complex phenomena hidden in unstructured data. The program provides tools that let the user locate, code, and annotate findings in primary data material, to weigh and evaluate their importance, and to visualize the often complex relations between them.
ATLAS.ti is used by researchers and practitioners in a wide variety of fields including anthropology, arts, architecture, communication, criminology, economics, educational sciences, engineering, ethnological studies, management studies, market research, quality management, psychology, sociology, and social work.
ATLAS.ti consolidates large volumes of documents and keeps track of all notes, annotations, codes and memos in all fields that require close study and analysis of primary material consisting of text, images, audio, video, and geo data.
In addition, it provides analytical and visualization tools designed to open new interpretative views on the material.
To support multi-method multi-user projects across space and time, project data export using XML is available. With XML, the proprietary nature of most software systems can be mitigated. This is indeed a mandatory requirement in scientific settings.
ATLAS.ti's XML schema influenced the development of the QuDEX language at University of Essex.

Features overview

A prototype of ATLAS.ti was developed by Thomas Muhr at Technical University in Berlin in the context of project ATLAS. A first commercial version of ATLAS.ti was released in 1993 to the market by company "Scientific Software Development," later ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH.
The methodological roots of ATLAS.ti lie in - but are not restricted to grounded theory, content analysis and knowledge elicitation. ATLAS.ti is currently available for the Windows desktop version, Mac desktop version, Android mobile, iPad version, as well as the Cloud version.

Literature