Qualitative Evidence Synthesis Using COSTAQDA

The use of Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) in policy-making across sectors such as education, public health and management, and economic sciences is rapidly growing across the globe as more scholars and practitioners require distilled information about “what works” as an intervention. However, QES methodology requires high levels of expertise and capabilities to ensure a rigorous study is conducted in line with established international standards. Furthermore, integrating the QES project with capabilities provided by Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) is a further improvement to producing reliable/dependable knowledge whose methods can be replicable in similar situations. The COSTAQDA is one of the newly developed intuitive cloud-based CAQDAS applications that enable scholars to conduct robust literature-based studies while maintaining the highest levels of rigor, including application of Inter-Coder Reliability Statistics using Cohen’s Kappa. This chapter presents the best possible methods of using QES to assist policymakers and decision-makers with credible and trustworthy information that has been processed through rigorous methods. Advantages and disadvantages, including limitations, are discussed, with further opportunities for effectively responding to these methodological constraints through the RETREAT framework. Finally, the COSTAQDA application is presented briefly and demonstrated using visuals to assist users in project creation to completion.