Open Coding
Open coding is the first, exploratory phase of qualitative data analysis in which raw text — interviews, field notes, or documents — is broken into discrete segments and labelled with short descriptive codes. Developed within grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss and later elaborated by Strauss and Corbin, the procedure is deliberately open and inductive: the analyst reads line-by-line without imposing a predetermined framework, allowing concepts to emerge directly from the data. The resulting codes are then compared and grouped into provisional categories that become the building blocks for subsequent, more selective analysis.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.). Sage. · ISBN 978-0803959408
- Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage. · URL
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.