Verbatim · Method guide

Mayring's six-step qualitative content analysis

Qualitative content analysis (inductive-category / summarising procedure)

Verbatim offers this as a guided flow: it names each step and maps it onto the real Verbatim tool that performs it, and reports — from your real artefacts only — which steps show evidence of completion. It is a procedural guide, never an automatic analysis: no theme is invented, nothing is auto-coded, and the reading and interpretation stay yours.

The six steps

1. Subject & theory
2. Selection criterion & category building
3. Sentence-by-sentence handling (summarising / typification or new categories)
4. Category revision
5. A final pass over the material
6. Interpretation

Reference: Mayring (2011), Qualitative content analysis — the six-step inductive-category / summarising procedure (subject & theory -> selection criterion & category building -> sentence-by-sentence handling with summarising/typification or new categories -> category revision -> a final pass over the material -> interpretation), as tabulated by Sallan Gül & Kahya Nizam (2021), Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, p.185, Table 2; including Mayring's 10–50% re-examination rule (once 10–50% of the material is re-examined with no new category appearing, the summarised category system is reworked — overlaps/redundancies reviewed)