Content analysis: concepts, methods and applications: Content analysis is a flexible methodology that is particularly useful to nurse researchers, asserts Stephen Cavanagh
Abstract
Content analysis is much more than a naive technique that results in a simplistic description of data. It allows the researcher to test theoretical issues to enhance understanding of the data. Using applications from the nursing and health literature, this paper will explain key concepts and methodological issues, including strategies for data analysis.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 21 · Cited by 1,133
- Authors
- Cavanagh, S.
- Affiliations
- Wayne State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cavanagh, Stephen
- ORCID
- Cavanagh, Stephen
- Venue
- Nurse Researcher
- Publisher
- RCNi
- Published
- 1997-04
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 5-16
- ISSN
- 1351-5578 (ISSN-L)
- 2047-8992
- OpenAlex
- W2019461830
- Cited by
- 1,133
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 73 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 87 · 2021: 103 · 2020: 81 · 2019: 100 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 61 · 2016: 58 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 37
- FWCI
- 22.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nurse Researcher (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › General Social Sciences › Computational and Text Analysis Methods
- Social Sciences › Education › Health Education and Validation
- Keywords
- content analysis, qualitative data analysis, nursing research, health research, data analysis methods
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
