Last update:
16-Mar-2026

Thematic analysis is a widely used method in qualitative research to analyze data recorded, in the form of written text by researchers. Particularly, it is applied to analyze data resulting from the most common methods of data collection in qualitative research which are interviews, focus groups and observations. The purpose of thematic analysis is to create a detailed and systematic record of the codifications and themes arising from the interviews or observations of the participants. In thematic analysis, researchers discover the themes in the written texts that emerge from the participants and then try to confirm, verify and expand on these themes through the data and repeat the process of finding other themes on the other. In recent years, some software programs have been developed that help in data analysis in qualitative research, the most important of which are NVivo, ATLAS.ti, Transana, AQUAD, MAXQDA, etc. It should be noted that these software programs cannot analyze and interpret data, as analysis and interpretation is the sole responsibility of researchers, but they can help researchers in simpler and easier storage, coding, and data management, especially in studies with numerous data. There are two methods for checking validity in thematic analysis: (a) checking validity by participants and (b) checking validity by other researchers.

Key words: Focus groups, Interviews, Observations, Qualitative research, Thematic analysis.