LibreQDA was initially developed by the Plateforme en humanités numériques with financial and material support from a special grant from the Université de Sherbrooke and the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST). Our work also builds on that of Rémi Rampin and the other contributors to the Taguette software.

This free and open-source software enables users to carry out different steps in the analysis of interviews or text corpora:

• Import a variety of text file formats (.pdf, .docx, .odt, .txt, and more)
• Code words, passages, or paragraphs using manually defined codes
• Retrieve and explore themes of interest
• Export a selection of coded excerpts or the entire project
• Collaborate with others throughout all stages of this process

The server version of LibreQDA (available at libreqda.org) runs on infrastructure provided by Calcul Québec and is maintained by highly qualified university personnel. Users simply connect via a web browser, and changes are saved in real time.

Several goals drive this project:

• Encourage adoption of a free (as in gratis) and open-source tool that supports core tasks in computer-assisted qualitative analysis
• Promote the use of such tools in ways that align with principles of sound research data management, particularly those prioritized by university research ethics boards
• Offer an alternative to commercial and proprietary qualitative data analysis software, which often imposes advanced features that may not align with the epistemological foundations of qualitative analysis

The following organizations currently support our maintenance, security, development and sustainability work:

• The Digital Research Alliance of Canada, through the Research Software Maintenance Fund
• The Université du Québec, the Université de Montréal and the NUTRISS research centre, the first three member organizations of our membership program. Their communities receive personalized support for adopting LibreQDA.

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Impact#

Nearly 2,000 users joined the LibreQDA community in the first twelve months of the project. They come from around sixty institutions and organizations, including about ten Quebec universities.

The following documents from Google Scholar mention libreqda. We like to think that we have played a part in supporting these authors' research.

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Contribute#

LibreQDA is developed for and by the research community. Our guiding principle: publish the source code and host a free version of the software. To add relevant new features, we rely on the support of institutional actors or research teams who believe in the principles of open science.

If you're interested in a specific feature and would like to allocate financial resources to develop it, write to us at libreqda@usherbrooke.ca. We will assess how well it aligns with the project's scientific directions and the priorities already set by the community.

Roadmap#

The following features are considered priorities for upcoming versions. Help us develop them for the community!

Labels

Inspired by Zotero's tags, labels will allow annotating codes, documents, and collections alike, without hierarchical or exclusivity constraints. E.g. a document could be tagged multiple times ("urban", "interviews 2025", etc.)

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Co-occurrence matrices

To visualize associations between codes, documents, labels, etc. as a cross-reference table to identify thematic overlaps.

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Re-coding from the explorer

To edit a selection's code directly from the exploration window, without returning to the source document.

Improved code merging

A smoother interface for merging codes, with a preview of affected extracts before confirming. Merging is currently irreversible.

Hide other analysts' codes

Filter the code display by analyst for blind coding workflows or to reduce visual noise.

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Merge projects

Combine multiple LibreQDA projects into one, handling code and document conflicts along the way.

Rich PDF display

Improved PDF rendering with support for columns, tables, and images in encoding mode. Inspired by Zotero, whose PDF reader is excellent.

Extended conditional selection

To apply conditional selection filters not only to extracts, but also to files and collections.

Hierarchical code export

To export the code tree in a truly hierarchical format, given the limitations of other formats (CSV, DOCX, etc.). A tree representation is desirable.

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Comments and memos

To annotate documents, codes, or any other project element, so you can keep track of your ideas and reflections as your analysis progresses.

Organizational memberships#

Organizations that have the means can become maintenance and development partners of LibreQDA. It's a collaborative funding model, inspired by proven models for open infrastructure projects such as Moodle, ORCID and the Python Software Foundation.

This powerful form of support lets the Digital Humanities Platform team keep developing the features the community prioritizes, and make them freely available at libreqda.org, hosted on a Canadian university server.

Perk	Partners	Public
Authentication at libreqda.org with a Canadian university address	✓	✓
Support for institutional adoption (training, mentorship, transition)	✓
Priority technical support	✓
Voting seat on the Partners Committee	✓
Logo on the libreqda.org homepage	✓

If this offer speaks to you and you want to support open science in the qualitative methods field, contact us at libreqda@usherbrooke.ca.

Hall of fame#

Thank you to the organizations that have provided one-time support for maintenance and feature development.

v1.1#

v1.0#