Table 1 Process of inductive thematic analysis

Stage 1

Repeatedly read each transcript, as a whole

Obtain a global picture of the interview and become familiar with the subject's verbal style and vocabulary

Each new reading of the transcript might also provide new perspectives

Stage 2

Code the transcript by making notes corresponding to the fundamental units of meaning

Make descriptive notes using the participants’ own words

Pay particular attention to linguistic details, such as the use of metaphor

Stage 3

Make conceptual notes through processes of condensation, abstraction, and comparison of the initial notes

Categorize the initial notes and reach a higher level of abstraction

Stage 4

Identify initial themes. Provide excerpts from the transcript that illustrate the main ideas of each theme

Themes are labels that summarize the essence of a number of related conceptual notes. They are used to capture the experience of the phenomenon under study

Stage 5

Identify recurrent themes across transcripts and produce a coherent ordered table of the themes and subthemes

Move from the particular to the shared across multiple experiences. Recurrent themes reflect a shared understanding of the phenomena among all participants.
During this more analytic stage, researchers try to make sense of the associations between the themes found