title: Data-analysis issues in a phenomenographic investigation of information literacy in nursing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore two contrasting methods of phenomenographic data analysis.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Phenomenography is a still-uncommon but increasingly used methodology based on qualitative interviews that allows experiences to be categorised and put into a descriptive structure for use in developing educational interventions. There are two different approaches in the literature to analysing data: the Marton and Åkerlind methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  A doctoral research project investigating the role of information literacy in evidence-based practice in nursing.
  
  
  METHODS
  The phenomenographic study involves open-ended interviews in which participants are asked to describe their 'life-world' where the phenomenon is experienced, covering the contexts in which it is experienced and how it is experienced. The researcher attempts to develop statements from the interview transcripts that describe representative ways of experiencing the phenomenon in the form of 'categories of description'. A category of description represents a qualitatively different way of experiencing a phenomenon.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This article discusses the reasons for adopting phenomenography, phenomenography's epistemological assumptions, and the strengths and weaknesses of the two different data-analysis methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Phenomenography's strength is its ability to develop logical structures that give a picture of the experience of a phenomenon while being able to read into the structure as much of the complexity of that experience as is consciously and practically possible.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  One method, described as the 'Åkerlind' method, emerged as the appropriate method for phenomenographic studies in nursing.
authors.affiliation: University Library/School of Computing, University of West London, UK.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forster
mesh_terms: D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D048108:Nursing Informatics; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research