This article aims to provide a descriptive review of qualitative content analysis (QCA) by clarifying its main approaches, procedural stages, and methodological foundations. It seeks to explain how qualitative content analysis can be used to examine textual, spoken, documentary and communicative data in relation to meaning, context and interpretation.
The article adopts a descriptive review approach. It synthesizes key methodological literature on qualitative content analysis, with particular attention to conventional, directed and summative content analysis, as well as inductive, deductive and hybrid analytical logics. The review also discusses the relationship between qualitative content analysis and other qualitative methods, including thematic analysis, grounded theory and phenomenology.
The review shows that qualitative content analysis is a flexible yet systematic method operating across levels of description, abstraction, and interpretation. Its rigor depends on clear research questions, appropriate units of analysis, transparent coding, careful category development, assessment of coding stability and systematic reporting. Methodological ambiguity arises when researchers fail to distinguish between manifest and latent content, inductive and deductive logic or qualitative content analysis and related qualitative methods.
The article's distinctive contribution lies in integrating three dimensions that are often discussed separately: the epistemological levels of qualitative content analysis, its three major methodological approaches and the procedural decisions required to maintain analytical rigor. By linking these dimensions, the review provides practical guidance for selecting, implementing and reporting an appropriate approach to qualitative content analysis.
