Lyn_Richards

Lyn Richards

Lyn Richards

Australian social scientist

Marilyn Gray Richards (born 1944) is an Australian social scientist and writer who, with computer scientist Tom Richards, developed the software analysis packages NUD*IST and NVivo.

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Early life and education

Richards was born as the second daughter to Tim Marshall – head of the Division of Soils at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – and Ann Nicholls, who lectured at the Geography Department at the University of Adelaide. Her older sister is Jenny Graves.

Richards studied political science and sociology at La Trobe University. Her early research considered the involvement of migrants in the Democratic Labour Party.[1]

Research and career

Richards was appointed to the faculty at La Trobe University, where she worked on family sociology. She looked at the relationships between family life and home ownership in Australia.[2][3] She identified that as families aspired to suburban living, they spent less times in the homes they worked so hard to finance.[4]

Richards became aware that her academic research needed more sophisticated data analysis tools, and started to work with Tom Richards on the development of quantitative analysis software.[5][6] She left La Trobe University and launched QSR International, a software development company.[5][7]

At QSR International, Richards created the software packages NUD*IST and NVivo.[8]

Selected publications

  • Richards, Tom; Richards, Lyn (1991). "The NUDIST qualitative data analysis system". Qualitative Sociology. 14 (4): 307–324. doi:10.1007/bf00989643. ISSN 0162-0436. S2CID 144274985.
  • Richards, Lyn (1999). Using NVIVO in Qualitative Research. SAGE. ISBN 9780761965244.
  • Richards, Lyn (2000). The Nvivo Qualitative Project Book. SAGE. ISBN 9781847871022.
  • Richards, Lyn (2005). Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. SAGE. ISBN 9780761942597.

Personal life

Richards is married to computer scientist Tom Richards.[9]

References

  1. [1]
    Richards, Lyn (1971). Migrants in the DLP: a study of the involvement of a group of migrants in the Democratic Labor Party in Victoria (Thesis). OCLC 222507036.
  2. [2]
    Richards, Lyn; La Trobe University; Department of Sociology (1987). It means a family life: family & home ownership in an Australian estate. Bundoora, Vic.: Dept. of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University. ISBN 978-0-85816-657-8. OCLC 27593668.
  3. [3]
    Richards, Lyn (1979). Good mothers and other mothers: family style and social change. Bundoora, Vic.: Social Change Research Unit, Dept. of Sociology, La Trobe University. OCLC 220534279.
  4. [4]
    Richards, Lyn (1991). Nobody's home: dreams and realities in a new suburb. Melbourne; Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-554761-0. OCLC 468124583.
  5. [5]
    Richards, Lyn. (2015). Handling qualitative data : a practical guide. Sage. ISBN 978-1-4462-7605-1. OCLC 904433500.
  6. [6]
    Lewins, Ann; Silver, Christina (12 April 2007). Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide. SAGE. p. 262. ISBN 978-1-4462-0516-7.
  7. [7]
    Richards, Tom (1 July 2002). "An intellectual history of NUD*IST and NVivo". International Journal of Social Research Methodology. 5 (3): 199–214. doi:10.1080/13645570210146267. ISSN 1364-5579. S2CID 143471345.
  8. [8]
    Miller, Robert L. (31 March 2006). "Review: Lyn Richards (2005). Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide". Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 7 (2). doi:10.17169/fqs-7.2.107. ISSN 1438-5627.
  9. [9]
    "Handling Qualitative Data | Online Resources". study.sagepub.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
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