Chapter 1 | Page 25 categories or case examples to support the developing argument. This technique can be combined with other methods for purposes of triangulation, through which the key results of the document analysis can be corroborated by evidence from other sources.55 Gilbert et al identify four steps that are essential to the qualitative data analysis process: organising data; exploring data; interpreting and reflecting; and integrating data.56 Organising and exploring data can be facilitated by the use of qualitative data analysis tools (QDAs), the most widely used of which are software programmes and applications such as NVivo,57 MAXQDA, 58 ATLAS.ti,59 and Palantir.60 In addition, other applications such as OpenEvsys,61 Martus Bulletin System (MBS),62 are specifically designed for use in collecting and analysing human rights-related data. These analytical tools provide accurate and robust means of collecting, organising and systematically exploring the data for patterns, connections and underlying relationships, which assist in interpretation of and reflection on the data. Given the nature of documents used in this research and the types of analysis needed to derive meaningful outputs from such analysis, NVivo was used as the main tool in organising, coding and structuring the qualitative data. This software provides a powerful platform to assemble State reports, concluding observations and other relevant documents and to identify patterns of relevance to the research questions. The software provided a useful platform on which to organise key characteristics of State Reports and discern relevant patterns on various topics of interest analysed. The coding schemes employed 55 Bowen, above n 52, 28. 56 Linda S Gilbert, Kristi Jackson and Silvana di Gregorio, 'Tools for Analyzing Qualitative Data: The History and Relevance of Qualitative Data Analysis Software' in Michael J Spector et al (eds), Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (Springer, New York, 2014) 221-236. 57 Details available at <http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx>. 58 Details available at <http://www.maxqda.com/>. 59 Details available at <http://atlasti.com/>. 60 Details available at <https://www.palantir.com/>. 61 Details available at <http://www.openevsys.org/>. 62 Details available at <https://martus.org/>.