Lyn Richards

Last updated

Lyn Richards
Alma mater La Trobe University
Scientific career
InstitutionsLa Trobe University
Thesis Migrants in the DLP : a study of the involvement of a group of migrants in the Democratic Labor Party in Victoria  (1971)

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.

Contents

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

Personal life

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

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References

  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. 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. 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. 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. 1 2 Richards, Lyn. (2015). Handling qualitative data : a practical guide. Sage. ISBN   978-1-4462-7605-1. OCLC   904433500.
  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. 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. 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. "Handling Qualitative Data | Online Resources". study.sagepub.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.