The processes of analysing qualitative data, particularly the stage between coding and publication, are often vague and/or poorly explained within addiction science and research more broadly. A simple but rigorous and transparent technique for analysing qualitative textual data, developed within the field of addiction, is described. The technique, iterative categorization (IC), is suitable for use with inductive and deductive codes and can support a range of common analytical approaches, e.g. thematic analysis, Framework, constant comparison, analytical induction, content analysis, conversational analysis, discourse analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis and narrative analysis. Once the data have been coded, the only software required is a standard word processing package. Worked examples are provided.

The article draws on two separate studies employing developmental vignettes (hypothetical scenarios which unfold through a series of stages) to interview research participants. One study used the ‘Davie’ vignette, which was a conventional fixed narrative, while in the second, the ‘Jack and Jenny’ vignettes were made interactive by hyperlinking a series of PowerPoint scenarios and making the choice of the succeeding slide dependent on the interviewee’s reaction to its predecessor. Our analytic standpoint, in respect of both vignettes, is that of Schutzian phenomenology. We point to differences in both topical and motivational relevances in the processes of interpretation undergone by participants in considering the vignette scenario and in the situation of action. However, we show that research participants’ responses to vignettes can yield data of interest in their own right as participants perform ‘Thou-orientations’ and ‘They-orientations’ in their consideration of the stimuli. We close with a comparative evaluation of the fixed ‘Davie’ and the interactive ‘Jack and Jenny’ vignettes.

While research has clearly documented the difficulties injectors encounter in accessing specialist addiction services, there is less evidence of the problems they face when securing general health care and non-substance-misuse-specific support. This paper seeks to fill some of these knowledge gaps. Between January and May 2006, 75 current injectors were recruited and interviewed through three needle exchange programmes located in diverse geographical areas of West Yorkshire. Interview data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework. Findings showed that injectors were often positive about the help they received from generic health and social care services. Nonetheless, they identified a range of barriers relating to inability to access desired assistance, the burden of appointments, travel to services, stigma and negative staff attitudes, personal ill-health, lack of material resources, and anxieties about accessing support. Although some types of barriers were more evident at some services than at others and/or affected particular subgroups of injector more than others, the impact of any barrier was contingent on a range of factors. These included the attitudes of individual professionals, the circumstances and needs of individual injectors, the local availability of suitable alternative services, and the frequency with which a service needed to be accessed. In order to better understand and potentially reduce service barriers, findings are linked to broader conceptual and theoretical debates relating to social exclusion and Foucault's analyses of power and knowledge.

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