Cancer Prehabilitation: Staff perspectives on implementation

Annex D: Flowchart of coding process

• Scottish Government social researcher (who facilitated the focus groups) read all seven transcripts to re-familiarise with the content.
• Line-by-line coding was undertaken to generate first‑order codes, using participants’ own language where appropriate for authenticity.
• Second‑order coding was conducted to group and connect first‑order codes at a more abstract level, through merging and categorisation of codes.
• Themes were developed by the researcher interpreting patterns within the second‑order codes and considering how these related to the evaluation questions.
• Two transcripts were collaboratively coded with another Scottish Government social researcher to test and refine the coding framework, leading to the introduction and renaming of some labels until consensus was reached.
• The interpretation of themes was collaboratively discussed, resulting in the refinement, renaming, and introduction of additional themes.
• Researcher read transcripts again to re-familiarise with content prior to making recommendations.