What is CATMA?
CATMA (Computer-Assisted Text Markup and Analysis) is a free, open-source web application designed for collaborative text annotation, analysis, and visualization. Developed at the Hamburg University's Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, CATMA allows researchers to upload texts, define annotation tagsets and schemas, manually annotate texts or automatically pre-annotate them, analyze annotations quantitatively, and visualize the results.
Some key features of CATMA include:
- Uploading texts in a variety of formats like PDF, Word, XML, etc.
- Defining annotation schemas and tags flexibly based on projects' needs
- Manual text annotation with an intuitive, customizable web interface
- Pre-annotation using NLP tools like part-of-speech taggers, named entity recognizers, etc.
- Quantitative analysis of annotations with statistical overviews and comparisons
- Data visualization including graphs of annotation frequencies, dendrograms, heat maps etc.
- Collaboration features for sharing texts and annotations
- Customizable access permissions for teams
- Exporting annotations to standard formats like JSON, CSV, XML
With its emphasis on collaboration, custom annotation schemas, both manual and automated annotation, quantitative analysis, and data visualization, CATMA provides a powerful platform for researchers working with textual analysis across disciplines like linguistics, literature, history, political science, and more.
NVivo, MAXQDA, ATLAS.ti, Qiqqa, AQUAD, Julius, Dedoose, consider.ly, Taguette, RQDA, The Ethnograph, QualCoder, Quirkos, Dovetail, Provalis Research, HyperResearch, f4analyse, Keeword bee, Shipright, DiscoverText, Surveytagger are some alternatives to CATMA.