CurTask vs NVivo: qualitative coding built for the literature review

This page is for postgraduate students and researchers who use, or are thinking about, NVivo to code the papers in their literature review. NVivo is a long-established and widely taught package for qualitative and mixed-methods research, used for interviews, documents and many other kinds of data. CurTask takes a narrower aim: qualitative analysis built around the literature review itself, with your papers, your coding, your evidence matrix and your draft in one project.

At a glance

From coding to the written review, without exporting

In a typical NVivo literature review you import references from a reference manager, code the full texts, then take your themes back to a word processor to write. Each move between programs is a chance for the codes, the page numbers and the draft to drift apart.

CurTask keeps all of it in one project with three lenses. In Library you hold the papers. In Analysis you select a passage, apply a code, and it appears as a coloured strip beside the text. You group codes into themes on the synthesis map and mark which papers agree, contradict or extend each other. Then you send a theme to Writing with its passages, cite as you type, and the bibliography follows in APA, Harvard, IEEE or five other styles. When you are done, compile to Word (DOCX), PDF, Markdown or HTML.

A literature matrix where every value shows its source

Many reviews need more than codes: a table of sample, context, method and key findings for every paper. In CurTask you describe a matrix column in plain words, see the credit cost before it runs, and the AI fills it across your papers. Every value keeps the page number and a verbatim quote that was checked to exist on that page. If no supporting passage turns up, the cell says "No source found" instead of guessing.

AI values stay marked "Suggested" until you accept, edit or restore them, so the researcher remains the author. The matrix exports to CSV when your supervisor wants a spreadsheet.

Coding made for papers, not only transcripts

CurTask's coding workspace is designed around reading academic papers. On every plan, including Free, you code by hand in the reader where you highlight, keep memos on coded passages (memos are never sent to the AI), and see codes you used in your other projects offered again. The codebook uses colours that stay easy to tell apart, in light and dark themes.

On the paid plans, "Code all papers with AI" codes every paper of a project in one run, after showing the credits. Each coded passage stays "Suggested" until you accept or dismiss it, and papers already coded with the same codebook are skipped at 0 credits. On the synthesis board, the AI can then sort your codes into categories and themes, each theme backed by quotes from your papers, while you decide which papers agree or contradict.

Because a paper carries its "baggage", its tags and AI analyses travel with it into every project you add it to. Reusing an analysis you already have costs 0 credits, so a paper you analysed for your proposal is ready again for your thesis chapter.

Evidence you can trace from draft to page

When you cite a paper in CurTask, the citation keeps its page number and its link to the passage it came from. Click it and the Evidence panel shows the passage; "Jump to the page" opens the PDF there, with a dashed evidence line joining the two. Optional marks show sentences with no citation yet.

The writing sidebar builds on the analysis you have accepted (matrix values, coded passages, themes and links): up to three cards per paragraph, contradictions first, each labelled "From your matrix", "From your code" and so on, with its page and verified quote.

Made in Malaysia, priced for a thesis

CurTask runs in the browser, with an interface in English and Bahasa Melayu. Scanned PDFs are read in English and Malay, and the text is captured before the file is made smaller. Your papers, notes and writing are stored on servers in Malaysia, backups included, and are never used to train AI. Prices are in ringgit: a free plan with no card needed, Student at RM25 a month and Researcher at RM49 a month, with the cost of every AI action shown before it runs.

When NVivo might suit you

If your study centres on interviews, focus groups, audio, video or survey data, or your department teaches and supports NVivo for mixed-methods work, NVivo is a natural home for that analysis.

Using both

Many researchers keep primary data in a dedicated qualitative package and run the literature review in CurTask. To start, drag your papers' PDF files into CurTask (Word, OpenDocument, Markdown and plain-text files work too); details are filled in from the DOI, and duplicates are caught so no paper is stored or analysed twice. Your literature codes, matrix and draft then live together, and you compile the chapter to Word when it is ready.

Try it on the papers for your next chapter: the free plan needs no card.