From your first research question to written findings, Sotto covers the full arc of qualitative human subjects research: shaping the question, building your instruments, preparing your IRB application, working with your data, and writing up. It works within your method, and it keeps the boundary of your data in your hands.
Develop your research question with methodology support, then build the instruments to answer it. Import an existing interview guide or questionnaire from CSV, Qualtrics, or Word, and refine it in place.
Work through a determination questionnaire that explains which review pathway fits your study and why, then draft each section with guidance as you go. Export the finished application as a text or Word file. Like the rest of Sotto, it runs in your environment, so your protocol and participant details stay with you.
Audio-to-text runs locally, so your interview recordings are transcribed with speaker turns, formatted, and ready to work with. Already have a clean transcript? Upload it directly and skip the transcription step. Participant data is analyzed on-device.
You code segments as you read. From your accepted codes, Sotto suggests recurring themes for you to review, and shows how a code spreads across participants. It works within grounded theory, thematic analysis, and phenomenological approaches rather than forcing one of its own.
Track saturation across participants, compare coding in a participant-by-domain matrix, run inter-rater reliability sessions, and keep committee comments beside the work. Keep a reflexivity journal as your thinking develops, and let the Socratic Challenger question your interpretations from different methodological stances. After a session, Sotto also prompts you with questions to scaffold a reflective memo, which you write while the thinking is fresh.
Keep the sources and citations behind your study in one place, alongside the data they inform. Export your library as an RIS file for Zotero or Mendeley, and format citations in APA 7th, MLA 9th, or Chicago 17th.
Move from coded data toward a written draft. Writing assistance is the point where you decide what, if anything, goes to an AI model, and which one. Nothing leaves your environment unless you send it.
Whether you run Sotto on your own machine or in a private instance you provision, your research data stays in an environment only you can access. Analysis runs on a local model, and you decide what, if anything, reaches an outside AI model. Back up an entire project as an encrypted file, and carry it between machines with export and import.
Quantitative and mixed methods support is in active development.
We are running live demos this week. Sign up and we will send you a time. Sotto Solo will be $30/mo or $350/yr at launch.