• refers to using multiple data sources in time (gathering data in different times of the day or at different times in a year), space (collecting data on the same phenomenon in multiples sites or test for cross-site consistency) and person (gathering data from different types or level of people e.g. individuals, their family members and clinicians).
• is concerned with using two ore researchers to make coding, analysis and interpretation decisions.
• means using multiple methods of data collection.
Definition of strategies to ensure trustworthiness in qualitative research. Based on Lincoln and Guba [ 4 ]; Sim and Sharp [ 5 ].
Prolonged engagement . Several distinct questions were asked regarding topics related to mastery. Participants were encouraged to support their statements with examples, and the interviewer asked follow-up questions. The researchers studied the data from their raw interview material until a theory emerged to provide them with the scope of the phenomenon under study.
Triangulation . Triangulation aims to enhance the process of qualitative research by using multiple approaches [ 7 ]. Methodological triangulation was used by gathering data by means of different data collection methods such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and field notes. Investigator triangulation was applied by involving several researchers as research team members, and involving them in addressing the organizational aspects of the study and the process of analysis. Data were analysed by two different researchers. The first six interviews were analysed by them independently, after which the interpretations were compared. If their interpretations differed, they discussed them until the most suitable interpretation was found, which best represented the meaning of the data. The two researchers held regular meetings during the process of analysis (after analysing every third data set). In addition, regular analytical sessions were held with the research team. Data triangulation was secured by using the various data sets that emerged throughout the analysis process: raw material, codes, concepts and theoretical saturation.
Persistent observation . Developing the codes, the concepts and the core category helped to examine the characteristics of the data. The researchers constantly read and reread the data, analysed them, theorized about them and revised the concepts accordingly. They recoded and relabelled codes, concepts and the core category. The researchers studied the data until the final theory provided the intended depth of insight.
Member check . All transcripts of the interviews and focus group discussions were sent to the participants for feedback. In addition, halfway through the study period, a meeting was held with those who had participated in either the interviews or the focus group discussions, enabling them to correct the interpretation and challenge what they perceived to be ‘wrong’ interpretations. Finally, the findings were presented to the participants in another meeting to confirm the theory.
Transferability concerns the aspect of applicability [ 4 ]. Your responsibility as a researcher is to provide a ‘thick description’ of the participants and the research process, to enable the reader to assess whether your findings are transferable to their own setting; this is the so-called transferability judgement. This implies that the reader, not you, makes the transferability judgment because you do not know their specific settings.
In the aforementioned study on self-management of diabetes, the researchers provided a rich account of descriptive data, such as the context in which the research was carried out, its setting, sample, sample size, sample strategy, demographic, socio-economic, and clinical characteristics, inclusion and exclusion criteria, interview procedure and topics, changes in interview questions based on the iterative research process, and excerpts from the interview guide.
Dependability includes the aspect of consistency [ 4 ]. You need to check whether the analysis process is in line with the accepted standards for a particular design. Confirmability concerns the aspect of neutrality [ 4 ]. You need to secure the inter-subjectivity of the data. The interpretation should not be based on your own particular preferences and viewpoints but needs to be grounded in the data. Here, the focus is on the interpretation process embedded in the process of analysis. The strategy needed to ensure dependability and confirmability is known as an audit trail. You are responsible for providing a complete set of notes on decisions made during the research process, research team meetings, reflective thoughts, sampling, research materials adopted, emergence of the findings and information about the data management. This enables the auditor to study the transparency of the research path.
In the aforementioned study of diabetes self-management, a university-based auditor examined the analytical process, the records and the minutes of meetings for accuracy, and assessed whether all analytical techniques of the grounded theory methodology had been used accordingly. This auditor also reviewed the analysis, i.e. the descriptive, axial and selective codes, to see whether they followed from the data (raw data, analysis notes, coding notes, process notes, and report) and grounded in the data. The auditor who performed the dependability and confirmability audit was not part of the research team but an expert in grounded theory. The audit report was shared with all members of the research team.
As a qualitative researcher, you have to acknowledge the importance of being self-aware and reflexive about your own role in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting the data, and in the pre-conceived assumptions, you bring to your research [ 8 ]. Therefore, your interviews, observations, focus group discussions and all analytical data need to be supplemented with your reflexive notes. In the aforementioned study of diabetes self-management, the reflexive notes for an interview described the setting and aspects of the interview that were noted during the interview itself and while transcribing the audio tape and analysing the transcript. Reflexive notes also included the researcher’s subjective responses to the setting and the relationship with the interviewees.
The process of writing up your qualitative study reflects the iterative process of performing qualitative research. As you start your study, you make choices about the design, and as your study proceeds, you develop your design further. The same applies to writing your manuscript. First, you decide its structure, and during the process of writing, you adapt certain aspects. Moreover, while writing you are still analysing and fine-tuning your findings. The usual structure of articles is a structured abstract with subheadings, followed by the main text, structured in sections labelled Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion. You might apply this structure loosely, for example renaming Results as Findings, but sometimes your specific study design requires a different structure. For example, an ethnographic study might use a narrative abstract and then start by describing a specific case, or combine the Findings and Discussion sections. A qualitative article is usually much longer (5000–7000 words) than quantitative articles, which often present their results in tables. You might present quantified characteristics of your participants in tables or running text, and you are likely to use boxes to present your interview guide or questioning route, or an overview of the main findings in categories, subcategories and themes. Most of your article is running text, providing a balanced presentation. You provide a thick description of the participants and the context, transparently describe and reflect on your methods, and do justice to the richness of your qualitative findings in reporting, interpreting and discussing them. Thus, the Methods and Findings sections will be much longer than in a quantitative paper.
The difference between reporting quantitative and qualitative research becomes most visible in the Results section. Quantitative articles have a strict division between the Results section, which presents the evidence, and the Discussion section. In contrast, the Findings section in qualitative papers consists mostly of synthesis and interpretation, often with links to empirical data. Quantitative and qualitative researchers alike, however, need to be concise in presenting the main findings to answer the research question, and avoid distractions. Therefore, you need to make choices to provide a comprehensive and balanced representation of your findings. Your main findings may consist, for example, of interpretations, relationships and themes, and your Findings section might include the development of a theory or model, or integration with earlier research or theory. You present evidence to substantiate your analytic findings. You use quotes or citations in the text, or field notes, text excerpts or photographs in boxes to illustrate and visualize the variety and richness of the findings.
Before you start preparing your article, it is wise to examine first the journal of your choice. You need to check its guidelines for authors and recommended sources for reference style, ethics, etc., as well as recently accepted qualitative manuscripts. More and more journals also refer to quality criteria lists for reporting qualitative research, and ask you to upload the checklist with your submission. Two of these checklists are available at http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines .
Selecting a potential journal for publishing qualitative articles is not much different from the procedure used for quantitative articles. First, you consider your potential public and the healthcare settings, health problems, field, or research methodology you are focusing on. Next, you look for journals in the Journal Citation Index of Web of Science, consult other researchers and study the potential journals’ aims, scopes, and author guidelines. This also enables you to find out how open these journals are to publishing qualitative research and accepting articles with different designs, structures and lengths. If you are unsure whether the journal of your choice would accept qualitative research, you might contact the Editor in Chief. Lastly, you might look in your top three journals for qualitative articles, and try to decide how your manuscript would fit in. The author guidelines and examples of manuscripts will support you during your writing, and your top three offers alternatives in case you need to turn to another journal.
Your article should effectively present high-quality research and should adhere to the journal’s guidelines. Editors essentially use the same criteria for qualitative articles as for quantitative articles: Is it new, it is true, is it relevant? However, editors may use—implicitly or explicitly—the level-of-evidence pyramid, with qualitative research positioned in the lower ranks. Moreover, many medical journal editors will be more familiar with quantitative designs than with qualitative work.
Therefore, you need to put some extra effort in your cover letter to the editor, to enhance their confidence in the newness, trueness and relevance, and the quality of your work. It is of the utmost importance that you explain in your cover letter why your study required a qualitative design, and probably more words than usual. If you need to deviate from the usual structure, you have to explain why. To enhance confidence in the quality of your work, you should explain how you applied quality criteria or refer to the checklist you used ( Boxes 2 and and3). 3 ). You might even attach the checklist as additional information to the manuscript. You might also request that the Editor-in-Chief invites at least one reviewer who is familiar with qualitative research.
Standards for reporting qualitative research (SRQR) | Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) |
All aspects of qualitative studies. | Qualitative studies focusing on in-depth interviews and focus groups. |
21 items for: title, abstract, introduction, methods, results/findings, discussion, conflicts of interest, and funding. | 32 items for: research team and reflexivity, study design, data analysis, and reporting. |
Quality criteria checklists for reporting qualitative research. Based on O’Brien et al. [ 9 ]; Tong et al. [ 10 ].
The authors wish to thank the following junior researchers who have been participating for the last few years in the so-called ‘Think tank on qualitative research’ project, a collaborative project between Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and Maastricht University, for their pertinent questions: Erica Baarends, Jerome van Dongen, Jolanda Friesen-Storms, Steffy Lenzen, Ankie Hoefnagels, Barbara Piskur, Claudia van Putten-Gamel, Wilma Savelberg, Steffy Stans, and Anita Stevens. The authors are grateful to Isabel van Helmond, Joyce Molenaar and Darcy Ummels for proofreading our manuscripts and providing valuable feedback from the ‘novice perspective’.
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
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The concept of trustworthiness in qualitative. research comprises various essential elements, such as credibility, transferability, dependability, and con rmability [2,6-9]. In recent years ...
derstanding and Using Trustworthiness in Qualitative ResearchBy Norman A. Stahl and James R. K. ngQualitative inquiry has recently experienced a burgeoning in the field of educational research. Qualitative research is uniquely positioned to provide researcher. with process-based, narrated, storied, data that is more closely related.
Expanding approaches for research: Understanding and using trustworthiness in qualitative research. Journal of Developmental Education , 44(1), 26-29. Google Scholar
Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative. research projects. Andrew K. Shenton ∗. Division of Information and Communication Studies, School of Informatics, Lipman Building ...
Qualitative research explores the intricate details of human behavior, attitudes, and experiences, emphasizing the exploration of nuances and context. Ensuring trustworthiness is crucial in establishing the credibility and reliability of qualitative findings. This includes elements such as credibility, transferability, dependability, and ...
We argue that thematic analysis is a qualitative research method that can be widely used across a range of epistemolo-gies and research questions. It is a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing, and reporting themes found within a data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Finally, and in keeping with a rising conversation around the trustworthiness of qualitative research (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Pratt et al., 2020a; Reinhardt et al., 2018; Yin, 2003), we argue that tables are useful devices to help ensure—and reassure—readers about the trustworthiness of their research process and the robustness of the data ...
In this paper Part 4, we address frequently asked questions (FAQs) about two overarch-ing themes: trustworthiness and publishing. Irene Korstjens [email protected] Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Health Care, Research Centre for Midwifery. CONTACT.
A third perspective on trustworthiness offered by Lincoln and Guba (1985) is dependability, or the trust in trustworthy. In qualitative research in which researchers, both producers and consumers, actively build their trust in the. events as they unfold, there are a few concrete research practices that not only.
Part 2 of the series focused on context, research questions and design of qualitative research [Citation 2], whereas Part 3 concerned sampling, data collection and analysis [Citation 3]. In this paper Part 4, we address frequently asked questions (FAQs) about two overarching themes: trustworthiness and publishing.
PDF | On Dec 7, 2015, Joko Gunawan published ENSURING TRUSTWORTHINESS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate ... (Rodriguez & Smith, 2018 ...
In this essay, we discuss how tables can be used to ensure—and reassure about—trustworthiness in qualitative research. We posit that in qualitative research, tables help not only increase transparency about data collection, analysis, and findings, but also—and no less importantly—organize and analyze data effectively.
Lincoln and Guba's posit that trustworthiness of a research study is important to evaluating its worth. Trustworthiness refers to the assessment of the quality and worth of the complete study, while helping to determine how closely study findings reflect the aims of the study, according to the data provided by participants.
PDF | On Mar 4, 2023, Amal S. Al Muqarshi and others published Ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
It is suggested that it is the responsibility of research methods teachers to ensure that this or a comparable model for ensuring trustworthiness is followed by students undertaking a qualitative inquiry. Although many critics are reluctant to accept the trustworthiness of qualitative research, frameworks for ensuring rigour in this form of work have been in existence for many years. Guba's ...
This review examined the characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research to help researchers select the appropriate qualitative research methodology. Qualitative research is applicable in ...
Qualitative content analysis is one of the several qualitative methods currently available for analyzing data and interpreting its meaning (Schreier, 2012).As a research method, it represents a systematic and objective means of describing and quantifying phenomena (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992; Schreier, 2012).A prerequisite for successful content analysis is that data can be reduced to concepts that ...
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Trustworth and Rigor in Qualitative Research. Raziyeh Ghafouri and Sudabeh Ofoghi2. 1 PhD Student, Student Research committee, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Iran University of Medical Sciences ...
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Introduction. This article is the fourth and last in a series of four articles aiming to provide practical guidance for qualitative research. In an introductory paper, we have described the objective, nature and outline of the series [].Part 2 of the series focused on context, research questions and design of qualitative research [], whereas Part 3 concerned sampling, data collection and ...
Debates to assure quality in qualitative research have been the point of conversations among scholars for decades (e.g. Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Flick, 2018; Guba, 1981; Lincoln, 1995), and many strategies for trustworthiness and rigor can be applied to any qualitative study.
PDF | This chapter aims to present criteria for trustworthiness. ... 2018; Kyngäs et al., 2020; Stenfors et al., 2020). A qualitative study meets the criterion of transferability if the results ...