establishing rigour in qualitative research the decision trail

Establishing rigour in qualitative research: the decision trail

Affiliation.

• 1 School of Nursing, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
• PMID: 8056928
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1994.tb01177.x

The aim of this paper is to show the way in which the decision trail of a qualitative research process can be maintained. It is argued that the trustworthiness (rigour) of a study may be established if the reader is able to audit the events, influences and actions of the researcher. The actual study containing the recording of this decision trail aimed to express the concerns of older patients who were admitted to the acute care sector. The study took place in two care of the elderly wards in a 1000-bed National Health Service hospital in the UK, in 1991. Eventually, 14 patients were interviewed, each on several occasions, and their concerns are expressed in themes, namely: routine geriatric style of care, depersonalization, care deprivation and geriatric segregation. I describe the preparations that were undertaken before patient interviews could commence. The literature recording the process of the interviewer's experience as data in qualitative research is scarce. I show the researcher's participation in making the data as part of an existential phenomenological research process. Existential phenomenology relies on recording influences while generating data such as significant literature, media reports, my value position and journal data.

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• Clinical Nursing Research* / methods
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• Quality of Health Care
• Reproducibility of Results*
• Research Personnel / psychology
• United Kingdom

Establishing rigour in qualitative research: the decision trail

Abstract: the aim of this paper is to show the way in which the decision trail of a qualitative research process can be maintained. it is argued that the trustworthiness (rigour) of a study may be established if the reader is able to audit the events, influences and actions of the researcher. the actual study containing the recording of this decision trail aimed to express the concerns of older patients who were admitted to the acute care sector. the study took place in two care of the elderly wards in a 1000-bed nation… show more.

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References 4 publication s, caring for vulnerable children: challenges of mothering in the australian foster care system.

Foster carers have a significant responsibility in caring for vulnerable children. In order to support and facilitate foster carers it is important to understand how they perceive and fulfil this responsibility. A qualitative story-telling study, informed by feminist perspectives, was used to conduct in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 women providing long-term foster care in Australia. Thematic analysis revealed these women characterised themselves as mothers, rather than paid carers, to the long-term foster children in their care. Using this maternal self-perception as the starting point, this paper reveals some of the challenges and difficulties participants encountered when mothering within the confines of the child protection system. Implications for nursing practice are discussed. These implications focus on ways that nurses can effectively support foster carers, thus optimising the health and well-being of the vulnerable children in their care.

From good health to illness with post-infectious fatigue syndrome: a qualitative study of adults’ experiences of the illness trajectory

BackgroundMunicipal drinking water contaminated with the parasite Giardia lamblia in Bergen, Norway, in 2004 caused an outbreak of gastrointestinal infection in 2500 people, according to the Norwegian Prescription Database. In the aftermath a minor group subsequently developed post-infectious fatigue syndrome (PIFS). Persons in this minor group had laboratory-confirmed parasites in their stool samples, and their enteritis had been cured by one or more courses of antibiotic treatment. The study’s purpose was to explore how the affected persons experienced the illness trajectory and various PIFS disabilities.MethodsA qualitative design with in-depth interviews was used to obtain first-hand experiences of PIFS. To get an overall understanding of their perceived illness trajectory, the participants were asked to retrospectively rate their functional level at different points in time. A maximum variation sample of adults diagnosed with PIFS according to the international 1994 criteria was recruited from a cohort of persons diagnosed with PIFS at a tertiary Neurology Outpatient Clinic in Western Norway. The sample comprised 19 women and seven men (mean age 41 years, range 26–59). The interviews were fully transcribed and subjected to a qualitative content analysis.ResultsAll participants had been living healthy lives pre-illness. The time to develop PIFS varied. Multiple disabilities in the physical, cognitive, emotional, neurological, sleep and intolerance domains were described. Everyone more or less dropped out from studies or work, and few needed to be taken care of during the worst period. The severity of these disabilities varied among the participants and during the illness phases. Despite individual variations, an overall pattern of illness trajectory emerged. Five phases were identified: prodromal, downward, turning, upward and chronic phase. All reached a nadir followed by varying degrees of improvement in their functional ability. None regained pre-illness health or personal and professional abilities.ConclusionsThe needs of persons with this condition are not met. Early diagnosis and interdisciplinary rehabilitation could be beneficial in altering the downward trajectory at an earlier stage, avoiding the most severe disability and optimising improvement. Enhanced knowledge among health professionals, tailored treatment, rest as needed, financial support and practical help would likely improve prognosis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12875-017-0614-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Alcohol abuse recovery through the lens of Manitoban First Nations and Aboriginal women: A qualitative study

We describe a phenomenological study that explored the experiences of First Nations and Aboriginal women during their journey of recovery from alcohol abuse. Seven women participated in individual, tape-recorded interviews, during which they described their experiences, yielding written protocols that were thematically analyzed. Results from this study revealed seven predominant themes that included the following: (a) guilt and shame, (b) unresolved core issues, (c) resilience, (d) tenacity, (e) recovery process, (f) family and friends, and (g) tradition and spirituality. Findings and implications for clinicians, administrators, educators, and future research are included.

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Chapter 26: Rigour

Darshini Ayton

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Understand the concepts of rigour and trustworthiness in qualitative research.
• Describe strategies for dependability, credibility, confirmability and transferability in qualitative research.
• Define reflexivity and describe types of reflexivity

What is rigour?

In qualitative research, rigour, or trustworthiness, refers to how researchers demonstrate the quality of their research. 1, 2 Rigour is an umbrella term for several strategies and approaches that recognise the influence on qualitative research by multiple realities; for example, of the researcher during data collection and analysis, and of the participant. The research process is shaped by multiple elements, including research skills, the social and research environment and the community setting. 2

Research is considered rigorous or trustworthy when members of the research community are confident in the study’s methods, the data and its interpretation. 3 As mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2, quantitative and qualitative research are founded on different research paradigms and, hence, quality in research cannot be addressed in the same way for both types of research studies. Table 26.1 provides a comparison overview of the approaches of quantitative and qualitative research in ensuring quality in research.

Table 26.1: Comparison of quantitative and qualitative approaches to ensuring quality in research

Below is an overview of the main approaches to rigour in qualitative research. For each of the approaches, examples of how rigour was demonstrated are provided from the author’s PhD thesis.

Approaches to dependability

Dependability requires the researcher to provide an account of changes to the research process and setting. 3 The main approach to dependability is an audit trail.

• Audit trail – the researcher records or takes notes on the conduct of the research and the process of reaching conclusions from the data. The audit trail includes information on the data collection and data analysis, including decision-making and interpretations of the data that influence the study’s results. 8 , 9

The interview questions for this study evolved as the study progressed, and accordingly, the process was iterative. I spent 12 months collecting data, and as my understanding and responsiveness to my participants and to the culture and ethos of the various churches developed, so did my line of questioning. For example, in the early interviews for phase 2, I included questions regarding the qualifications a church leader might look for in hiring someone to undertake health promotion activities. This question was dropped after the first couple of interviews, as it was clear that church leaders did not necessarily view their activities as health promoting and therefore did not perceive the relevance of this question. By ‘being church’, they were health promoting, and therefore activities that were health promoting were not easily separated from other activities that were part of the core mission of the church 10 ( pp93–4)

Approaches to credibility

Credibility requires the researcher to demonstrate the truth or confidence in the findings. The main approaches to credibility include triangulation, prolonged engagement, persistent observation, negative case analysis and member checking. 3

• Triangulation – the assembly of data and interpretations from multiple methods (methods triangulation), researchers (research triangulation), theory (theory triangulation) and data sources (different participant groups). 9 Refer to Chapter 28 for a detailed discussion of this process.
• Prolonged engagement – the requirement for researchers to spend sufficient time with participants and/or within the research context to familiarise them with the research setting, to build trust and rapport with participants and to recognise and correct any misinformation. 9

Prolonged engagement with churches was also achieved through the case study phase as the ten case study churches were involved in more than one phase of data collection. These ten churches were the case studies in which significant time was spent conducting interviews and focus groups, and attending activities and programs. Subsequently, there were many instances where I interacted with the same people on more than one occasion, thereby facilitating the development of interactive and deeper relationships with participants 10 (pp.94–5)

• Persistent observation – the identification of characteristics and elements that are most relevant to the problem or issue under study, and upon which the research will focus in detail. 9

In the following chapters, I present my analysis of the world of churches in which I was immersed as I conducted fieldwork. I describe the processes of church practice and action, and explore how this can be conceptualised into health promotion action 10 (p97)

• Negative case analysis – the process of finding and discussing data that contradicts the study’s main findings. Negative case analysis demonstrates that nuance and granularity in perspectives of both shared and divergent opinions have been examined, enhancing the quality of the interpretation of the data.

Although I did not use negative case selection, the Catholic churches in this study acted as examples of the ‘low engagement’ 10 (p97 )

• Member checking – the presentation of data analysis, interpretations and conclusions of the research to members of the participant groups. This enables participants or people with shared identity with the participants to provide their perspectives on the research. 9

Throughout my candidature – during data collection and analysis, and in the construction of my results chapters – I engaged with a number of Christians, both paid church staff members and volunteers, to test my thoughts and concepts. These people were not participants in the study, but they were embedded in the cultural and social context of churches in Victoria. They were able to challenge and also affirm my thinking and so contributed to a process of member checking 10 (p96)

Approaches to confirmability

Confirmability is demonstrated by grounding the results in the data from participants. 3 This can be achieved through the use of quotes, specifying the number of participants and data sources and providing details of the data collection.

• Quotes from participants are used to demonstrate that the themes are generated from the data. The results section of the thesis chapters commences with a story based on the field notes or recordings, with extensive quotes from participants presented throughout. 10
• The number of participants in the study provides the context for where the data is ‘sourced’ from for the results and interpretation. Table 26.2 is reproduced with permission from the Author’s thesis and details the data sources for the project. This also contributes to establishing how triangulation across data sources and methods was achieved.
• Details of data collection – Table 26.2 provides detailed information about the processes of data collection, including dates and locations but the duration of each research encounter was not specified.

Table 26.2 Data sources for the PhD research project of the Author.

Approaches to transferability.

To enable the transferability of qualitative research, researchers need to provide information about the context and the setting. A key approach for transferability is thick description. 6

• Thick description – detailed explanations and descriptions of the research questions are provided, including about the research setting, contextual factors and changes to the research setting. 9

I chose to include the Catholic Church because it is the largest Christian group in Australia and is an example of a traditional church. The Protestant group were represented through the Uniting, Anglican Baptist and Church of Christ denominations. The Uniting Church denomination is unique to Australia and was formed in 1977 through the merging of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist denominations. The Church of Christ denomination was chosen to represent a contemporary less hierarchical denomination in comparison to the other protestant denominations. The last group, the Salvation Army, was chosen because of its high profile in social justice and social welfare, therefore offering different perspectives on the role and activities of the church in health promotion 10 (pp82–3)

What is reflexivity?

Reflexivity is the process in which researchers engage to explore and explain how their subjectivity (or bias) has influenced the research. 12 Researchers engage in reflexive practices to ensure and demonstrate rigour, quality and, ultimately, trustworthiness in their research. 13 The researcher is the instrument of data collection and data analysis, and hence awareness of what has influenced their approach and conduct of the research – and being able to articulate them – is vital in the creation of knowledge. One important element is researcher positionality (see Chapter 27), which acknowledges the characteristics, interests, beliefs and personal experiences of the researcher and how this influences the research process. Table 26.3 outlines different types of reflexivity, with examples from the author’s thesis.

Table 26.3: Types of reflexivity

The quality of qualitative research is measured through the rigour or trustworthiness of the research, demonstrated through a range of strategies in the processes of data collection, analysis, reporting and reflexivity.

• Chowdhury IA. Issue of quality in qualitative research: an overview. Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences . 2015;8(1):142-162. doi:10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2015-no1-art09
• Cypress BS. Rigor or reliability and validity in qualitative research: perspectives, strategies, reconceptualization, and recommendations. Dimens Crit Care Nurs . 2017;36(4):253-263. doi:10.1097/DCC.0000000000000253
• Connelly LM. Trustworthiness in qualitative research. Medsurg Nurs . 2016;25(6):435-6.
• Golafshani N. Understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. Qual Rep . 2003;8(4):597-607. Accessed September 18, 2023. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol8/iss4/6/
• Yilmaz K. Comparison of quantitative and qualitative research traditions: epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. Eur J  Educ . 2013;48(2):311-325. doi:10.1111/ejed.12014
• Shenton AK. Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. Education for Information 2004;22:63-75. Accessed September 18, 2023. https://content.iospress.com/articles/education-for-information/efi00778
• Varpio L, O’Brien B, Rees CE, Monrouxe L, Ajjawi R, Paradis E. The applicability of generalisability and bias to health professions education’s research. Med Educ . Feb 2021;55(2):167-173. doi:10.1111/medu.14348
• Carcary M. The Research Audit Trail: Methodological guidance for application in practice. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods . 2020;18(2):166-177. doi:10.34190/JBRM.18.2.008
• Korstjens I, Moser A. Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and publishing. Eur J Gen Pract . Dec 2018;24(1):120-124. doi:10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092
• Ayton D. ‘From places of despair to spaces of hope’ – the local church and health promotion in Victoria . PhD. Monash University; 2013. https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/_From_places_of_despair_to_spaces_of_hope_-_the_local_church_and_health_promotion_in_Victoria/4628308/1
• Hanson A. Negative case analysis. In: Matthes J, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods . John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2017. doi: 10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0165
• Olmos-Vega FM. A practical guide to reflexivity in qualitative research: AMEE Guide No. 149. Med Teach . 2023;45(3):241-251. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2022.2057287
• Dodgson JE. Reflexivity in qualitative research. J Hum Lact . 2019;35(2):220-222. doi:10.1177/08903344198309

Qualitative Research – a practical guide for health and social care researchers and practitioners Copyright © 2023 by Darshini Ayton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Review of the Quality Indicators of Rigor in Qualitative Research

• Jessica L. Johnson, PharmD Jessica L. Johnson Correspondence Corresponding Author: Jessica L. Johnson, William Carey University School of Pharmacy, 19640 Hwy 67, Biloxi, MS 39574. Tel: 228-702-1897. Contact Affiliations William Carey University School of Pharmacy, Biloxi, Mississippi Search for articles by this author
• Donna Adkins, PharmD Donna Adkins Affiliations William Carey University School of Pharmacy, Biloxi, Mississippi Search for articles by this author
• Sheila Chauvin, PhD Sheila Chauvin Affiliations Louisiana State University, School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana Search for articles by this author
• qualitative research design
• standards of rigor
• best practices

INTRODUCTION

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BEST PRACTICES: STEP-WISE APPROACH

Step 1: identifying a research topic.

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Step 4: drawing valid conclusions.

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30th anniversary commentary on Koch T. (1994) establishing rigour in qualitative research: The decision trail. Journal of Advanced Nursing 19, 976-986

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T1 - 30th anniversary commentary on Koch T. (1994) establishing rigour in qualitative research

T2 - The decision trail. Journal of Advanced Nursing 19, 976-986

AU - Latimer, Joanna

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Y1 - 2006/1

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In response to: Koch T. (2006) Establishing rigour in qualitative research: the decision trail. Journal of Advanced Nursing53(1), 91-100.

Journal of Advanced Nursing , 01 Sep 2006 , 55(6): 788-789 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03969.x   PMID: 16925627 

Abstract 

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Read article at publisher's site: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03969.x

References 

Articles referenced by this article (5)

Establishing rigour in qualitative research: the decision trail.

J Adv Nurs, (5):976-986 1994

MED: 8056928

Establishing rigour in qualitative research: the decision trail. 1993.

J Adv Nurs, (1):91-100; discussion 101-3 2006

MED: 16422698

Title not supplied

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

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