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    The problem of appraising qualitative research

    Dixon-Woods, M. and Shaw, R.L. and Agarwal, S. and Smith, Jonathan A. (2004) The problem of appraising qualitative research. Quality and Safety in Healthcare 13 (3), pp. 223-225. ISSN 2044-5415.

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    Abstract

    Qualitative research can make a valuable contribution to the study of quality and safety in health care. Sound ways of appraising qualitative research are needed, but currently there are many different proposals with few signs of an emerging consensus. One problem has been the tendency to treat qualitative research as a unified field. We distinguish universal features of quality from those specific to methodology and offer a set of minimally prescriptive prompts to assist with the assessment of generic features of qualitative research. In using these, account will need to be taken of the particular method of data collection and methodological approach being used. There may be a need for appraisal criteria suited to the different methods of qualitative data collection and to different methodological approaches. These more specific criteria would help to distinguish fatal flaws from more minor errors in the design, conduct, and reporting of qualitative research. There will be difficulties in doing this because some aspects of qualitative research, particularly those relating to quality of insight and interpretation, will remain difficult to appraise and will rely largely on subjective judgement.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 25 Feb 2020 12:21
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:58
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/31080

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