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Qualitative Research – Methods, Analysis Types and Guide

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Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a type of research methodology that focuses on exploring and understanding people’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and experiences through the collection and analysis of non-numerical data. It seeks to answer research questions through the examination of subjective data, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and textual analysis.

Qualitative research aims to uncover the meaning and significance of social phenomena, and it typically involves a more flexible and iterative approach to data collection and analysis compared to quantitative research. Qualitative research is often used in fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, and education.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative Research Methods are as follows:

One-to-One Interview

This method involves conducting an interview with a single participant to gain a detailed understanding of their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. One-to-one interviews can be conducted in-person, over the phone, or through video conferencing. The interviewer typically uses open-ended questions to encourage the participant to share their thoughts and feelings. One-to-one interviews are useful for gaining detailed insights into individual experiences.

Focus Groups

This method involves bringing together a group of people to discuss a specific topic in a structured setting. The focus group is led by a moderator who guides the discussion and encourages participants to share their thoughts and opinions. Focus groups are useful for generating ideas and insights, exploring social norms and attitudes, and understanding group dynamics.

Ethnographic Studies

This method involves immersing oneself in a culture or community to gain a deep understanding of its norms, beliefs, and practices. Ethnographic studies typically involve long-term fieldwork and observation, as well as interviews and document analysis. Ethnographic studies are useful for understanding the cultural context of social phenomena and for gaining a holistic understanding of complex social processes.

Text Analysis

This method involves analyzing written or spoken language to identify patterns and themes. Text analysis can be quantitative or qualitative. Qualitative text analysis involves close reading and interpretation of texts to identify recurring themes, concepts, and patterns. Text analysis is useful for understanding media messages, public discourse, and cultural trends.

This method involves an in-depth examination of a single person, group, or event to gain an understanding of complex phenomena. Case studies typically involve a combination of data collection methods, such as interviews, observations, and document analysis, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the case. Case studies are useful for exploring unique or rare cases, and for generating hypotheses for further research.

Process of Observation

This method involves systematically observing and recording behaviors and interactions in natural settings. The observer may take notes, use audio or video recordings, or use other methods to document what they see. Process of observation is useful for understanding social interactions, cultural practices, and the context in which behaviors occur.

Record Keeping

This method involves keeping detailed records of observations, interviews, and other data collected during the research process. Record keeping is essential for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data, and for providing a basis for analysis and interpretation.

This method involves collecting data from a large sample of participants through a structured questionnaire. Surveys can be conducted in person, over the phone, through mail, or online. Surveys are useful for collecting data on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and for identifying patterns and trends in a population.

Qualitative data analysis is a process of turning unstructured data into meaningful insights. It involves extracting and organizing information from sources like interviews, focus groups, and surveys. The goal is to understand people’s attitudes, behaviors, and motivations

Qualitative Research Analysis Methods

Qualitative Research analysis methods involve a systematic approach to interpreting and making sense of the data collected in qualitative research. Here are some common qualitative data analysis methods:

Thematic Analysis

This method involves identifying patterns or themes in the data that are relevant to the research question. The researcher reviews the data, identifies keywords or phrases, and groups them into categories or themes. Thematic analysis is useful for identifying patterns across multiple data sources and for generating new insights into the research topic.

Content Analysis

This method involves analyzing the content of written or spoken language to identify key themes or concepts. Content analysis can be quantitative or qualitative. Qualitative content analysis involves close reading and interpretation of texts to identify recurring themes, concepts, and patterns. Content analysis is useful for identifying patterns in media messages, public discourse, and cultural trends.

Discourse Analysis

This method involves analyzing language to understand how it constructs meaning and shapes social interactions. Discourse analysis can involve a variety of methods, such as conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. Discourse analysis is useful for understanding how language shapes social interactions, cultural norms, and power relationships.

Grounded Theory Analysis

This method involves developing a theory or explanation based on the data collected. Grounded theory analysis starts with the data and uses an iterative process of coding and analysis to identify patterns and themes in the data. The theory or explanation that emerges is grounded in the data, rather than preconceived hypotheses. Grounded theory analysis is useful for understanding complex social phenomena and for generating new theoretical insights.

Narrative Analysis

This method involves analyzing the stories or narratives that participants share to gain insights into their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. Narrative analysis can involve a variety of methods, such as structural analysis, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis. Narrative analysis is useful for understanding how individuals construct their identities, make sense of their experiences, and communicate their values and beliefs.

Phenomenological Analysis

This method involves analyzing how individuals make sense of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them. Phenomenological analysis typically involves in-depth interviews with participants to explore their experiences in detail. Phenomenological analysis is useful for understanding subjective experiences and for developing a rich understanding of human consciousness.

Comparative Analysis

This method involves comparing and contrasting data across different cases or groups to identify similarities and differences. Comparative analysis can be used to identify patterns or themes that are common across multiple cases, as well as to identify unique or distinctive features of individual cases. Comparative analysis is useful for understanding how social phenomena vary across different contexts and groups.

Applications of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research has many applications across different fields and industries. Here are some examples of how qualitative research is used:

• Market Research: Qualitative research is often used in market research to understand consumer attitudes, behaviors, and preferences. Researchers conduct focus groups and one-on-one interviews with consumers to gather insights into their experiences and perceptions of products and services.
• Health Care: Qualitative research is used in health care to explore patient experiences and perspectives on health and illness. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with patients and their families to gather information on their experiences with different health care providers and treatments.
• Education: Qualitative research is used in education to understand student experiences and to develop effective teaching strategies. Researchers conduct classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers to gather insights into classroom dynamics and instructional practices.
• Social Work : Qualitative research is used in social work to explore social problems and to develop interventions to address them. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with individuals and families to understand their experiences with poverty, discrimination, and other social problems.
• Anthropology : Qualitative research is used in anthropology to understand different cultures and societies. Researchers conduct ethnographic studies and observe and interview members of different cultural groups to gain insights into their beliefs, practices, and social structures.
• Psychology : Qualitative research is used in psychology to understand human behavior and mental processes. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Public Policy : Qualitative research is used in public policy to explore public attitudes and to inform policy decisions. Researchers conduct focus groups and one-on-one interviews with members of the public to gather insights into their perspectives on different policy issues.

How to Conduct Qualitative Research

Here are some general steps for conducting qualitative research:

• Identify your research question: Qualitative research starts with a research question or set of questions that you want to explore. This question should be focused and specific, but also broad enough to allow for exploration and discovery.
• Select your research design: There are different types of qualitative research designs, including ethnography, case study, grounded theory, and phenomenology. You should select a design that aligns with your research question and that will allow you to gather the data you need to answer your research question.
• Recruit participants: Once you have your research question and design, you need to recruit participants. The number of participants you need will depend on your research design and the scope of your research. You can recruit participants through advertisements, social media, or through personal networks.
• Collect data: There are different methods for collecting qualitative data, including interviews, focus groups, observation, and document analysis. You should select the method or methods that align with your research design and that will allow you to gather the data you need to answer your research question.
• Analyze data: Once you have collected your data, you need to analyze it. This involves reviewing your data, identifying patterns and themes, and developing codes to organize your data. You can use different software programs to help you analyze your data, or you can do it manually.
• Interpret data: Once you have analyzed your data, you need to interpret it. This involves making sense of the patterns and themes you have identified, and developing insights and conclusions that answer your research question. You should be guided by your research question and use your data to support your conclusions.
• Communicate results: Once you have interpreted your data, you need to communicate your results. This can be done through academic papers, presentations, or reports. You should be clear and concise in your communication, and use examples and quotes from your data to support your findings.

Examples of Qualitative Research

Here are some real-time examples of qualitative research:

• Customer Feedback: A company may conduct qualitative research to understand the feedback and experiences of its customers. This may involve conducting focus groups or one-on-one interviews with customers to gather insights into their attitudes, behaviors, and preferences.
• Healthcare : A healthcare provider may conduct qualitative research to explore patient experiences and perspectives on health and illness. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with patients and their families to gather information on their experiences with different health care providers and treatments.
• Education : An educational institution may conduct qualitative research to understand student experiences and to develop effective teaching strategies. This may involve conducting classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers to gather insights into classroom dynamics and instructional practices.
• Social Work: A social worker may conduct qualitative research to explore social problems and to develop interventions to address them. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with individuals and families to understand their experiences with poverty, discrimination, and other social problems.
• Anthropology : An anthropologist may conduct qualitative research to understand different cultures and societies. This may involve conducting ethnographic studies and observing and interviewing members of different cultural groups to gain insights into their beliefs, practices, and social structures.
• Psychology : A psychologist may conduct qualitative research to understand human behavior and mental processes. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Public Policy: A government agency or non-profit organization may conduct qualitative research to explore public attitudes and to inform policy decisions. This may involve conducting focus groups and one-on-one interviews with members of the public to gather insights into their perspectives on different policy issues.

Purpose of Qualitative Research

The purpose of qualitative research is to explore and understand the subjective experiences, behaviors, and perspectives of individuals or groups in a particular context. Unlike quantitative research, which focuses on numerical data and statistical analysis, qualitative research aims to provide in-depth, descriptive information that can help researchers develop insights and theories about complex social phenomena.

Qualitative research can serve multiple purposes, including:

• Exploring new or emerging phenomena : Qualitative research can be useful for exploring new or emerging phenomena, such as new technologies or social trends. This type of research can help researchers develop a deeper understanding of these phenomena and identify potential areas for further study.
• Understanding complex social phenomena : Qualitative research can be useful for exploring complex social phenomena, such as cultural beliefs, social norms, or political processes. This type of research can help researchers develop a more nuanced understanding of these phenomena and identify factors that may influence them.
• Generating new theories or hypotheses: Qualitative research can be useful for generating new theories or hypotheses about social phenomena. By gathering rich, detailed data about individuals’ experiences and perspectives, researchers can develop insights that may challenge existing theories or lead to new lines of inquiry.
• Providing context for quantitative data: Qualitative research can be useful for providing context for quantitative data. By gathering qualitative data alongside quantitative data, researchers can develop a more complete understanding of complex social phenomena and identify potential explanations for quantitative findings.

When to use Qualitative Research

Here are some situations where qualitative research may be appropriate:

• Exploring a new area: If little is known about a particular topic, qualitative research can help to identify key issues, generate hypotheses, and develop new theories.
• Understanding complex phenomena: Qualitative research can be used to investigate complex social, cultural, or organizational phenomena that are difficult to measure quantitatively.
• Investigating subjective experiences: Qualitative research is particularly useful for investigating the subjective experiences of individuals or groups, such as their attitudes, beliefs, values, or emotions.
• Conducting formative research: Qualitative research can be used in the early stages of a research project to develop research questions, identify potential research participants, and refine research methods.
• Evaluating interventions or programs: Qualitative research can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions or programs by collecting data on participants’ experiences, attitudes, and behaviors.

Characteristics of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is characterized by several key features, including:

• Focus on subjective experience: Qualitative research is concerned with understanding the subjective experiences, beliefs, and perspectives of individuals or groups in a particular context. Researchers aim to explore the meanings that people attach to their experiences and to understand the social and cultural factors that shape these meanings.
• Use of open-ended questions: Qualitative research relies on open-ended questions that allow participants to provide detailed, in-depth responses. Researchers seek to elicit rich, descriptive data that can provide insights into participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Sampling-based on purpose and diversity: Qualitative research often involves purposive sampling, in which participants are selected based on specific criteria related to the research question. Researchers may also seek to include participants with diverse experiences and perspectives to capture a range of viewpoints.
• Data collection through multiple methods: Qualitative research typically involves the use of multiple data collection methods, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observation. This allows researchers to gather rich, detailed data from multiple sources, which can provide a more complete picture of participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Inductive data analysis: Qualitative research relies on inductive data analysis, in which researchers develop theories and insights based on the data rather than testing pre-existing hypotheses. Researchers use coding and thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes in the data and to develop theories and explanations based on these patterns.
• Emphasis on researcher reflexivity: Qualitative research recognizes the importance of the researcher’s role in shaping the research process and outcomes. Researchers are encouraged to reflect on their own biases and assumptions and to be transparent about their role in the research process.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research offers several advantages over other research methods, including:

• Depth and detail: Qualitative research allows researchers to gather rich, detailed data that provides a deeper understanding of complex social phenomena. Through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observation, researchers can gather detailed information about participants’ experiences and perspectives that may be missed by other research methods.
• Flexibility : Qualitative research is a flexible approach that allows researchers to adapt their methods to the research question and context. Researchers can adjust their research methods in real-time to gather more information or explore unexpected findings.
• Contextual understanding: Qualitative research is well-suited to exploring the social and cultural context in which individuals or groups are situated. Researchers can gather information about cultural norms, social structures, and historical events that may influence participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Participant perspective : Qualitative research prioritizes the perspective of participants, allowing researchers to explore subjective experiences and understand the meanings that participants attach to their experiences.
• Theory development: Qualitative research can contribute to the development of new theories and insights about complex social phenomena. By gathering rich, detailed data and using inductive data analysis, researchers can develop new theories and explanations that may challenge existing understandings.
• Validity : Qualitative research can offer high validity by using multiple data collection methods, purposive and diverse sampling, and researcher reflexivity. This can help ensure that findings are credible and trustworthy.

Limitations of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research also has some limitations, including:

• Subjectivity : Qualitative research relies on the subjective interpretation of researchers, which can introduce bias into the research process. The researcher’s perspective, beliefs, and experiences can influence the way data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted.
• Limited generalizability: Qualitative research typically involves small, purposive samples that may not be representative of larger populations. This limits the generalizability of findings to other contexts or populations.
• Time-consuming: Qualitative research can be a time-consuming process, requiring significant resources for data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Resource-intensive: Qualitative research may require more resources than other research methods, including specialized training for researchers, specialized software for data analysis, and transcription services.
• Limited reliability: Qualitative research may be less reliable than quantitative research, as it relies on the subjective interpretation of researchers. This can make it difficult to replicate findings or compare results across different studies.
• Ethics and confidentiality: Qualitative research involves collecting sensitive information from participants, which raises ethical concerns about confidentiality and informed consent. Researchers must take care to protect the privacy and confidentiality of participants and obtain informed consent.

Also see Research Methods

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Qualitative research: methods and examples

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Qualitative research involves gathering and evaluating non-numerical information to comprehend concepts, perspectives, and experiences. It’s also helpful for obtaining in-depth insights into a certain subject or generating new research ideas. 

As a result, qualitative research is practical if you want to try anything new or produce new ideas.

There are various ways you can conduct qualitative research. In this article, you'll learn more about qualitative research methodologies, including when you should use them.

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• What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is a broad term describing various research types that rely on asking open-ended questions. Qualitative research investigates “how” or “why” certain phenomena occur. It is about discovering the inherent nature of something.

The primary objective of qualitative research is to understand an individual's ideas, points of view, and feelings. In this way, collecting in-depth knowledge of a specific topic is possible. Knowing your audience's feelings about a particular subject is important for making reasonable research conclusions.

Unlike quantitative research , this approach does not involve collecting numerical, objective data for statistical analysis. Qualitative research is used extensively in education, sociology, health science, history, and anthropology.

• Types of qualitative research methodology

Typically, qualitative research aims at uncovering the attitudes and behavior of the target audience concerning a specific topic. For example,  “How would you describe your experience as a new Dovetail user?”

Some of the methods for conducting qualitative analysis include:

Focus groups

Hosting a focus group is a popular qualitative research method. It involves obtaining qualitative data from a limited sample of participants. In a moderated version of a focus group, the moderator asks participants a series of predefined questions. They aim to interact and build a group discussion that reveals their preferences, candid thoughts, and experiences.

Unmoderated, online focus groups are increasingly popular because they eliminate the need to interact with people face to face.

Focus groups can be more cost-effective than 1:1 interviews or studying a group in a natural setting and reporting one’s observations.

Focus groups make it possible to gather multiple points of view quickly and efficiently, making them an excellent choice for testing new concepts or conducting market research on a new product.

However, there are some potential drawbacks to this method. It may be unsuitable for sensitive or controversial topics. Participants might be reluctant to disclose their true feelings or respond falsely to conform to what they believe is the socially acceptable answer (known as response bias).

Case study research

A case study is an in-depth evaluation of a specific person, incident, organization, or society. This type of qualitative research has evolved into a broadly applied research method in education, law, business, and the social sciences.

Even though case study research may appear challenging to implement, it is one of the most direct research methods. It requires detailed analysis, broad-ranging data collection methodologies, and a degree of existing knowledge about the subject area under investigation.

Historical model

The historical approach is a distinct research method that deeply examines previous events to better understand the present and forecast future occurrences of the same phenomena. Its primary goal is to evaluate the impacts of history on the present and hence discover comparable patterns in the present to predict future outcomes.

Oral history

This qualitative data collection method involves gathering verbal testimonials from individuals about their personal experiences. It is widely used in historical disciplines to offer counterpoints to established historical facts and narratives. The most common methods of gathering oral history are audio recordings, analysis of auto-biographical text, videos, and interviews.

Qualitative observation

One of the most fundamental, oldest research methods, qualitative observation , is the process through which a researcher collects data using their senses of sight, smell, hearing, etc. It is used to observe the properties of the subject being studied. For example, “What does it look like?” As research methods go, it is subjective and depends on researchers’ first-hand experiences to obtain information, so it is prone to bias. However, it is an excellent way to start a broad line of inquiry like, “What is going on here?”

Record keeping and review

Record keeping uses existing documents and relevant data sources that can be employed for future studies. It is equivalent to visiting the library and going through publications or any other reference material to gather important facts that will likely be used in the research.

Grounded theory approach

The grounded theory approach is a commonly used research method employed across a variety of different studies. It offers a unique way to gather, interpret, and analyze. With this approach, data is gathered and analyzed simultaneously.  Existing analysis frames and codes are disregarded, and data is analyzed inductively, with new codes and frames generated from the research.

Ethnographic research

Ethnography  is a descriptive form of a qualitative study of people and their cultures. Its primary goal is to study people's behavior in their natural environment. This method necessitates that the researcher adapts to their target audience's setting. 

Thereby, you will be able to understand their motivation, lifestyle, ambitions, traditions, and culture in situ. But, the researcher must be prepared to deal with geographical constraints while collecting data i.e., audiences can’t be studied in a laboratory or research facility.

This study can last from a couple of days to several years. Thus, it is time-consuming and complicated, requiring you to have both the time to gather the relevant data as well as the expertise in analyzing, observing, and interpreting data to draw meaningful conclusions.

Narrative framework

A narrative framework is a qualitative research approach that relies on people's written text or visual images. It entails people analyzing these events or narratives to determine certain topics or issues. With this approach, you can understand how people represent themselves and their experiences to a larger audience.

Phenomenological approach

The phenomenological study seeks to investigate the experiences of a particular phenomenon within a group of individuals or communities. It analyzes a certain event through interviews with persons who have witnessed it to determine the connections between their views. Even though this method relies heavily on interviews, other data sources (recorded notes), and observations could be employed to enhance the findings.

• Qualitative research methods (tools)

Some of the instruments involved in qualitative research include:

Document research: Also known as document analysis because it involves evaluating written documents. These can include personal and non-personal materials like archives, policy publications, yearly reports, diaries, or letters.

Focus groups:  This is where a researcher poses questions and generates conversation among a group of people. The major goal of focus groups is to examine participants' experiences and knowledge, including research into how and why individuals act in various ways.

Secondary study: Involves acquiring existing information from texts, images, audio, or video recordings.

Observations:   This requires thorough field notes on everything you see, hear, or experience. Compared to reported conduct or opinion, this study method can assist you in getting insights into a specific situation and observable behaviors.

Structured interviews :  In this approach, you will directly engage people one-on-one. Interviews are ideal for learning about a person's subjective beliefs, motivations, and encounters.

Surveys:  This is when you distribute questionnaires containing open-ended questions

• What are common examples of qualitative research?

Everyday examples of qualitative research include:

Conducting a demographic analysis of a business

For instance, suppose you own a business such as a grocery store (or any store) and believe it caters to a broad customer base, but after conducting a demographic analysis, you discover that most of your customers are men.

You could do 1:1 interviews with female customers to learn why they don't shop at your store.

In this case, interviewing potential female customers should clarify why they don't find your shop appealing. It could be because of the products you sell or a need for greater brand awareness, among other possible reasons.

Launching or testing a new product

Suppose you are the product manager at a SaaS company looking to introduce a new product. Focus groups can be an excellent way to determine whether your product is marketable.

In this instance, you could hold a focus group with a sample group drawn from your intended audience. The group will explore the product based on its new features while you ensure adequate data on how users react to the new features. The data you collect will be key to making sales and marketing decisions.

Conducting studies to explain buyers' behaviors

You can also use qualitative research to understand existing buyer behavior better. Marketers analyze historical information linked to their businesses and industries to see when purchasers buy more.

Qualitative research can help you determine when to target new clients and peak seasons to boost sales by investigating the reason behind these behaviors.

• Qualitative research: data collection

Data collection is gathering information on predetermined variables to gain appropriate answers, test hypotheses, and analyze results. Researchers will collect non-numerical data for qualitative data collection to obtain detailed explanations and draw conclusions.

To get valid findings and achieve a conclusion in qualitative research, researchers must collect comprehensive and multifaceted data.

Qualitative data is usually gathered through interviews or focus groups with videotapes or handwritten notes. If there are recordings, they are transcribed before the data analysis process. Researchers keep separate folders for the recordings acquired from each focus group when collecting qualitative research data to categorize the data.

• Qualitative research: data analysis

Qualitative data analysis is organizing, examining, and interpreting qualitative data. Its main objective is identifying trends and patterns, responding to research questions, and recommending actions based on the findings. Textual analysis is a popular method for analyzing qualitative data.

Textual analysis differs from other qualitative research approaches in that researchers consider the social circumstances of study participants to decode their words, behaviors, and broader meaning. 

Learn more about qualitative research data analysis software

• When to use qualitative research

Qualitative research is helpful in various situations, particularly when a researcher wants to capture accurate, in-depth insights. 

Here are some instances when qualitative research can be valuable:

Examining your product or service to improve your marketing approach

When researching market segments, demographics, and customer service teams

Identifying client language when you want to design a quantitative survey

When attempting to comprehend your or someone else's strengths and weaknesses

Assessing feelings and beliefs about societal and public policy matters

Collecting information about a business or product's perception

Analyzing your target audience's reactions to marketing efforts

When launching a new product or coming up with a new idea

When seeking to evaluate buyers' purchasing patterns

• Qualitative research methods vs. quantitative research methods

Qualitative research examines people's ideas and what influences their perception, whereas quantitative research draws conclusions based on numbers and measurements.

Qualitative research is descriptive, and its primary goal is to comprehensively understand people's attitudes, behaviors, and ideas.

In contrast, quantitative research is more restrictive because it relies on numerical data and analyzes statistical data to make decisions. This research method assists researchers in gaining an initial grasp of the subject, which deals with numbers. For instance, the number of customers likely to purchase your products or use your services.

What is the most important feature of qualitative research?

A distinguishing feature of qualitative research is that it’s conducted in a real-world setting instead of a simulated environment. The researcher is examining actual phenomena instead of experimenting with different variables to see what outcomes (data) might result.

Can I use qualitative and quantitative approaches together in a study?

Yes, combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches happens all the time and is known as mixed methods research. For example, you could study individuals’ perceived risk in a certain scenario, such as how people rate the safety or riskiness of a given neighborhood. Simultaneously, you could analyze historical data objectively, indicating how safe or dangerous that area has been in the last year. To get the most out of mixed-method research, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of each methodology, so you can create a thoughtfully designed study that will yield compelling results.

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Methodology

• What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples

What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples

Published on June 19, 2020 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on June 22, 2023.

Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.

Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research , which involves collecting and analyzing numerical data for statistical analysis.

Qualitative research is commonly used in the humanities and social sciences, in subjects such as anthropology, sociology, education, health sciences, history, etc.

• How does social media shape body image in teenagers?
• How do children and adults interpret healthy eating in the UK?
• What factors influence employee retention in a large organization?
• How is anxiety experienced around the world?
• How can teachers integrate social issues into science curriculums?

Table of contents

Approaches to qualitative research, qualitative research methods, qualitative data analysis, advantages of qualitative research, disadvantages of qualitative research, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about qualitative research.

Qualitative research is used to understand how people experience the world. While there are many approaches to qualitative research, they tend to be flexible and focus on retaining rich meaning when interpreting data.

Common approaches include grounded theory, ethnography , action research , phenomenological research, and narrative research. They share some similarities, but emphasize different aims and perspectives.

Note that qualitative research is at risk for certain research biases including the Hawthorne effect , observer bias , recall bias , and social desirability bias . While not always totally avoidable, awareness of potential biases as you collect and analyze your data can prevent them from impacting your work too much.

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Each of the research approaches involve using one or more data collection methods . These are some of the most common qualitative methods:

• Observations: recording what you have seen, heard, or encountered in detailed field notes.
• Interviews:  personally asking people questions in one-on-one conversations.
• Focus groups: asking questions and generating discussion among a group of people.
• Surveys : distributing questionnaires with open-ended questions.
• Secondary research: collecting existing data in the form of texts, images, audio or video recordings, etc.
• You take field notes with observations and reflect on your own experiences of the company culture.
• You distribute open-ended surveys to employees across all the company’s offices by email to find out if the culture varies across locations.
• You conduct in-depth interviews with employees in your office to learn about their experiences and perspectives in greater detail.

Qualitative researchers often consider themselves “instruments” in research because all observations, interpretations and analyses are filtered through their own personal lens.

For this reason, when writing up your methodology for qualitative research, it’s important to reflect on your approach and to thoroughly explain the choices you made in collecting and analyzing the data.

Qualitative data can take the form of texts, photos, videos and audio. For example, you might be working with interview transcripts, survey responses, fieldnotes, or recordings from natural settings.

Most types of qualitative data analysis share the same five steps:

• Prepare and organize your data. This may mean transcribing interviews or typing up fieldnotes.
• Review and explore your data. Examine the data for patterns or repeated ideas that emerge.
• Develop a data coding system. Based on your initial ideas, establish a set of codes that you can apply to categorize your data.
• Assign codes to the data. For example, in qualitative survey analysis, this may mean going through each participant’s responses and tagging them with codes in a spreadsheet. As you go through your data, you can create new codes to add to your system if necessary.
• Identify recurring themes. Link codes together into cohesive, overarching themes.

There are several specific approaches to analyzing qualitative data. Although these methods share similar processes, they emphasize different concepts.

Qualitative research often tries to preserve the voice and perspective of participants and can be adjusted as new research questions arise. Qualitative research is good for:

• Flexibility

The data collection and analysis process can be adapted as new ideas or patterns emerge. They are not rigidly decided beforehand.

• Natural settings

Data collection occurs in real-world contexts or in naturalistic ways.

• Meaningful insights

Detailed descriptions of people’s experiences, feelings and perceptions can be used in designing, testing or improving systems or products.

• Generation of new ideas

Open-ended responses mean that researchers can uncover novel problems or opportunities that they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

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Researchers must consider practical and theoretical limitations in analyzing and interpreting their data. Qualitative research suffers from:

• Unreliability

The real-world setting often makes qualitative research unreliable because of uncontrolled factors that affect the data.

• Subjectivity

Due to the researcher’s primary role in analyzing and interpreting data, qualitative research cannot be replicated . The researcher decides what is important and what is irrelevant in data analysis, so interpretations of the same data can vary greatly.

• Limited generalizability

Small samples are often used to gather detailed data about specific contexts. Despite rigorous analysis procedures, it is difficult to draw generalizable conclusions because the data may be biased and unrepresentative of the wider population .

• Labor-intensive

Although software can be used to manage and record large amounts of text, data analysis often has to be checked or performed manually.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Chi square goodness of fit test
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.

Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses . Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.

There are five common approaches to qualitative research :

• Grounded theory involves collecting data in order to develop new theories.
• Ethnography involves immersing yourself in a group or organization to understand its culture.
• Narrative research involves interpreting stories to understand how people make sense of their experiences and perceptions.
• Phenomenological research involves investigating phenomena through people’s lived experiences.
• Action research links theory and practice in several cycles to drive innovative changes.

Data collection is the systematic process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research. It is used in many different contexts by academics, governments, businesses, and other organizations.

There are various approaches to qualitative data analysis , but they all share five steps in common:

• Prepare and organize your data.
• Review and explore your data.
• Develop a data coding system.
• Assign codes to the data.
• Identify recurring themes.

The specifics of each step depend on the focus of the analysis. Some common approaches include textual analysis , thematic analysis , and discourse analysis .

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CRO Guide   >  Chapter 3.1

Qualitative Research: Definition, Methodology, Limitation, Examples

These are tips and tricks on how to use qualitative research to better understand your audience and improve your ROI. Also learn the difference between qualitative and quantitative data.

Table of Contents

There is a fundamental distinction between data types: qualitative and quantitative. Typically, we call data ‘quantitative’ if it is in numerical form, and ‘qualitative’ if it’s not.

Marketers love to get into customers’ minds. But for that, they need to do a qualitative research. Face-to-face interviews, focus groups, or qualitative observations can provide valuable insights about your products, your market, and your customers’ opinions and motivations.

What is Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a market research method that focuses on obtaining data through open-ended and conversational communication. This method focuses on the “why” rather than the “what” people think about you.

Let’s say you have an online shop that addresses a general audience. You do a demographic analysis and you find out that most of your customers are male. Naturally, you will want to find out  why  women are not buying from you. And that’s what qualitative research will help you find out.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

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Quantitative research is concerned with measurement and numbers, while qualitative research is concerned with understanding and words.

Quantitative research is used to quantify the problem. Its main goal is to generate numerical data or data that can be turned into statistics. It uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research.

Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys (online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys, kiosk surveys, etc.), face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

On the other hand, qualitative research is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

Qualitative data collection methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observation.

The statistical data of quantitative methods obtained from many people reveal a broad, generalizable set of findings. In contrast, qualitative methods produce a large amount of detailed information about a smaller number of people that results in rich understanding but reduces generalizability.

Qualitative Research Methodology

Once the marketer has decided that their research questions will provide data that is qualitative in nature, the next step is to choose the appropriate qualitative approach.

The approach chosen will take into account the purpose of the research, the role of the researcher, the data collected, the method of data analysis  and how the results will be presented. The most common approaches include:

• Narrative : explores the life of an individual, tells their story;
• Phenomenology : attempts to understand or explain life experiences or phenomena;
• Grounded theory : investigates the process, action, or interaction with the goal of developing a theory “grounded” in observations;
• Ethnography : describes and interprets an ethnic, cultural, or social group;
• Case study : examines episodic events in a definable framework, develops in-depth analyses of single or multiple cases, generally explains “how”.

Types of Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative research methods are designed in a manner that they help reveal the behavior and perception of a target audience regarding a particular topic.

The most frequently used qualitative research methods are one-on-one interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, case study research, record keeping, and qualitative observation.

1. One-on-one interviews

Conducting one-on-one interviews is one of the most common qualitative research methods. One of the advantages of this method is that it provides a great opportunity to gather precise data about what people think and their motivations.

Spending time talking to customers not only helps marketers understand who their clients are, but it also helps with customer care: clients love hearing from brands. This strengthens the relationship between a brand and its clients and paves the way for customer testimonials.

These interviews can be performed face-to-face or on the phone and usually last between half an hour and two hours or more.

When a one-on-one interview is conducted face-to-face, it also gives the marketer the opportunity to read the body language of the respondent and match the responses.

2. Focus groups

Focus groups are another commonly used qualitative research method. The ideal size of a focus group is usually between five and eight participants.

If the topic is of minor concern to participants, and if they have little experience with the topic, then a group size of 10 could be productive.

As the topic becomes more important, if people have more expertise on the topic, or if they are likely to have strong feelings about the topic, then the group size should be restricted to five or six people.

The main goal of a focus group is to find answers to the “why”, “what”, and “how” questions.

One advantage that focus groups have is that the marketer doesn’t necessarily have to interact with the group in person. Nowadays focus groups can be sent as online surveys on various devices.

Focus groups are an expensive option compared to the other qualitative research methods, which is why they are typically used to explain complex processes. Focus groups are especially useful when it comes to market research on new products and testing new concepts.

3. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research is the most in-depth observational method that studies individuals in their naturally occurring environment.

This method aims at understanding the cultures, challenges, motivations, and settings that occur.

Ethnographic research requires the marketer to adapt to the target audiences’ environments (a different organization, a different city, or even a remote location), which is why geographical constraints can be an issue while collecting data.

This type of research can last from a few days to a few years. It’s challenging and time-consuming and solely depends on the expertise of the marketer to be able to analyze, observe, and infer the data.

4. Case study research

The case study method has grown into a valuable qualitative research method. This type of research method is usually used in education or social sciences.

Case study research may seem difficult to operate, but it’s actually one of the simplest ways of conducting research as it involves a deep dive and thorough understanding of the data collection methods and inferring the data.

5. Record keeping

Record keeping is similar to going to the library: you go over books or any other reference material to collect relevant data. This method uses already existing reliable documents and similar sources of information as a data source.

6. Qualitative observation

Qualitative observation is a method that uses subjective methodologies to gather systematic information or data. This method deals with the five major sensory organs and their functioning, sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

Qualitative observation doesn’t involve measurements or numbers but instead characteristics.

Examples of Qualitative Research

1. online grocery shop with a predominantly male audience.

Let’s go back to the previous example. You have an online grocery shop. By nature, it addresses a general audience, but after you do a demographic analysis you find out that most of your customers are male.

One good method to determine why women are not buying from you is to hold one-on-one interviews with potential customers in the category.

Interviewing a sample of potential female customers should reveal why they don’t find your store appealing. The reasons could range from not stocking enough products for women to the fact that you also sell sex toys for example.

Tapping into different market segments will have a positive impact on your revenue.

2. Software company launching a new product

Focus groups are great for establishing product-market fit.

Let’s assume you are a software company who wants to launch a new product and you hold a focus group with 12 people. Although getting their feedback regarding users’ experience with the product is a good thing, this sample is too small to define how the entire market will react to your product.

So what you can do instead is holding multiple focus groups in 20 different geographic regions. Each region should be hosting a group of 12 for each market segment; you can even segment your audience based on age. This would be a better way to establish credibility in the feedback you receive.

3. Alan Peshkin’s “God’s Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School”

Moving from a fictional example to a real-life one, let’s analyze Alan Peshkin’s 1986 book “God’s Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School”.

Peshkin studied the culture of Bethany Baptist Academy by interviewing the students, parents, teachers, and members of the community alike, and spending eighteen months observing them to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Christian schooling as an alternative to public education.

Peshkin described Bethany Baptist Academy as having institutional unity of purpose, a dedicated faculty, an administration that backs teachers in enforcing classroom disciplines, cheerful students, rigorous homework, committed parents, and above all grounded in positive moral values and a character building environment.

However, it lacked cultural diversity, which meant that students were trained in one-dimensional thought, entirely cut off from viewpoints that differ with their teacher’s biblical interpretations, and a heavily censored library.

Even after discovering all this, Peshkin still presented the school in a positive light and stated that public schools have much to learn from such schools.

Peshkin’s in-depth study represents a qualitative research that uses observations and unstructured interviews, without any assumptions or hypothesis. He utilizes descriptive or non-quantifiable data on Bethany Baptist Academy specifically, without attempting to generalize the findings to other Christian schools.

4. Understanding buyers’ trends

Another way marketers can use quality research is to understand buyers’ trends. To do this, marketers need to look at historical data for both their company and their industry and identify where buyers are purchasing items in higher volumes.

For example, electronics distributors know that the holiday season is a peak market for sales while life insurance agents find that spring and summer wedding months are good seasons for targeting new clients.

5. Determining products/services missing from the market

Conducting your own research isn’t always necessary. If there are significant breakthroughs in your industry, you can use industry data and adapt it to your marketing needs.

The influx of hacking and hijacking of cloud-based information has made Internet security a topic of many industry reports lately. A software company could use these reports to better understand the problems his clients are facing.

As a result, the company can provide solutions prospects already know they need.

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Limitations of qualitative research

The disadvantages of qualitative research are quite unique. The techniques of the data collector and their own unique observations can alter the information in subtle ways. That being said, these are the qualitative research’ limitations:

1. It’s a time-consuming process

The main drawback of qualitative research is that the process is time-consuming. Another problem is that the interpretations are limited. Personal experience and knowledge influence observations and conclusions.

Thus, a qualitative research might take several weeks or months. Also, since this process delves into personal interaction for data collection, discussions often tend to deviate from the main issue to be studied.

2. You can’t verify the results of qualitative research

Because qualitative research is open-ended, participants have more control over the content of the data collected. So the marketer is not able to verify the results objectively against the scenarios stated by the respondents.

3. It’s a labor-intensive approach

Qualitative research requires a labor-intensive analysis process such as categorization, recoding, etc. Similarly, qualitative research requires well-experienced marketers to obtain the needed data from a group of respondents.

4. It’s difficult to investigate causality

Qualitative research requires thoughtful planning to ensure the obtained results are accurate. There is no way to analyze qualitative data mathematically. This type of research is based more on opinion and judgment rather than results. Because all qualitative studies are unique they are difficult to replicate.

5. Qualitative research is not statistically representative

Because qualitative research is a perspective-based method of research, the responses given are not measured.

Comparisons can be made and this can lead toward duplication, but for the most part, quantitative data is required for circumstances which need statistical representation and that is not part of the qualitative research process.

While doing a qualitative research, it’s important to cross-reference the data obtained with the quantitative data. By continuously surveying prospects and customers marketers can build a stronger database of useful information.

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Academic research record-keeping: best practices for individuals, group leaders, and institutions

Affiliation.

• 1 Division of Research and Graduate Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA. [email protected]
• PMID: 16377817
• PMCID: PMC3943904
• DOI: 10.1097/00001888-200601000-00010

During the last half of the 20th century, social and technological changes in academic research groups have challenged traditional research record-keeping practices, making them either insufficient or obsolete. New practices have developed but standards (best practices) are still evolving. Based on the authors' review and analysis of a number of sources, they present a set of systematically compiled best practices for research record-keeping for academic research groups. These best practices were developed as an adjunct to a research project on research ethics aimed at examining the actual research record-keeping practices of active academic scientists and their impact on research misconduct inquiries. The best practices differentiate and provide separate standards for three different levels within the university: the individual researcher, the research group leader, and the department/institution. They were developed using a combination of literature reviews, surveys of university integrity officials, focus groups of active researchers, and inspection of university policies on research record-keeping. The authors believe these best practices constitute a ''snapshot'' of the current normative standards for research records within the academic research community. They are offered as ethical and practical guidelines subject to continuing evolution and not as absolute rules. They may be especially useful in training the next generation of researchers.

Publication types

• Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
• Benchmarking
• Education, Medical*
• Ethics, Research
• Forms and Records Control / methods*
• Forms and Records Control / organization & administration
• Forms and Records Control / standards
• Organizational Policy
• Quality Control
• Research / organization & administration
• Research / standards*
• United States

Grants and funding

• ZIA ES102646-01/Intramural NIH HHS/United States

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Home Market Research

Qualitative Research Methods: Types, Analysis + Examples

Qualitative research is based on the disciplines of social sciences like psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Therefore, the qualitative research methods allow for in-depth and further probing and questioning of respondents based on their responses. The interviewer/researcher also tries to understand their motivation and feelings. Understanding how your audience makes decisions can help derive conclusions in market research.

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is defined as a market research method that focuses on obtaining data through open-ended and conversational communication .

This method is about “what” people think and “why” they think so. For example, consider a convenience store looking to improve its patronage. A systematic observation concludes that more men are visiting this store. One good method to determine why women were not visiting the store is conducting an in-depth interview method with potential customers.

For example, after successfully interviewing female customers and visiting nearby stores and malls, the researchers selected participants through random sampling . As a result, it was discovered that the store didn’t have enough items for women.

So fewer women were visiting the store, which was understood only by personally interacting with them and understanding why they didn’t visit the store because there were more male products than female ones.

Gather research insights

Types of qualitative research methods with examples

Qualitative research methods are designed in a manner that helps reveal the behavior and perception of a target audience with reference to a particular topic. There are different types of qualitative research methods, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, content analysis, and case study research that are usually used.

The results of qualitative methods are more descriptive, and the inferences can be drawn quite easily from the obtained data .

Qualitative research methods originated in the social and behavioral research sciences. Today, our world is more complicated, and it is difficult to understand what people think and perceive. Online research methods make it easier to understand that as it is a more communicative and descriptive analysis .

The following are the qualitative research methods that are frequently used. Also, read about qualitative research examples :

1. One-on-one interview

Conducting in-depth interviews is one of the most common qualitative research methods. It is a personal interview that is carried out with one respondent at a time. This is purely a conversational method and invites opportunities to get details in depth from the respondent.

One of the advantages of this method is that it provides a great opportunity to gather precise data about what people believe and their motivations . If the researcher is well experienced, asking the right questions can help him/her collect meaningful data. If they should need more information, the researchers should ask such follow-up questions that will help them collect more information.

These interviews can be performed face-to-face or on the phone and usually can last between half an hour to two hours or even more. When the in-depth interview is conducted face to face, it gives a better opportunity to read the respondents’ body language and match the responses.

2. Focus groups

A focus group is also a commonly used qualitative research method used in data collection. A focus group usually includes a limited number of respondents (6-10) from within your target market.

The main aim of the focus group is to find answers to the “why, ” “what,” and “how” questions. One advantage of focus groups is you don’t necessarily need to interact with the group in person. Nowadays, focus groups can be sent an online survey on various devices, and responses can be collected at the click of a button.

Focus groups are an expensive method as compared to other online qualitative research methods. Typically, they are used to explain complex processes. This method is very useful for market research on new products and testing new concepts.

3. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research is the most in-depth observational research method that studies people in their naturally occurring environment.

This method requires the researchers to adapt to the target audiences’ environments, which could be anywhere from an organization to a city or any remote location. Here, geographical constraints can be an issue while collecting data.

This research design aims to understand the cultures, challenges, motivations, and settings that occur. Instead of relying on interviews and discussions, you experience the natural settings firsthand.

This type of research method can last from a few days to a few years, as it involves in-depth observation and collecting data on those grounds. It’s a challenging and time-consuming method and solely depends on the researcher’s expertise to analyze, observe, and infer the data.

4. Case study research

T he case study method has evolved over the past few years and developed into a valuable quality research method. As the name suggests, it is used for explaining an organization or an entity.

This type of research method is used within a number of areas like education, social sciences, and similar. This method may look difficult to operate; however , it is one of the simplest ways of conducting research as it involves a deep dive and thorough understanding of the data collection methods and inferring the data.

5. Record keeping

This method makes use of the already existing reliable documents and similar sources of information as the data source. This data can be used in new research. This is similar to going to a library. There, one can go over books and other reference material to collect relevant data that can likely be used in the research.

6. Process of observation

Qualitative Observation is a process of research that uses subjective methodologies to gather systematic information or data. Since the focus on qualitative observation is the research process of using subjective methodologies to gather information or data. Qualitative observation is primarily used to equate quality differences.

Qualitative observation deals with the 5 major sensory organs and their functioning – sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. This doesn’t involve measurements or numbers but instead characteristics.

Explore Insightfully Contextual Inquiry in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research: data collection and analysis

A. qualitative data collection.

Qualitative data collection allows collecting data that is non-numeric and helps us to explore how decisions are made and provide us with detailed insight. For reaching such conclusions the data that is collected should be holistic, rich, and nuanced and findings to emerge through careful analysis.

• Whatever method a researcher chooses for collecting qualitative data, one aspect is very clear the process will generate a large amount of data. In addition to the variety of methods available, there are also different methods of collecting and recording the data.

For example, if the qualitative data is collected through a focus group or one-to-one discussion, there will be handwritten notes or video recorded tapes. If there are recording they should be transcribed and before the process of data analysis can begin.

• As a rough guide, it can take a seasoned researcher 8-10 hours to transcribe the recordings of an interview, which can generate roughly 20-30 pages of dialogues. Many researchers also like to maintain separate folders to maintain the recording collected from the different focus group. This helps them compartmentalize the data collected.
• In case there are running notes taken, which are also known as field notes, they are helpful in maintaining comments, environmental contexts, environmental analysis , nonverbal cues etc. These filed notes are helpful and can be compared while transcribing audio recorded data. Such notes are usually informal but should be secured in a similar manner as the video recordings or the audio tapes.

B. Qualitative data analysis

Qualitative data analysis such as notes, videos, audio recordings images, and text documents. One of the most used methods for qualitative data analysis is text analysis.

Text analysis is a  data analysis method that is distinctly different from all other qualitative research methods, where researchers analyze the social life of the participants in the research study and decode the words, actions, etc. 

There are images also that are used in this research study and the researchers analyze the context in which the images are used and draw inferences from them. In the last decade, text analysis through what is shared on social media platforms has gained supreme popularity.

Characteristics of qualitative research methods

• Qualitative research methods usually collect data at the sight, where the participants are experiencing issues or research problems . These are real-time data and rarely bring the participants out of the geographic locations to collect information.
• Qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data, such as interviews, observations, and documents, rather than rely on a single data source .
• This type of research method works towards solving complex issues by breaking down into meaningful inferences, that is easily readable and understood by all.
• Since it’s a more communicative method, people can build their trust on the researcher and the information thus obtained is raw and unadulterated.

Qualitative research method case study

Let’s take the example of a bookstore owner who is looking for ways to improve their sales and customer outreach. An online community of members who were loyal patrons of the bookstore were interviewed and related questions were asked and the questions were answered by them.

At the end of the interview, it was realized that most of the books in the stores were suitable for adults and there were not enough options for children or teenagers.

By conducting this qualitative research the bookstore owner realized what the shortcomings were and what were the feelings of the readers. Through this research now the bookstore owner can now keep books for different age categories and can improve his sales and customer outreach.

Such qualitative research method examples can serve as the basis to indulge in further quantitative research , which provides remedies.

When to use qualitative research

Researchers make use of qualitative research techniques when they need to capture accurate, in-depth insights. It is very useful to capture “factual data”. Here are some examples of when to use qualitative research.

• Developing a new product or generating an idea.
• Studying your product/brand or service to strengthen your marketing strategy.
• To understand your strengths and weaknesses.
• Understanding purchase behavior.
• To study the reactions of your audience to marketing campaigns and other communications.
• Exploring market demographics, segments, and customer care groups.
• Gathering perception data of a brand, company, or product.

LEARN ABOUT: Steps in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research methods vs quantitative research methods

The basic differences between qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods are simple and straightforward. They differ in:

• Their analytical objectives
• Types of questions asked
• Types of data collection instruments
• Forms of data they produce
• Degree of flexibility

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Types Of Research Methodology

Types Of Qualitative Research

Last updated on: Feb 8, 2023

Types of Qualitative Research - A Conceptual Framework

By: Leanne R.

Reviewed By: Rylee W.

Published on: Aug 13, 2019

Do you know that qualitative research is divided into several types? If not then this is where your search ends.

Qualitative research is one of the two major  types of research . It uses human-centered and interpretive methods to explore meanings and experiences.

There are many different types of qualitative research, which differ in terms of their goals and how they approach data collection.

Qualitative researchers use field notes, interviews, life histories, discourse analysis, ethnography, or case studies to investigate these meanings.

This blog will help you understand some common types of qualitative research. So that you can choose the best one to answer your research question.

Continue reading to learn the difference between them.

On this Page

What is Qualitative Research?

The qualitative research approach is defined as market-based research that emphasizes collecting the data through communication. It primarily deals with human behavior.

Furthermore, it is applied across many academic disciplines. It also does not necessarily test the hypothesis about the qualitative data. But is often used to develop an in-depth understanding of social work problems.

Apart from that, qualitative research has a huge background in sociology. It is used by social scientists to examine the behavior of different people through a subjective approach.

Similarly, it also investigates symbols and meaning to create new theories that can be further tested. Qualitative researchers use different methods from quantitative researchers.

Types of Qualitative Research

There are six main types of qualitative research studies that are widely used in educational, business, and government organizations. These include:

1. Phenomenological Method

This type includes a description of how a participant experiences a particular event. Here, a researcher uses observation, surveys, and conducts in-depth interviews to accumulate data.

Moreover, it focuses on the participant’s feelings during a particular event or activity. Most of businesses employ this type to help sales representatives in closing their sales.

The below-mentioned document will help you with writing a phenomenological method research paper.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

2. Ethnographic Research

This model is the most popular and widely recognized method. It analyzes people in their naturally occurring environment as a data source. The main goal is to learn the motivations, cultural challenges, and settings that happen.

Apart from this, it engages the researcher for extended periods of time. It is further used to understand the customer in a business model and can continue from a few days to years.

This time-consuming and challenging data collection method entirely depends on the researcher’s expertise to observe and examine the data.

Read the document below for a clear understanding.

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

3. Grounded Theory Method

This approach elaborates on why a course of action has evolved the way it did. These theoretical paradigms are formed on the basis of biological, generic, or psychological science.

Corporations make use of this method while conducting user satisfaction surveys. It explains why a customer uses a company’s product or service. Such information helps to manage customer loyalty and satisfaction.

We have mentioned a grounded theory model research paper for you to get a detailed idea.

GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

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4. Case Study Model

The case study model gives a comprehensive understanding of one subject. It can be an individual, business, family, or town. In addition, the data is obtained from different sources and collected to make a bigger conclusion

Many businesses use this technique when marketing to new customers. It tells them how their business solutions can solve a specific problem.

Have a look at the below-mentioned document for further help.

CASE STUDY RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

5. Historical Model

The historical method illustrates past events to present patterns and anticipates future choices. It answers hypothetical data-based questions and uses the research to test them.

Some business firms use previous ad campaigns and test them with new ones. It is done to determine which is the most effective campaign.

Check out the example given below of a research paper using a historical model

HISTORICAL MODEL RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

6. Narrative Model

This model occurs for a longer time period and assembles the gathered data. In narrative research, the subjects are taken from a starting point and situations are reviewed as obstacles or opportunities.

Though the end result does not always appear in chronological order. Businesses use it to describe buyer personas and classify innovations that attract the target market.

Read the sample research paper given below:

NARRATIVE MODEL RESEARCH PAPER (PDF)

Some researchers also use mixed research approaches like participant observation as their data analysis tool.

Features of Qualitative Research Methods

Some of the different features of the qualitative research methods are given below:

• They are used to gather information at the location where the respondents usually experience problems. This is real-time information that forces the participants to come out of their geographic environment to assemble it.
• The researchers do not just focus on a single source of data. Instead, they collect data from different sources like interviews, observations, and documents.
• They also work to solve complicated problems by breaking them down into useful inferences. It makes it simple to understand and read.
• Lastly, such communicative methods can lead people to easily build their trust in the researcher.

Methods of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research design reveals the attitude of the target audience with reference to a particular topic. They basically originate from behavioral and social science. Moreover, it presents detailed outcomes and the inferences can be described easily from the data analysis.

Here are most commonly used qualitative methods are:

Observation

• Record Keeping

Content Analysis

Focus groups.

In-Depth Interviews

Organizing in-depth interviews is the most common method for qualitative research. It is a conversational method that involves one participant at a time.

The benefits of this approach include collecting data about what people believe and what their motivations are. Such interviews can be conducted face-to-face or on the telephone.

However, it can last from half an hour to two hours. Lastly, it provides a better idea of the respondent’s body language.

It's a mechanism using empirical methodologies to collect systematic sources of data. Primarily, a participant is used to compare differences. This includes five essential sensory organs and their functions i.e.

A focus group involves a limited number of participants used for data collection. Such a target audience is there to find the responses to ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ questions.

Moreover, it does not require a researcher to necessarily communicate with the group directly. Instead, online surveys can be sent on several devices to collect the answers.

This method is considered expensive in contrast to other qualitative research methods. Nevertheless, It is useful when it comes to market research and testing of new products.

This method has advanced over the past few years. It is mainly used within a number of areas to explain an organization or an entity.

It is used for studying documents and communication artifacts. Social scientists use it to examine the study pattern in a systematic manner.

Record-Keeping

It uses reliable existing documents and similar information sources as the data source. To gather relevant data, a researcher may go over books and other reference material. It can be used in a new research study.

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• Types of Research Methodology with Examples

• Quantitative Research: Data Collection and Analysis

• What is Qualitative Research - Methods and Examples

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Records and Record Keeping

Research projects can vary in their complexity and therefore require different levels of record keeping. For example, conducting a small project, like a quick evaluation after a workshop, can take just a few hours. A larger project may take several years, for instance when testing a new drug. And a cohort study, like investigating the life expectancy of individuals who have experienced trauma at some point in their lives, may take decades. It is often more difficult to keep track of project processes when a project is long and involves many people. Therefore, you must document your plans, procedures and data collection before, during, and after your project.

The process of documenting your research is called ‘record keeping’. Good record keeping ensures that:

• you and others can retrace exactly when you did what and why
• you can keep a good overview of your data
• your research is conducted according to ethical standards

To be able to retrace what you did, you can create a research protocol before your study begins. A research protocol describes how you came up with a research idea; your objectives for the research, hypotheses and procedures; and how you will analyse and interpret the results.

During the data collection period there are additional record keeping concerns. You need to implement a system to pseudonymise or anonymise the data provided by each participant.

• Pseudnonymisation means allocating a research ID to each participant and keeping a separate list which matches each participant to their ID number. This is especially helpful when you need to re-contact participants repeatedly during the study or conduct a before-and-after study .
• Anonymisation means ensuring there is no way of tracing back who provided which set of data. This can be especially important when collecting sensitive data, for example, when asking employees to evaluate their leaders, or when the researcher themself is being evaluated.

It could also be that circumstances change during data collection. This might be the case when recruitment is slower than expected and the researcher drops some recruitment questions to facilitate participation in the study. Such changes need to be transparently documented.

Finally, after finishing data collection, you must thoroughly document all steps and results of data analysis, including any work or code which is made using statistical software packages. From this documentation, other people should be able to replicate your process and study results if they want to.

Record keeping is an important part of conducting research to ensure transparency, replicability, rigour and ethical conduct of the data collection and interpretation process.

(Author: Leonie Ader)

What is it?

Knowledge clip: Data Documentation by UGent Data Stewards (2020)

This video is a comprehensive introduction into record keeping (documentation) explaining why, when, and how to do it. It focuses on specific strategies of documentation on the study, file and variable level.

(Academic reference: UGent Data Stewards (2020, December 2). Knowledge clip: Data Documentation [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ogbkx74Ym8&ab_channel=UGentDataStewards)

Data Management: Research Records by The University of Iowa (2022)

This website gives a short overview of what research records are, what points to consider when managing data, and what responsibilities you have as a researcher.

(Academic reference: The University of Iowa (2022, July 29). 5h. Data Management: Research Records. Researcher Handbook. https://researcherhandbook.research.uiowa.edu/5h-data-management-research-records)

Academic Research Record-Keeping: Best Practices for Individuals, Group Leaders, and Institutions by Schreier and colleagues (2006)

This article presents a set of best practices for research record-keeping for academic research groups on three different levels within a research institution: the individual researcher, the research group leader and the department/institution.

(Academic reference: Schreier, A., Wilson, K., & Resnik, D. (2006). Academic Research Record-Keeping: Best Practices for Individuals, Group Leaders, and Institutions. Academic Medicine, 81 (1), 42-47.)

How is it done?

Knowledge clip: Keeping research data organized by UGent Data Stewards (2021)

This video explains why file organisation is important, what it involves, how to develop file naming conventions and folder structures, how to keep track of different versions of files, including lots of practical advice.

(Academic reference: UGent Data Stewards (2021, September 29). Knowledge clip: Keeping research data organized [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YslfY4W-NAg&ab_channel=UGentDataStewards)

Manuals & Guides:

Table 1 of this article gives a comprehensive list of what research records explain and how to keep them.

Process and record keeping by Deakin University and Griffith University (2022)

This article provides an overview of what needs to be done in a research project in terms of record keeping. It provides a real-world example and a task to encourage you to plan for managing data in a theoretical research project.

(Academic reference: Deakin University and Griffith University (2022, June 28). Process and record keeping. Futurelearn. https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/why-experience-matters/0/steps/45513)

Method in action

What is the Open Science Framework all about? by Research Masterminds (2021)

The Open Science Framework is an initiative for researchers to register and share their work at any stage of their project. Open Science practices may help to prevent forging of data or results, adjusting hypotheses or stealing unpublished research ideas. Instead, research is made more accessible and collaboration may be encouraged.

(Academic reference: Research Masterminds (2021, June 10). What is the Open Science Framework all about? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M8KXXKqzhU&ab_channel=ResearchMasterminds)

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• 1. Overview of qualitative inquiry and general texts on this topic
• A School Story of Qualitative Inquiry
• An Analysis of the Story
• Qualitative Inquiry Process
• The Reality about the Process
• Organization of this Book
• 2. Assumptions we make in doing qualitative inquiry
• Some Common Assumptions
• An Analysis of Assumptions
• Common Questions about Qualitative Inquiry
• Some Additional Beliefs and Assumptions Regarding Human Inquiry
• 3. Keeping a record, writing fieldnotes
• An Analysis
• Kinds of Fieldnotes

Some Ideas about Record Keeping

• Mechanics of Fieldnotes
• 4. Relationship building to enhance inquiry
• An Article-Based Story
• The Process
• Results and Conclusion
• An Analysis of KL's Experience
• 5. Standards and quality in qualitative inquiry
• A Self-Critique Story
• Credibility
• Transferability
• Dependability
• Confirmability
• Other Criteria
• A Checklist
• Audit Trail
• 6. Focusing the inquiry
• A School's Superintendent's Story
• 7. Data collection
• Gathering Through Observations, Interviews and Documents
• An Assistant Principal's Story
• General Lessons
• Observing Lessons
• Interviewing Lessons
• Document Review Lessons
• 8. Data interpretation
• A Graduate Student Story
• Story Reading Through Analysis, Synthesis and Interpretation
• Spradley's Approach to Interpretation
• Domain Analysis
• 9. Sharing and reporting
• Sharing through Story Telling
• Revisiting Three Stories
• An Analysis of Three Stories
• 10. Appendices
• Appendix A.1 - A Sample Study from BYU-Public School Partnership
• Appendix A.2 - What Have We Learned?
• Appendix A.3 - Patterns of Experience
• Appendix B.1 - Allowing Space for Not-Knowing: What My Journal Teaches Me, Part 1
• Appendix B.2 - Allowing Space for Not-Knowing: What My Journal Teaches Me, Part 2
• Appendix B.3 - Allowing Space for Not-Knowing: What My Journal Teaches Me, Part 3
• Appendix B.4 - Allowing Space for Not-Knowing: What My Journal Teaches Me, Part 4
• Appendix B.5 - Marne's critique of her own study
• Appendix C - An Elementary School Example: My Observations of Jimmy
• Appendix D - Reflecting on Reflection
• Appendix E - A Study of Educational Change in Alberta
• Appendix F - Moving Ahead: A Naturalistic Study of Retention Reversal of Five Elementary School Children
• Appendix G.1 - An Examination of Teacher Reflection
• Appendix G.2 - Themes of Reflection
• Appendix H - Spradley's theme synthesis and report writing
• Appendix I - Index of Topics
• Translations

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Doing qualitative or interpretive inquiry is a systematic way to learn about the world we live in. This process builds on the natural ways most of us learn already. As indicated in Chapter One, the inquirer participates in several activities repeatedly, simultaneously, and continuously throughout the learning process. The inquirer:

• participates in a social situation (the world) and develops relationships with others there;
• asks questions about what is going on in that social world;
• collects information to address those questions (using observation, conversations, etc.);
• makes sense of the information gathered in order to ask deeper questions, collect more information, interpret that information, and so on; and
• shares with others the experience of being involved and learning, often through writing.

Keeping field notes or an inquiry journal is a common way to maintain a record of the qualitative inquiry experience. These notes are most commonly written records; but they may also be video or audio tapes, drawings, student work, memoranda, minutes from meetings, or any other artifact that contains useful information. Field notes should be kept consistently up to date because any experience you may have could be relevant to your interpretation of any particular event or idea.

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/qualitativeinquiry/recordkeeping .

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Using the Research Journal during Qualitative Data Collection in a Cross-Cultural Context

This article shows how a research journal can be used as a tool to reflect on issues arising during the phase of data collection. Especially in cross-cultural comparative research, unexpected cultural issues are likely to arise. The most critical is the phase of data collection, where decisions have to be made quickly. This article demonstrates how to establish and maintain a research journal during cross-cultural face-to-face interviewing with entrepreneurs. It provides ten suggestions for “what” and “why” to take notes on during five phases of data collection. Furthermore, the article elaborates on how a research journal could be used to deal with emotions as well as methodological and ethical issues that may arise.

Introduction

In sociological research, there is a long tradition of providing accounts of the research process ( Quilgars et al. 2009 ). Unfortunately, in entrepreneurship journal articles, researchers hardly mention issues that arise during the actual phase of data collection. Gómez and Kuronen (2011) refer to this phase as the “grass-root level”, where the work is actually done and decisions are made. Especially in cross-cultural comparative entrepreneurship research, this is the level where most unexpected cultural issues and differences arise. Reflective data is often omitted from the final written report because the researcher may seek to conceal and suppress certain relevant, and at times, personal aspects during research. These missing voids affect the findings and their reading, even if the reader is unaware of its existence or influence ( Weiner-Levy and Popper-Giveon 2013 ). If present, reflections are mainly on practical issues and research design, such as whether or not to hire a translator (see for example Williamson et al. 2011 ) and not on the phase of interviewing itself.

So far, little is written about the role of the research journal as a learning tool and how to establish and maintain it ( Engin 2011 ). For these reasons, the complexity of comparative research on entrepreneurship requires greater attention, particularly when the study is conducted by a single researcher. This article aims to explain how a journal can be used to reflect on issues arising during the phase of data collection. This article is based on a case study and uses practical examples from conducting interviews with entrepreneurs in various countries. Entrepreneurship researchers may benefit from using a research journal and improve the transparency and quality of cross-cultural interview studies in entrepreneurship research.

In cross-cultural qualitative research (which can be multicultural, multilingual, multinational, or multiregional), the main aim is to study entrepreneurs in different cultural settings. This research often takes place at the level of local practices, entrepreneur’s everyday life, and experiences. A major advantage of the in-depth qualitative cross-national approach is that it enables the researcher to analyze the entrepreneurial phenomena “from inside”, in their cultural and social context, in actual local practices, and in entrepreneur’s everyday life. This is more difficult, if not impossible, in large-scale multi-national comparisons ( Gómez and Kuronen 2011 ).

Comparative research methods have long been used in cross-cultural studies to identify, analyze, and explain similarities and differences among entrepreneurs. These methods serve as a means of gaining a better understanding of different structures and institutions influencing entrepreneurship. More recently, as greater emphasis has been placed on contextualization. Cross-national comparison, which has been encouraged by (European) government and research funding bodies to monitor, report, and evaluate developments, has coincided with the growth of interdisciplinary and international collaboration and networking in entrepreneurship research ( Hantrais 2008 ).

Yet, relatively few entrepreneurship researchers feel they are well equipped to conduct studies that to cross national boundaries. In case they do, it is most common to have a multi-national team of researchers with local researchers collecting data from their home country and in their native language ( Hantrais 2008 ; Mangen 1999 ). Although teamwork in cross-cultural research benefits from theoretical, methodological, and practical discussions between researchers, Agar (1980) argues that the feeling of being “the professional stranger” is missing. By contrast, solo-researchers conducting cross-cultural comparative research by themselves are able to see things from a different perspective when in a foreign culture and society, but also in one’s own country after taking distance from it. Especially in this type of research setting, reflection is important.

I will start this article by elaborating on the importance of reflection and keeping a journal as a tool do to so. I will then demonstrate how to establish and maintain such a journal during five phases of cross-cultural face-to-face interviewing with entrepreneurs. I provide ten suggestions of “what” and “why” to take notes on during these five phases. Furthermore, I elaborate on how a research journal could be used to deal with emotions during the phase of data collection. Lastly, crucial issues such as compliance to the study protocol and ethical issues will be addressed.

The Importance of Reflection

Reflexivity emphasizes an awareness of the researcher’s own presence in the research process, with the aim of improving the quality of the research. Over the past few years, a researcher’s positionality, his identity, conceptions, origin, and gender have been considered factors likely to influence the choice of research topic, field work, data analysis, and presentation ( Weiner-Levy and Popper-Giveon 2013 ). Gokah (2006) argues, based on his own experiences, how (naïve) researchers are likely to be confronted with field realities that may threaten their well-being or research work. Borg (2001) notes that emotions too are an undeniable part of the human researcher’s work. Usually, reflexivity in the literature is discussed as an individual activity. Furthermore, thinking reflexively is often portrayed as an afterthought in qualitative analysis, an exercise to conduct once the data has been collected and the results have been written up ( Browne 2013 ). Reflective data, however, may show relevant findings that would otherwise have been missed ( Weiner-Levy and Popper-Giveon 2013 ).

The Research Journal as a Tool for Reflection

Reflection by solo researchers is often done in written forms such as journals (or diaries) and case records ( Boutilier and Mason 2012 ).The case record is based on a problematic situation and includes a factual description of an event and reflection on the nature of the situation, the action taken, the alternatives considered, and the possible outcomes ( Kottkamp 1990 ). Journal writing expands the scope of such reflection beyond problematic situations. In addition to a case record, it contains a critical analysis of the (political) context in which actions unfold, the researchers’ knowledge, skills, expertise, values, assumptions, and the emotions evoked by the research. The research journal is a tool for observing, questioning, critiquing, synthesizing, and acting. The specific elements it may contain are: (1) data obtained by observation, interviews, and informal conversations; (2) additional items such as photographs and letters; (3) contextual information; (4) reflections; and (5) ideas and plans for subsequent research steps ( Altrichter and Holly 2005 ).

By integrating these elements and using the journal throughout the research, it becomes a tool for reflection in the midst of making choices, which is also referred to as reflection-in-action ( Boutilier and Mason 2012 , 200). Newbury ( 2001 , 3) argues that the research journal can be seen as “a melting pot for all of the different ingredients of a research project – prior experience, observations, readings, ideas – and a means of capturing the resulting interplay of elements”. Browne (2013) shows that it may also become a tool to air grievances, to rationalize decision making processes at times of great uncertainty, and an opportunity for researchers to be open and honest about their personal transformation during the fieldwork process. The research journal can assist the researcher in acknowledging these emotions, expressing them, and particularly where these emotions threaten the progress of the research, analyzing and reacting to them. It may contain conversations, poetry, drawings, and songs that may assist in making feelings and thoughts more clear ( Boutilier and Mason 2012 ). After introducing the case study in the next section, this article continues by demonstrating how to establish and maintain a research journal.

A Case Study Approach

I use examples from my own research about the work-life balance of independent professionals, who are highly skilled solo independent professionals and engaged in service activities ( Leighton and Brown 2013 ; Rapelli 2012 ). This explorative comparative case study, conducted in three European countries as a solo researcher, was designed to understand, in-depth, how social support increases the independent professionals’ abilities for work-life balance. Data was collected by a semi-structured questionnaire based on the capability approach adjusted to work-life balance ( Hobson 2014 ) and literature on social support and work-life balance. I interviewed 50 entrepreneurs in total in The Netherlands ( N =16), Spain ( N =17), and Sweden ( N =17) and worked and lived in each country for minimum of three months. In each country, I approached the owners of several co-working spaces to invite independent professionals to participate in the research. Next, the interviewees were asked to forward our invitation to colleagues who worked from home via the snowball method. A pro of this method is that it allowed us to ensure variation in the sample, for example in location of the work place, occupation, gender, and parental status. Data was collected through audio taped interviews, lasting approximately one hour. The interviews took place between January and August 2015 at co-working spaces, cafés, or at homes in Rotterdam, Valencia, and Malmö. In the next section, I will elaborate on how I established and maintained a research journal during this research project.

Establishing and Maintaining a Research Journal

During my research project, I kept a digital journal in Microsoft Word and Excel in a folder on my laptop. The Word document contained the methodological steps taken to gather my data, including key persons and organizations. In an Excel file, I recorded the important contact details of participants during the period of fieldwork. The Excel file contained three sheets with one for each country. The columns contained information such as date of the interview, email address, web page, telephone number, age, family situation, and work location. Later, I added numerical data from the exercises I did with participants, but also, for example, descriptive data about the setting in which we met. I updated this file as soon as I got home after the interview or, for example, when I received a confirmation email from participants. Besides a digital, practical journal, I bought a small notebook which I always carried with me in my bag, because I noticed that ideas often come at moments you do not expect them. In this small notebook I would write down patterns I discovered across the interviews, but also ideas on persons to contact, suggested books to read, or websites to check. During the interviews, I used a printed out a topic list on which I scribbled down answers or ideas. Because I obviously needed to focus on the participant and the conversation, I would work out these ideas in my note book directly after the interview.

Using the Research Journal During the Various Phases of Data Collection

In this paragraph, I will illustrate what I wrote down in my research journal and why this was useful during five phases: before data collection, while contacting participants, after the first interviews, during interviews, and after the interviews are conducted. This description results in a flow chart at the end of this paragraph ( Figure 1 ), showing five phases and ten suggestions for keeping a research journal.

Before Data Collection

Before I started to collect data, I wrote down in my journal how I perceived the world at that point of time and how I could understand the work-life balance of the entrepreneurs under study. For example, an important assumption in my research was that the national context would influence the entrepreneur’s abilities to achieve work-life balance. A reflexive position statement was a valuable start, since it served as a starting point to come back to and it allowed me to compare it to my stance afterwards.

Contacting Participants

During the phase of contacting participants, I felt low in energy because I was simultaneously settling down in a new country and meeting new people. Meeting so many new people and contacting possible participants meant having to introduce myself and constantly taking part in small talk, so the first week or two, I was too tired to work. Finding participants took a lot of time as well, which made me feel very unproductive. I used my journal to set priorities and remind myself of what I had to accomplish during my stay abroad. I struggled with my perfectionism – wanting to do more and better. Writing in my journal made me become aware of my thoughts, taught me to focus, as well as work according to my given energy level. The results confirmed my belief that individuals cannot be studied separate from their (national) context. Furthermore, I found out that it is not only national context, but also work characteristics that influence work-life balance experiences.

After the First Interviews

In the phase of the first explorative interviews, I used my journal to write down (cultural) customs and the participant’s expectations regarding timing and relational aspects. When I scheduled most of my interviews and I was ready to meet participants, I noticed that timing is important to take into account. In the Netherlands, for example, it is seen as polite to show up a little early for your appointment. When I arrived 10 min before my interview appointment in Spain, I unintendedly stressed the participant. She opened the door by saying “I should have known, since you’re Dutch. I thought we would meet at 11.00 and I need some time to clean up, collect my stuff, and make some coffee. Just sit down there, will you?”. I got the impression she felt rushed, which was not a good start to the interview. In Sweden, I found out that it is common to take of your shoes off before entering someone’s home. These taken for granted customs might cause moments of confusion if not taken into account. I used my journal to prevent myself from making the same mistakes again and making participants feel uncomfortable.

Regarding relational aspects, I made notes on the effects of bringing gifts for participants as I brought Dutch caramel waffles as a small gift for the participants. Although the gifts were very much appreciated, I did not feel as if a gift was necessary. Participants were most often happy to share their stories and to benefit from a moment of reflection. Because I travelled by plane, I could not bring caramel waffles for everyone and had to buy local chocolates instead. Because these were not Dutch, I felt they were less appreciated and therefore I stopped bringing them. Because I took notes on relational aspects in my Excel file, I found out that the gift only contributed if authentically given.

In the same phase of the first explorative interviews, I took notes on my interview techniques. Reflecting on my techniques afterwards allowed me to see what went well and what did not. In the beginning, I noticed that I sometimes posed more questions at the same time. I found that especially non-native speakers would only answer the last question they heard. Furthermore, the Spanish entrepreneurs would answer negative questions different from what I expected (i. e. with “yes” where I would have expected “no” in the Netherlands).

During Interviews

The research journal appeared to be especially helpful during the actual interview phase. First, I took notes on context such as the interview and work location. The interview location was chosen by the participants, which often provided me with background information on where and how they worked. I always took notes on these workspaces on my topic list. Workspaces could be separate offices or the kitchen table, which, for example, gave me a sense of whether participants were organized or messy. Another example is the presence of pets. After I noticed that a participant held her cat during the entire interview, I started to realize that pets could play an important role in the work-life balance of self-employed workers. Dogs, for example, provide temporal structure because the owners need to walk them at fixed times. After the interview, I transferred my notes on the work location and the presence of pets to a table in Excel, which allowed me to clearly see relationships between their work context and work-life balance.

I took notes on language issues such as the interviewee’s use of dictionaries or a translator. At the beginning of the interview, I noticed that participants often apologized for their level of English. Some of them made use of Google translate if they could not find the right word. Most of the times I could offer a suggestion – in English or Spanish – for the word I thought they meant. In one case, the participant felt he needed someone to translate, who in this case was the owner of the co-working space he was working at as well. Halfway through the interview, we decided that we could suffice without a translator. I marked this moment on my topic list. When I analyzed the interview, I could see that the participant talked much more freely about his personal experiences. This was probably related to anonymity issues. Reflecting on this practical issue reassured me in my decisions to do all the interviews myself, without the help of a translator.

During the interviews I noted long pauses, gaps, and contradictions. Pauses most often meant that participants were thinking, but sometimes they were thinking about the meaning of the question, instead of the answer. Long pauses or gaps might indicate difficulties with interpretation, resulting in short or irrelevant answers. Afterwards, reflecting on these notes of long pauses, I noticed that they occurred after the use of abstract concepts. Terms such as “work-life balance” and “autonomy” were too abstract for participants, regardless of me explaining what I meant by these terms at the beginning of the interview. Concepts might have different meanings or connotations across cultures, because of which I decided not to use them at all but stick to the language respondents used themselves. My research journal entries helped me to avoid misunderstandings.

Cultural differences in body language sometimes made me feel uncomfortable. In Spain, for example, it is common to kiss someone when you first meet them. Furthermore, during the interviews participants sometimes touched me, in a friendly manner, on the arm when they were emotional or wanted to thank me. A few times, male respondents flirted with me or made ambiguous remarks. Because I did not expect these remarks and did not know how to respond to them in the moment, I mostly ignored them until the interview was over. When the interview was concluded I would sit down and write how I felt and why. Later, when I compared my notes to the transcription, I found out that body language and ambiguous remarks were most often made when we discussed difficult issues or emotions. With the help of my journal, I found out that body language sometimes is used to distract the attention from key issues.

In Spain, I especially felt I had to interrupt respondents to prevent them from floating away from the key issue. This was challenging, as the Spanish participants often used expressive body language and hand gestures while telling their stories. In the beginning I would just observe them and make notes on my topic list, but later I tried to mirror them and use more body language myself. Although this felt as a barrier in the beginning, later I noticed that it feels more comfortable if both interlocutors have similar communication styles. In Sweden, on the contrary, one respondent told me that he felt uncomfortable talking about himself all the time, until he realized that he was the object of study. After taking note of this, I explained to all Swedish participants that I was mostly interested in their daily experiences and feelings. Thanks to my notes, I also found out that younger participants were more likely to share their personal experiences with me than older participants. The latter sometimes made remarks like “you will understand when you have children yourself” or “it’s much more difficult to make real good friends after your thirties, you will see”. Reviewing my notes helped me to prepare for similar situations in the future. For example, I would then start talking about common contacts, networks, or interests first. Another strategy was to tell them that I had run my own business too. The effect was that participants would think that “I knew what I was talking about”. In short, body language often signals difficult issues or emotions and is sometimes used to distract from key issues. Encouragements or interruptions may be helpful in making participants feel more at ease or remaining on topic, but the researcher might risk missing out on relevant stories.

There were more moments I had to pretend I knew what the participant was talking about in order to keep them talking. My research journal notes showed me my limited knowledge of the country context the participants were living in and the importance of comparative analysis to detect contextual influences. I had assumed beforehand that culture would influence the participant’s experiences of work-life balance. However, I noticed that I could not ask respondents directly about culture, simply because they had no reference point. Similarly, unless they had lived in another country before, they were unaware of work-life arrangements in other countries and therefore could hardly judge their own system. Furthermore, participants would only talk about government support if I explicitly asked about it. Apparently, this was not a pressing issue in individuals’ experiences. Participants would only bring up issues they were not satisfied with (such as tax systems).

My notes also showed me my own limited awareness of current political debates, business forms, and registration and tax payment systems. I did not experience this lack of knowledge as an obstacle during the interviews, but I was aware of having to pretend I knew. During the interview, I would note in my journal to check certain websites or to ask someone later. Making notes on my lack of knowledge on a topic allowed me to pretend as if I knew and keep participants talking.

After Interviews

During the last phase of data collection, and also immediately after the interviews, I would sit down in a café, read the notes I made in my notebook, and try to discover patterns. I distanced myself from the individual interviews and analyzed the information across occupations, gender, parents, and non-parents, and so on. I supplemented these ideas with my personal observations as a Dutch researcher working and living in a foreign country, which I had made throughout the whole interviewing phase. Because I went back and forth between analyzing within and between countries, I also needed to put my work away for a while to distance myself from the data. Because I worked and lived in the countries myself too, I noticed that I got adjusted to the context. I started to take things for granted myself. Taking notes on the context was especially difficult in the Netherlands, where I was not the “professional stranger” as termed by Agar (1980) . However, cross-cultural differences came up after constant comparisons between countries. My research journal allowed me to discover patterns across individuals and countries and to adjust interview questions if necessary ( Figure 1 ).

Flow chart showing what and why to enter in a research journal during the various phases of data collection.

Journaling Emotions

Besides improving the quality of data collection, maintaining a research journal provides the opportunity to record the emotional highs and lows of the process ( Engin 2011 ). Browne (2013) argues that fear, worry, anxiety, loneliness, and apprehension ultimately inform many of the major choices made in the field. Although these issues might be more severe in an insecure and volatile research context, they were present in my research period abroad too.

At some point during the interviewing phase, I felt lonely. When I read Browne’s (2013) description on how he developed an evening routine revolving around Skype by calling friends and family and catching up on other people’s lives, I felt very relieved. I was not the only one Skyping and texting my friends regularly, while I felt like I should go out every night to enjoy this adventure to the maximum. A feeling of loneliness is not necessarily caused by being alone, but can also be experienced when surrounded by new colleagues, a flat mate, and entrepreneurial participants in an unknown city. I especially missed friends, family, and colleagues who knew me and with whom I could talk about something other than work in my mother tongue.

At times, feelings of loneliness prevented me from being focused on what I was doing in the moment. I struggled with whether or not to invest in new relationships as I knew that I would “only” stay for a few months. This became especially apt after six months, towards the end of my research period. I was aware of cultural differences too, in the sense that it was more difficult to start social relationships in Sweden than in Spain. Reflections on my own journal entries made me decide to focus on a few persons I felt connected with. Although I felt supported by relatives via Skype and email, I stopped communicating with them in order to be able to focus my attention on the people around me.

Being away from home also meant that I did not work at an office surrounded by colleagues. On one hand, I experienced a feeling of freedom as I did not have to attend department meetings and nobody would ask if I did not work for a day. On the other hand, I missed being able to check whether I was doing the right thing and making the right decisions. I started to write down in my journal how and why I was doing this project.

My journal also taught me to tap into my intrinsic motivation. For example, I wrote that participants were often surprised by their own answers. After the interview, participants told me how this interview had made work-life related issues more clear to them. Realizing that I could contribute to improving one’s quality of life made me feel better than publishing as much articles as possible on it. I learned that I felt most fulfilled by being able to offer a moment of reflection to participants. This motivated me even more to focus on the quality of the work I was doing.

To conclude, besides using the research journal for improving the quality of data collection, it could help you to deal with emotions. I suggest to: (1) take notes on feelings of loneliness because it helps you to focus on being “here and now” and to connect with people around you; and (2) to take notes on how and why you are doing this project because it helps you to tap into your intrinsic motivation, especially if you are conducting this research alone.

Methodological Considerations

Regardless of their philosophical background, qualitative researchers have distinct criteria by which to ensure and judge the trustworthiness of findings. The qualitative data collection and analysis is based on a research protocol. The protocol is an explicit guide on all aspects of the proposed methodology. However, in the phase of qualitative data collection, unexpected issues may arise that are not mentioned in the protocol. Here, it becomes extra important to ensure the rigor of qualitative research.

Rigorous data analysis may be achieved through providing the reader with an explanation about the process by which the raw data is collected, transformed, and organized into the research report ( Tracey 2010 ). Furthermore, Tracey (2010) argues that qualitative research should be characterized by sincerity. Sincerity means that “the research is marked by honesty and transparency about the researcher’s biases, goals, and foibles as well as about how these played a role in the methods, joys, and mistakes of the research” ( 2010 , 841). It can be achieved by: (1) transparency about the methods and challenges; and (2) self-reflexivity about subjective values, biases, and inclinations. Transparency requires a case record or an “audit trail” which provides “clear documentation of all research decisions and activities” throughout the account or in the appendices ( Creswell and Miller 2000 , 28). An account of self-reflexivity is seldom provided, but could be based on the research journal. Whereas the research protocol is written before the phase of data collection, research journal entries are made unexpectedly and not separated and structured such as a research protocol. A research journal includes different types of entries such as data, additional items, contextual information, reflection, and ideas ( Altrichter and Holly 2005 ). This may raise the question whether reflection impacts on replicability of the protocol and the transferability of the results.

As I have shown before, the research journal can be used for reflection-in-action ( Boutilier and Mason 2012 ). The research journal allows the researcher to reflect on these issues in the midst of making choices. Instead of ignoring or going over issues because they were not in the protocol, the researcher reports on unexpected issues without wanting to improve the status of the data. Using a research journal allows the researcher to remember these issues and reduces the chances of the researcher sweeping issues under the carpet.

Furthermore, the research journal may contain notes on methodological issues or ideas on alternative methods and procedures. More specifically, researchers may reflect on the conditions under which they used particular research methods, possible biases, the role of the researcher, and what decisions they made about the future course of the research and why. These reflections may help to develop the quality of the research project, the competence of the researcher and future research ( Altrichter and Holly 2005 ). Rather than a replacement of the protocol, the research journal may be seen as a valuable addition to ensure sincerity and rigor. In the next paragraph, ethical considerations will be discussed.

Ethical Considerations

Being reflexive, or holding up research activities to ethical scrutiny, is an important part of research ethics ( Israel and Hay 2006 ). Ethical decision-making is influenced by ethical frameworks, professional guidelines, and ethical and legal regulation ( Wiles 2012 ). This becomes clear when a researcher submits a research manuscript and is asked to declare that the independence of research is clear and any conflicts of interest or partiality must be explicit. The most common aspects of ethical frameworks are respect for people’s autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Respect for autonomy relates to issues of voluntariness, informed consent, confidentiality, and anonymity. Beneficence concerns the responsibility to do good, non-maleficence concerns the responsibility to avoid harm, and justice concerns the importance of the benefits and burdens of research being distributed equally ( Israel and Hay 2006 ).

Some of these ethical issues can be considered prior to the research commencing, but many are emergent and become apparent only as the research proceeds, mainly during the phase of data collection. Furthermore, researchers may have a “gut feeling” about the morally right course of action when they encounter issues. This is why Wiles (2012) argues that ethical issues should be approached from a situational relativist perspective. This means that the ethical issues should be managed when they emerge in research, rather than solely adhere to a set of principles or rules. From this perspective, ethical frameworks do not determine decision-making but rather provide researchers with a means of thinking systematically about moral behavior in research. In addition, a journal may help researchers to think about, evaluate, and justify these issues and their “gut feelings”.

By writing down issues in a research journal during the phase of data collection, researchers are able to manage them in considered and reflexive ways ( Israel and Hay 2006 ). For example, researchers might write and reflect on why one guideline might need to be chosen over another ( Israel and Hay 2006 ; Hammersley and Traianou 2012 ). During my research project, I reflected on whether I should be honest and tell participants I did not know which policies they were talking about, or whether I could lie and tell them I knew in order to keep them talking. Because it would not harm the participants, I decided I would pretend I knew. Reflexivity may also help to maintain the ethics of the power relationship between researcher and the researched. Reflexivity is likely to situate the researcher as non-exploitative and compassionate toward the research subjects ( Pillow 2003 ). Being self-reflective helps the researcher to identify questions and content that he or she tends to emphasize or shy away from. It increases awareness of one’s own reactions to interviews, thoughts, emotions, and triggers ( Berger 2015 ). To conclude, the research journal may function as a tool for honesty and awareness of ethical issues and to reflect on them, but also a log if consent from ethical committees is required afterwards ( Pillow 2003 ).

Conclusions

In this article I have argued that keeping a research journal is a suitable method to reflect on issues arising during the phase of data collection. This is important especially if there are no colleague researchers within reach to discuss issues with, because unexpected issues may arise and decisions have to be made quickly in the phase of data collection.

I used examples from my own research project to show how a research journal may effectively help one to reflect on issues during face-to-face interviews with entrepreneurs in three different countries. I would like to encourage qualitative entrepreneurship researchers to establish a journal on your laptop, on printed-out topic lists, and in a notebook that can always be kept in your bag. A research journal should always be at hand and ready to use, since ideas often come at unexpected moments. Smartphones or tablets could serve this purpose very well too. Based on a case study, I provided ten suggestions for what and why to write down in a research journal during five phases of data collection: before you start, while contacting participants, after the first interviews, during interviews, and after the interviews are conducted.

Besides improving the quality of data collection, maintaining a research journal also provides researchers with the opportunity to deal with emotions. I suggest to: (1) take notes on feelings of loneliness because it helps you to focus on being “here and now” and to connect with people around you; and (2) take notes on how and why you are doing this project because it helps you to tap into your intrinsic motivation, especially if you are conducting this research alone.

Researchers may increase the rigor of qualitative research by providing the reader with an explanation about the methodological process ( Tracey 2010 ). The research journal may be seen as a valuable addition to the research protocol, because it allows researchers to reflect on arising issues which are not included in the protocol and require immediate decision making. Besides methodological choices, researchers in the field need to deal with ethical considerations. Keeping a research journal stimulates researchers to note down their thoughts and considerations. These notes are likely to provide clarity and stimulate researchers to be honest and compassionate toward the research participants. Lastly, the research journal may function as a log if consent from ethical committees is required afterwards ( Pillow 2003 ).

To conclude, the journal helps researchers to reflect on unexpected issues, emotional challenges, and methodological and ethical issues at the “grass-root level of qualitative research”, which undoubtedly will arise in a cross-cultural context. Although in this case study cross-cultural refers to cross-national, entrepreneurship researchers conducting face-to-face interviews in local or regional multicultural and multilingual settings can benefit from keeping journals too. The research journal may be seen as a valuable addition to the research protocol, which will improve the rigor and sincerity of qualitative entrepreneurship research.

Funding statement: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (Grant/Award Number: “4010002.006”).

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Qualitative study.

Steven Tenny ; Janelle M. Brannan ; Grace D. Brannan .

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Last Update: September 18, 2022 .

• Introduction

Qualitative research is a type of research that explores and provides deeper insights into real-world problems. [1] Instead of collecting numerical data points or intervene or introduce treatments just like in quantitative research, qualitative research helps generate hypotheses as well as further investigate and understand quantitative data. Qualitative research gathers participants' experiences, perceptions, and behavior. It answers the hows and whys instead of how many or how much. It could be structured as a stand-alone study, purely relying on qualitative data or it could be part of mixed-methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative data. This review introduces the readers to some basic concepts, definitions, terminology, and application of qualitative research.

Qualitative research at its core, ask open-ended questions whose answers are not easily put into numbers such as ‘how’ and ‘why’. [2] Due to the open-ended nature of the research questions at hand, qualitative research design is often not linear in the same way quantitative design is. [2] One of the strengths of qualitative research is its ability to explain processes and patterns of human behavior that can be difficult to quantify. [3] Phenomena such as experiences, attitudes, and behaviors can be difficult to accurately capture quantitatively, whereas a qualitative approach allows participants themselves to explain how, why, or what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing at a certain time or during an event of interest. Quantifying qualitative data certainly is possible, but at its core, qualitative data is looking for themes and patterns that can be difficult to quantify and it is important to ensure that the context and narrative of qualitative work are not lost by trying to quantify something that is not meant to be quantified.

However, while qualitative research is sometimes placed in opposition to quantitative research, where they are necessarily opposites and therefore ‘compete’ against each other and the philosophical paradigms associated with each, qualitative and quantitative work are not necessarily opposites nor are they incompatible. [4] While qualitative and quantitative approaches are different, they are not necessarily opposites, and they are certainly not mutually exclusive. For instance, qualitative research can help expand and deepen understanding of data or results obtained from quantitative analysis. For example, say a quantitative analysis has determined that there is a correlation between length of stay and level of patient satisfaction, but why does this correlation exist? This dual-focus scenario shows one way in which qualitative and quantitative research could be integrated together.

Examples of Qualitative Research Approaches

Ethnography

Ethnography as a research design has its origins in social and cultural anthropology, and involves the researcher being directly immersed in the participant’s environment. [2] Through this immersion, the ethnographer can use a variety of data collection techniques with the aim of being able to produce a comprehensive account of the social phenomena that occurred during the research period. [2] That is to say, the researcher’s aim with ethnography is to immerse themselves into the research population and come out of it with accounts of actions, behaviors, events, etc. through the eyes of someone involved in the population. Direct involvement of the researcher with the target population is one benefit of ethnographic research because it can then be possible to find data that is otherwise very difficult to extract and record.

Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory is the “generation of a theoretical model through the experience of observing a study population and developing a comparative analysis of their speech and behavior.” [5] As opposed to quantitative research which is deductive and tests or verifies an existing theory, grounded theory research is inductive and therefore lends itself to research that is aiming to study social interactions or experiences. [3] [2] In essence, Grounded Theory’s goal is to explain for example how and why an event occurs or how and why people might behave a certain way. Through observing the population, a researcher using the Grounded Theory approach can then develop a theory to explain the phenomena of interest.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is defined as the “study of the meaning of phenomena or the study of the particular”. [5] At first glance, it might seem that Grounded Theory and Phenomenology are quite similar, but upon careful examination, the differences can be seen. At its core, phenomenology looks to investigate experiences from the perspective of the individual. [2] Phenomenology is essentially looking into the ‘lived experiences’ of the participants and aims to examine how and why participants behaved a certain way, from their perspective . Herein lies one of the main differences between Grounded Theory and Phenomenology. Grounded Theory aims to develop a theory for social phenomena through an examination of various data sources whereas Phenomenology focuses on describing and explaining an event or phenomena from the perspective of those who have experienced it.

Narrative Research

One of qualitative research’s strengths lies in its ability to tell a story, often from the perspective of those directly involved in it. Reporting on qualitative research involves including details and descriptions of the setting involved and quotes from participants. This detail is called ‘thick’ or ‘rich’ description and is a strength of qualitative research. Narrative research is rife with the possibilities of ‘thick’ description as this approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or two individuals, in the hopes of creating a cohesive story, or narrative. [2] While it might seem like a waste of time to focus on such a specific, individual level, understanding one or two people’s narratives for an event or phenomenon can help to inform researchers about the influences that helped shape that narrative. The tension or conflict of differing narratives can be “opportunities for innovation”. [2]

Research Paradigm

Research paradigms are the assumptions, norms, and standards that underpin different approaches to research. Essentially, research paradigms are the ‘worldview’ that inform research. [4] It is valuable for researchers, both qualitative and quantitative, to understand what paradigm they are working within because understanding the theoretical basis of research paradigms allows researchers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the approach being used and adjust accordingly. Different paradigms have different ontology and epistemologies . Ontology is defined as the "assumptions about the nature of reality” whereas epistemology is defined as the “assumptions about the nature of knowledge” that inform the work researchers do. [2] It is important to understand the ontological and epistemological foundations of the research paradigm researchers are working within to allow for a full understanding of the approach being used and the assumptions that underpin the approach as a whole. Further, it is crucial that researchers understand their own ontological and epistemological assumptions about the world in general because their assumptions about the world will necessarily impact how they interact with research. A discussion of the research paradigm is not complete without describing positivist, postpositivist, and constructivist philosophies.

Positivist vs Postpositivist

To further understand qualitative research, we need to discuss positivist and postpositivist frameworks. Positivism is a philosophy that the scientific method can and should be applied to social as well as natural sciences. [4] Essentially, positivist thinking insists that the social sciences should use natural science methods in its research which stems from positivist ontology that there is an objective reality that exists that is fully independent of our perception of the world as individuals. Quantitative research is rooted in positivist philosophy, which can be seen in the value it places on concepts such as causality, generalizability, and replicability.

Conversely, postpositivists argue that social reality can never be one hundred percent explained but it could be approximated. [4] Indeed, qualitative researchers have been insisting that there are “fundamental limits to the extent to which the methods and procedures of the natural sciences could be applied to the social world” and therefore postpositivist philosophy is often associated with qualitative research. [4] An example of positivist versus postpositivist values in research might be that positivist philosophies value hypothesis-testing, whereas postpositivist philosophies value the ability to formulate a substantive theory.

Constructivist

Constructivism is a subcategory of postpositivism. Most researchers invested in postpositivist research are constructivist as well, meaning they think there is no objective external reality that exists but rather that reality is constructed. Constructivism is a theoretical lens that emphasizes the dynamic nature of our world. “Constructivism contends that individuals’ views are directly influenced by their experiences, and it is these individual experiences and views that shape their perspective of reality”. [6] Essentially, Constructivist thought focuses on how ‘reality’ is not a fixed certainty and experiences, interactions, and backgrounds give people a unique view of the world. Constructivism contends, unlike in positivist views, that there is not necessarily an ‘objective’ reality we all experience. This is the ‘relativist’ ontological view that reality and the world we live in are dynamic and socially constructed. Therefore, qualitative scientific knowledge can be inductive as well as deductive.” [4]

So why is it important to understand the differences in assumptions that different philosophies and approaches to research have? Fundamentally, the assumptions underpinning the research tools a researcher selects provide an overall base for the assumptions the rest of the research will have and can even change the role of the researcher themselves. [2] For example, is the researcher an ‘objective’ observer such as in positivist quantitative work? Or is the researcher an active participant in the research itself, as in postpositivist qualitative work? Understanding the philosophical base of the research undertaken allows researchers to fully understand the implications of their work and their role within the research, as well as reflect on their own positionality and bias as it pertains to the research they are conducting.

Data Sampling 

The better the sample represents the intended study population, the more likely the researcher is to encompass the varying factors at play. The following are examples of participant sampling and selection: [7]

• Purposive sampling- selection based on the researcher’s rationale in terms of being the most informative.
• Criterion sampling-selection based on pre-identified factors.
• Convenience sampling- selection based on availability.
• Snowball sampling- the selection is by referral from other participants or people who know potential participants.
• Extreme case sampling- targeted selection of rare cases.
• Typical case sampling-selection based on regular or average participants. 

Data Collection and Analysis

Qualitative research uses several techniques including interviews, focus groups, and observation. [1] [2] [3] Interviews may be unstructured, with open-ended questions on a topic and the interviewer adapts to the responses. Structured interviews have a predetermined number of questions that every participant is asked. It is usually one on one and is appropriate for sensitive topics or topics needing an in-depth exploration. Focus groups are often held with 8-12 target participants and are used when group dynamics and collective views on a topic are desired. Researchers can be a participant-observer to share the experiences of the subject or a non-participant or detached observer.

While quantitative research design prescribes a controlled environment for data collection, qualitative data collection may be in a central location or in the environment of the participants, depending on the study goals and design. Qualitative research could amount to a large amount of data. Data is transcribed which may then be coded manually or with the use of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software or CAQDAS such as ATLAS.ti or NVivo. [8] [9] [10]

After the coding process, qualitative research results could be in various formats. It could be a synthesis and interpretation presented with excerpts from the data. [11] Results also could be in the form of themes and theory or model development.

Dissemination

To standardize and facilitate the dissemination of qualitative research outcomes, the healthcare team can use two reporting standards. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research or COREQ is a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. [12] The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) is a checklist covering a wider range of qualitative research. [13]

Examples of Application

Many times a research question will start with qualitative research. The qualitative research will help generate the research hypothesis which can be tested with quantitative methods. After the data is collected and analyzed with quantitative methods, a set of qualitative methods can be used to dive deeper into the data for a better understanding of what the numbers truly mean and their implications. The qualitative methods can then help clarify the quantitative data and also help refine the hypothesis for future research. Furthermore, with qualitative research researchers can explore subjects that are poorly studied with quantitative methods. These include opinions, individual's actions, and social science research.

A good qualitative study design starts with a goal or objective. This should be clearly defined or stated. The target population needs to be specified. A method for obtaining information from the study population must be carefully detailed to ensure there are no omissions of part of the target population. A proper collection method should be selected which will help obtain the desired information without overly limiting the collected data because many times, the information sought is not well compartmentalized or obtained. Finally, the design should ensure adequate methods for analyzing the data. An example may help better clarify some of the various aspects of qualitative research.

A researcher wants to decrease the number of teenagers who smoke in their community. The researcher could begin by asking current teen smokers why they started smoking through structured or unstructured interviews (qualitative research). The researcher can also get together a group of current teenage smokers and conduct a focus group to help brainstorm factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke (qualitative research).

In this example, the researcher has used qualitative research methods (interviews and focus groups) to generate a list of ideas of both why teens start to smoke as well as factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke. Next, the researcher compiles this data. The research found that, hypothetically, peer pressure, health issues, cost, being considered “cool,” and rebellious behavior all might increase or decrease the likelihood of teens starting to smoke.

The researcher creates a survey asking teen participants to rank how important each of the above factors is in either starting smoking (for current smokers) or not smoking (for current non-smokers). This survey provides specific numbers (ranked importance of each factor) and is thus a quantitative research tool.

The researcher can use the results of the survey to focus efforts on the one or two highest-ranked factors. Let us say the researcher found that health was the major factor that keeps teens from starting to smoke, and peer pressure was the major factor that contributed to teens to start smoking. The researcher can go back to qualitative research methods to dive deeper into each of these for more information. The researcher wants to focus on how to keep teens from starting to smoke, so they focus on the peer pressure aspect.

The researcher can conduct interviews and/or focus groups (qualitative research) about what types and forms of peer pressure are commonly encountered, where the peer pressure comes from, and where smoking first starts. The researcher hypothetically finds that peer pressure often occurs after school at the local teen hangouts, mostly the local park. The researcher also hypothetically finds that peer pressure comes from older, current smokers who provide the cigarettes.

The researcher could further explore this observation made at the local teen hangouts (qualitative research) and take notes regarding who is smoking, who is not, and what observable factors are at play for peer pressure of smoking. The researcher finds a local park where many local teenagers hang out and see that a shady, overgrown area of the park is where the smokers tend to hang out. The researcher notes the smoking teenagers buy their cigarettes from a local convenience store adjacent to the park where the clerk does not check identification before selling cigarettes. These observations fall under qualitative research.

If the researcher returns to the park and counts how many individuals smoke in each region of the park, this numerical data would be quantitative research. Based on the researcher's efforts thus far, they conclude that local teen smoking and teenagers who start to smoke may decrease if there are fewer overgrown areas of the park and the local convenience store does not sell cigarettes to underage individuals.

The researcher could try to have the parks department reassess the shady areas to make them less conducive to the smokers or identify how to limit the sales of cigarettes to underage individuals by the convenience store. The researcher would then cycle back to qualitative methods of asking at-risk population their perceptions of the changes, what factors are still at play, as well as quantitative research that includes teen smoking rates in the community, the incidence of new teen smokers, among others. [14] [15]

Qualitative research functions as a standalone research design or in combination with quantitative research to enhance our understanding of the world. Qualitative research uses techniques including structured and unstructured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation to not only help generate hypotheses which can be more rigorously tested with quantitative research but also to help researchers delve deeper into the quantitative research numbers, understand what they mean, and understand what the implications are.  Qualitative research provides researchers with a way to understand what is going on, especially when things are not easily categorized. [16]

• Issues of Concern

As discussed in the sections above, quantitative and qualitative work differ in many different ways, including the criteria for evaluating them. There are four well-established criteria for evaluating quantitative data: internal validity, external validity, reliability, and objectivity. The correlating concepts in qualitative research are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. [4] [11] The corresponding quantitative and qualitative concepts can be seen below, with the quantitative concept is on the left, and the qualitative concept is on the right:

• Internal validity--- Credibility
• External validity---Transferability
• Reliability---Dependability
• Objectivity---Confirmability

In conducting qualitative research, ensuring these concepts are satisfied and well thought out can mitigate potential issues from arising. For example, just as a researcher will ensure that their quantitative study is internally valid so should qualitative researchers ensure that their work has credibility.  

Indicators such as triangulation and peer examination can help evaluate the credibility of qualitative work.

• Triangulation: Triangulation involves using multiple methods of data collection to increase the likelihood of getting a reliable and accurate result. In our above magic example, the result would be more reliable by also interviewing the magician, back-stage hand, and the person who "vanished." In qualitative research, triangulation can include using telephone surveys, in-person surveys, focus groups, and interviews as well as surveying an adequate cross-section of the target demographic.
• Peer examination: Results can be reviewed by a peer to ensure the data is consistent with the findings.

‘Thick’ or ‘rich’ description can be used to evaluate the transferability of qualitative research whereas using an indicator such as an audit trail might help with evaluating the dependability and confirmability.

• Thick or rich description is a detailed and thorough description of details, the setting, and quotes from participants in the research. [5] Thick descriptions will include a detailed explanation of how the study was carried out. Thick descriptions are detailed enough to allow readers to draw conclusions and interpret the data themselves, which can help with transferability and replicability.
• Audit trail: An audit trail provides a documented set of steps of how the participants were selected and the data was collected. The original records of information should also be kept (e.g., surveys, notes, recordings).

One issue of concern that qualitative researchers should take into consideration is observation bias. Here are a few examples:

• Hawthorne effect: The Hawthorne effect is the change in participant behavior when they know they are being observed. If a researcher was wanting to identify factors that contribute to employee theft and tells the employees they are going to watch them to see what factors affect employee theft, one would suspect employee behavior would change when they know they are being watched.
• Observer-expectancy effect: Some participants change their behavior or responses to satisfy the researcher's desired effect. This happens in an unconscious manner for the participant so it is important to eliminate or limit transmitting the researcher's views.
• Artificial scenario effect: Some qualitative research occurs in artificial scenarios and/or with preset goals. In such situations, the information may not be accurate because of the artificial nature of the scenario. The preset goals may limit the qualitative information obtained.
• Clinical Significance

Qualitative research by itself or combined with quantitative research helps healthcare providers understand patients and the impact and challenges of the care they deliver. Qualitative research provides an opportunity to generate and refine hypotheses and delve deeper into the data generated by quantitative research. Qualitative research does not exist as an island apart from quantitative research, but as an integral part of research methods to be used for the understanding of the world around us. [17]

• Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes

Qualitative research is important for all members of the health care team as all are affected by qualitative research. Qualitative research may help develop a theory or a model for health research that can be further explored by quantitative research.  Much of the qualitative research data acquisition is completed by numerous team members including social works, scientists, nurses, etc.  Within each area of the medical field, there is copious ongoing qualitative research including physician-patient interactions, nursing-patient interactions, patient-environment interactions, health care team function, patient information delivery, etc. 

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Disclosure: Steven Tenny declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Janelle Brannan declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Grace Brannan declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits others to distribute the work, provided that the article is not altered or used commercially. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.

• Cite this Page Tenny S, Brannan JM, Brannan GD. Qualitative Study. [Updated 2022 Sep 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-.

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Home » Qualitative Research: Definition, Methods and Examples

Qualitative Research: Definition, Methods and Examples

May 31, 2023 max 4min read.

This article covers:

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research methods, qualitative research analysis, qualitative research findings, advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research, examples of qualitative research, qualitative research definition:.

Qualitative research is a type of research methodology that aims to understand and interpret social phenomena by exploring the subjective experiences, perspectives, and meanings of individuals or groups. It focuses on gathering in-depth, non-numerical data through interviews, observations, and analysis of texts or artifacts.

Qualitative research is a valuable approach used in various fields to understand human behavior, attitudes, and experiences deeply. Unlike quantitative research , which focuses on numerical data and statistical analysis, qualitative research explores the subjective aspects of a phenomenon, providing rich and nuanced insights. 

It allows researchers to gather detailed and context-specific information through interviews, observations, and focus groups. This methodology is particularly useful when investigating complex social phenomena, exploring new areas of study, or when quantitative data alone may not capture the full range of human experiences. 

Here are some commonly used qualitative research methods:

Face-to-Face Interviews

This method involves one-on-one interviews between the researcher and the participant. It allows in-depth exploration of the participant’s thoughts, experiences, and perspectives.

Focus Groups

Focus groups involve a small group of participants (typically 6-12) who engage in a guided discussion facilitated by a researcher. This method promotes interaction and enables researchers to observe group dynamics. 

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography involves immersing the researcher in the participants’ natural environment to understand their culture, practices, and behaviors. Researchers may observe and interact with participants over an extended period to gain insights.

Case Study Research

Case studies examine a particular individual, group, organization, or situation. Researchers collect and analyze data from various sources, such as interviews, documents, and observations, to gain an in-depth understanding.

Record Keeping

Researchers may keep detailed records, such as field notes, journals, or memos, during the research process. These records capture their observations, reflections, and emerging insights.

Qualitative Observation

This method directly observes and documents participants’ behaviors and interactions in their natural settings. Researchers may take field notes or use audiovisual recordings to capture relevant details.

Qualitative research analysis is interpreting and making sense of qualitative data collected during a research study. It involves systematically examining and analyzing textual, visual, or audio data to uncover patterns, themes, and meanings that emerge from the data.

Here are some key steps involved in qualitative research analysis:

Data Preparation

Organize and transcribe the collected data, whether it is interviews, focus group discussions, field notes, or other forms of qualitative data.

Familiarization

Immerse yourself in the data to become familiar with the content and gain a deeper understanding of the context in which the data was collected. Read and re-read the data to identify initial impressions and patterns.

Begin the coding process by systematically labeling and categorizing segments of the data. Coding can be done using different approaches, such as inductive coding (allowing themes to emerge from the data) or deductive coding (applying pre-defined categories or theories).

Theme Development

Group related codes together to form themes or patterns. Look for connections and relationships within and between themes. Refine and revise the themes as you continue analyzing the data.

Data Interpretation

Analyze the themes and patterns in depth, considering their implications and meanings. Explore the relationships between different themes and sub-themes. Use theoretical frameworks or relevant literature to help interpret and make sense of the findings.

Triangulation

Validate the findings by comparing and contrasting different data sources or perspectives.

Qualitative research findings offer valuable insights into the complex nuances of human experiences and perspectives. Once the data has been collected and analyzed, it is essential to utilize these findings effectively. 

Firstly, researchers can organize and categorize the data thematically, identifying common patterns, themes, or trends that emerge from the analysis. This process helps in summarizing and interpreting the richness of qualitative data. 

Next, the findings can be used to develop comprehensive and vivid narratives, enabling a deeper understanding of the research topic. 

Additionally, researchers can compare and contrast their findings with existing theories or prior research to contribute to the existing knowledge base. The implications of the findings can also be highlighted, addressing practical applications or potential areas for further exploration. 

Finally, communicating the findings to relevant stakeholders , such as academic communities, policymakers, or practitioners, is crucial for disseminating knowledge, promoting dialogue, and influencing decision-making processes . 

Advantages :

• In-depth understanding of complex phenomena 
• Flexibility and adaptability allow researchers to adapt their approach during the research process.
• Qualitative research emphasizes the social and cultural context in which phenomena occur.
• Qualitative research acknowledges that researchers’ interpretations and subjectivity play a crucial role in shaping findings. 
• Emergent design, meaning that the research design evolves as new insights emerge.

Disadvantages :

• Limited generalizability
• Qualitative research is susceptible to researcher bias, as researchers’ interpretations and subjectivity influence the findings. 
• Time-consuming and resource-intensive. Qualitative research requires substantial time and resources.
• Analyzing qualitative data involves interpretation, and researchers may arrive at different conclusions.
• Qualitative research primarily focuses on descriptive and narrative data rather than numerical or statistical measurements. 

As a product manager , qualitative research can involve user interviews to gather insights about your target users’ needs and preferences. 

For example, when developing a fitness app, you would interview fitness enthusiasts to understand their current app usage, pain points, and desired features. Analyzing the interview data helps you make informed decisions to create a user-centric product that addresses their needs and enhances user satisfaction.

More like this:

• What Is User Research? Definition and Overview
• What Is Research and development (R&D)? The Overview
• How the hook model works?
• Market Research: Definition, Process and Techniques

Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used in research and data analysis.

Qualitative refers to non-numerical data that focuses on exploring subjective experiences, opinions, and meanings. It involves methods such as interviews, observations, and open-ended surveys.

On the other hand, quantitative deals with numerical data and relies on statistical analysis. It involves collecting data through structured surveys, experiments, or measurements. The focus is on objective observations, patterns, and statistical relationships.

Here is a quick list of characteristics of qualitative research:

acknowledges and embraces the subjective nature of human experiences and interpretations.

examines phenomena within their natural settings and considers the context in which they occur.

It uses inductive reasoning, where theories and concepts emerge from the data collected rather than being predetermined.

allows for flexibility in study design, data collection methods, and analysis to adapt to the evolving research process.

Rather than statistical data, it focuses on non-numerical data, such as words, images, and observations.

Qualitative research aims to understand and explore social phenomena in depth through methods like interviews, observations, focus groups, or document analysis. 

On the other hand, quantitative research focuses on quantifying and measuring phenomena using methods such as surveys, experiments, or systematic observations. 

Mixed methods research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, using both data collection and analysis methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the research topic.

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This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Published on 17.4.2024 in Vol 26 (2024)

This is a member publication of National University of Singapore

Comparing Open-Access Database and Traditional Intensive Care Studies Using Machine Learning: Bibliometric Analysis Study

Authors of this article:

Original Paper

• Yuhe Ke 1 * , MBBS   ; 
• Rui Yang 2 * , MSc   ; 
• Nan Liu 2 , PhD  

1 Division of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

2 Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

*these authors contributed equally

Corresponding Author:

Nan Liu, PhD

Centre for Quantitative Medicine

Duke-NUS Medical School

National University of Singapore

8 College Road

Singapore, 169857

Phone: 65 66016503

Email: [email protected]

Background: Intensive care research has predominantly relied on conventional methods like randomized controlled trials. However, the increasing popularity of open-access, free databases in the past decade has opened new avenues for research, offering fresh insights. Leveraging machine learning (ML) techniques enables the analysis of trends in a vast number of studies.

Objective: This study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis using ML to compare trends and research topics in traditional intensive care unit (ICU) studies and those done with open-access databases (OADs).

Methods: We used ML for the analysis of publications in the Web of Science database in this study. Articles were categorized into “OAD” and “traditional intensive care” (TIC) studies. OAD studies were included in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC), eICU Collaborative Research Database (eICU-CRD), Amsterdam University Medical Centers Database (AmsterdamUMCdb), High Time Resolution ICU Dataset (HiRID), and Pediatric Intensive Care database. TIC studies included all other intensive care studies. Uniform manifold approximation and projection was used to visualize the corpus distribution. The BERTopic technique was used to generate 30 topic-unique identification numbers and to categorize topics into 22 topic families.

Results: A total of 227,893 records were extracted. After exclusions, 145,426 articles were identified as TIC and 1301 articles as OAD studies. TIC studies experienced exponential growth over the last 2 decades, culminating in a peak of 16,378 articles in 2021, while OAD studies demonstrated a consistent upsurge since 2018. Sepsis, ventilation-related research, and pediatric intensive care were the most frequently discussed topics. TIC studies exhibited broader coverage than OAD studies, suggesting a more extensive research scope.

Conclusions: This study analyzed ICU research, providing valuable insights from a large number of publications. OAD studies complement TIC studies, focusing on predictive modeling, while TIC studies capture essential qualitative information. Integrating both approaches in a complementary manner is the future direction for ICU research. Additionally, natural language processing techniques offer a transformative alternative for literature review and bibliometric analysis.

Introduction

The start of critical care as a medical subspecialty can be traced back to a polio epidemic during which a substantial number of patients needed prolonged mechanical ventilation [ 1 ]. Over time, the field of critical care has experienced significant growth and continual evolution. Research in this field has played a pivotal role in unraveling the complexities of numerous diseases and treatment modalities, driving substantial advancements in clinical practice over the past decades [ 2 ]. Groundbreaking studies have investigated critical areas such as sepsis, mechanical ventilation, acute lung and kidney injuries, intensive care unit (ICU) delirium, and sedation in critically ill patients [ 3 ].

These research studies have often been conducted in traditional ways such as prospective and randomized controlled trials [ 4 ], cohort and observational studies, clinical trials [ 5 ], and clinical and translational research [ 6 ]. These traditional methods have revolutionized patient care and improved outcomes significantly. For instance, the implementation of protocol-driven, goal-directed management of sepsis and appropriate fluid therapy has led to remarkable reductions in mortality rates [ 7 , 8 ], and these findings have been integral in developing evidence-based practice guidelines that are now the gold standard [ 9 , 10 ].

Despite their undeniable merits, traditional research methods in intensive care also come with several limitations [ 11 ]. Clinical trials are known for their high costs [ 12 ], stringent standardization requirements, and ethical oversight [ 13 ]. Data collection can be laborious, prone to human errors, and constrained in terms of quantity and granularity [ 14 ]. Moreover, obtaining patient consent for most randomized controlled trials in the ICU poses challenges [ 15 ], necessitating alternative consent models. These limitations have become increasingly apparent as medical complexity continues to grow exponentially [ 16 ].

The advent of electronic health records (EHRs) has heralded a new era in clinical research by facilitating the digitization of health care systems [ 17 ]. In this era of data science, a more integrated approach can be adopted, using machine learning (ML) algorithms to tackle the complexity of critical illness [ 18 ]. Open-access databases (OADs), such as the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) database [ 19 ] and the Philips eICU Collaborative Research Database (eICU-CRD) [ 20 ], have played a transformative role by enabling free data sharing.

The concept of free and open databases plays a pivotal role in promoting data sharing and advancing medical knowledge in accordance with the findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) guiding principle. The FAIR principles, which emphasize that data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, are essential for fostering a collaborative and transparent scientific research environment [ 21 , 22 ]. By removing barriers to access, free, and open databases allow researchers, regardless of their affiliations or resources, to contribute to and benefit from the collective pool of information. Accessibility fosters inclusivity and diversity in research, promoting a broader range of perspectives and approaches to medical challenges. This democratization of knowledge leads to a more equitable distribution of information. Researchers can now leverage these vast repositories of information for ML and artificial intelligence studies, marking a departure from traditional intensive care (TIC) research approaches.

Conducting a literature review [ 23 ] to investigate the disparities between traditional ICU research and studies based on open-access data sets holds significant importance as it provides a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and limitations of the latter. However, conventional methods of literature reviews and bibliometric analysis have their limitations, especially when dealing with large-scale literature due to computational complexity and the labor-intensive nature of manual interpretations [ 24 - 26 ]. To address these challenges, natural language processing (NLP) offers a promising avenue, while topic modeling techniques can be used to extract various topic themes from extensive data sets [ 27 , 28 ].

Built on the foundations of bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), BERTopic introduces a novel approach to topic modeling [ 29 , 30 ]. Unlike traditional unsupervised models like latent Dirichlet allocation, which rely on “bag-of-words” model [ 31 ], BERTopic overcomes the problem of semantic information loss, significantly enhancing the accuracy of generated topics, and providing more interpretable compositions for each topic, which greatly facilitates the classification of topics.

With the aid of BERTopic, this study aims to shed light on the disparities and commonalities between studies conducted through OADs and TIC research. By analyzing the overall trends and patterns in these 2 groups, we seek to identify knowledge gaps and explore avenues for complementary contributions between these research approaches.

Data Filtering

We performed an ML-based analysis of research abstracts in the Web of Science (WoS) database to automatically categorize the research papers to conduct this literature mapping analysis. There was no limit to the year of publication of the articles. The search query consisted of the following keyword to identify all the studies that were published under the umbrella of intensive care: (“ICU” OR “intensive care”). The search terms were deliberately left to be broad to cover broad spectrums of journals in the field.

The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) written in English, (2) articles that had keywords related to intensive care, (3) articles that had the article type of “article” or “review.” We excluded articles with incomplete data fields (eg, title, abstract, publication year, and paper citation). The articles included were then further processed to identify if they were studies using OADs. These articles were labeled as “open-access database,” while the rest of the articles extracted were labeled as “traditional intensive care.”

The search used for this study was performed on January 18, 2023, from WoS. This generated 227,893 search results, which were subsequently reselected using Python. An advanced search from PubMed was done based on the broad search terms of ICU studies used from previous Cochrane ICU literature review [ 32 ] to ensure the accuracy of the results. The numbers corroborated with a discrepancy of 4.9% (227,893 WoS keyword search vs 239,748 PubMed ICU keyword search).

Selection Criteria for OADs

A title search using keywords from all currently existing OADs was conducted to identify OAD studies. These include (1) MIMIC [ 19 ], (2) eICU-CRD [ 20 ], (3) Amsterdam University Medical Centers Database (AmsterdamUMCdb) [ 33 ], (4) High Time Resolution ICU Dataset (HiRID) [ 34 ], and (5) Pediatric Intensive Care database [ 35 ]. We avoided including only keywords in the search and restricted the search years by the year that the OAD was made publicly available to reduce the inadvertent inclusion of incorrect articles due to keywords. For instance, the search term for OADs published with the MIMIC database included title keyword search with the terms (“MIMIC-IV” OR “MIMIC-III” OR “MIMIC-II” OR “MIMIC Dataset” OR “medical information mart for intensive care” OR “MIMIC IV” OR “MIMIC III” OR “MIMIC II”) in studies that were published after 2003. The title keyword search for the searches and the year of cutoff for each OAD are presented in Multimedia Appendix 1 .

Furthermore, to ensure the accuracy of the supervised keyword classification, a manual review of the classification by 2 critical care physicians was done for 100 articles from each category that were randomly selected. The review was done independently with the physicians labeling the extract publications into OAD and TICs. An accuracy of 99% was achieved on independent reviews, and full agreement was achieved after discussion on the discrepancy. The final results were matched with the supervised keyword classification.

We performed a bibliometric analysis by directly extracting publication details from the WoS database using Python (Python Software Foundation). The analysis involved assessing the number of articles published per year, calculating total citation counts, and identifying the top journals that published intensive care-related articles. Comprehensive results are presented in Multimedia Appendix 2 .

Data Analysis

Uniform manifold approximation and projection.

Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) is a manifold learning technique for dimension reduction, which can identify key structures in high-dimensional data space and map them to low-dimensional space to accomplish dimensionality reduction. Compared to other dimensionality reduction algorithms, such as principal component analysis [ 36 ], UMAP can retain more global features [ 37 ]. In this paper, we constructed a corpus consisting of abstract words from all studies. However, due to the massive size of the corpus, visualizing and analyzing the high-dimensional data to explore the differences in the vocabulary patterns between the OAD and TIC studies is a challenge. The UMAP package in Python, which implements the UMAP algorithm, was used to project the high-dimensional corpus to 4 dimensions. By cross plotting each dimension, we were able to investigate underlying differences in corpus distribution between OAD and TIC studies.

Topic modeling can help us explore the similarities and differences between research topics in OAD and TIC studies. Unlike conventional topic modeling models, BERTopic uses the BERT framework for embeddings, enabling a deeper understanding of semantic relationships [ 30 ]. The BERTopic model was implemented by the BERTopic package in Python and divided 146,727 studies into 30 topic IDs. We also performed latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling through Python’s LdaModel package for comparison. Through the review of topic keywords by 2 critical care physicians, BERTopic exhibited superior accuracy and sophistication in topic identification, with enhanced interpretability and scientific rigor.

Consequently, the BERTopic model was used for the final analysis. Each of these topics was given a corresponding clinical research category. The overlapping categories were merged into topic families for easier comparisons. By using these advanced techniques, we were able to uncover hidden patterns and relationships within the literature and provide insights into the current state of intensive care research.

A total of 227,893 records were identified from the WoS database on January 18, 2023, of which 195,463 full records were subsequently processed. Records were excluded if they are not “article” or “review” or if they do not contain keywords related to intensive care. After exclusions, 145,426 articles were identified as TIC studies and 1301 articles were categorized as OAD ( Figure 1 ).

We examined the number of articles published per year to analyze the trends in TIC and OAD studies ( Figure 2 ). Over the past 2 decades, TIC studies have experienced exponential growth, culminating in a peak of 16,378 articles in 2021. A subsequent decline in the number of publications occurred in 2022, likely attributable to delayed indexing within the WoS database and a reduction in COVID-19–related studies as the pandemic stabilized [ 38 ]. In contrast, the first OAD study emerged in 2003, with its popularity experiencing a consistent upsurge since 2018. Nonetheless, the number of OAD publications remains markedly lower in comparison to TIC publications.

The OAD studies were published most frequently in new open-access journals such as Frontiers in Medicine , Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine , and Scientific Reports while the TIC studies were published most frequently in established journals like Critical Care Medicine , Intensive Care Medicine , and Critical Care ( Multimedia Appendix 2 ). Further analysis of keywords from the abstracts showed 2.4% (3492/145,426) TIC studies were meta-analyses or systematic reviews, while only 0.08% (1/1301) OAD study was in this category. There were 5.61% (73/1301) OAD studies, and 7.43% (10,799/145,426) TIC studies that had the keyword of “cost.” Examples of the data fields that are available within OADs such as MIMIC and eICU-CRD are listed in Textbox 1 . Some information fields such as end-of-life goals and values and health care provider psychology are not available within the current EHRs extracted for OADs.

Examples of information that is available in current OADs

• Patient information: demographics and social set-up
• Hospital context: admission time and discharge time, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital admissions, and pre-ICU admission
• Diagnosis: physician-curated ICU diagnosis and data-driven phenotypes
• Intervention: medications, procedures, and organ support
• Diagnostics: blood test, microbiology, and scans
• Clinical texts: clinical notes and diagnostic reports
• Physiological monitoring: basic monitoring and waveforms

Examples of information that is not readily available in current OADs

• Patient information: family set up and visiting, financial information, and special populations
• Hospital context: post-ICU discharge details, delayed admission or discharge, and health personnel psychology
• Diagnosis: pre-ICU history and diagnosis requiring clinical symptoms
• Intervention: indications for interventions, complications, and intraoperative and postoperative
• Diagnostics: pathology photographs, imaging, and molecular or genetic studies
• Clinical texts: patient narratives, end-of-life goals and patient value, and health personnel behavior
• Physiological monitoring: advanced monitoring

The UMAP algorithm was used to project the high-dimension corpus to 4 dimensions and allowed exploration of the vocabulary patterns between the OAD and TIC studies ( Figure 3 ). The projection values are represented by the x-axis, while the densities are represented by the y-axis. The presence of considerable overlap between TIC studies and OAD studies suggests that they share a substantial number of common terminologies, which may correspond to similar research topics. Nonetheless, TIC studies exhibit a more extensive coverage than OAD studies, which may stem from broader research scope and extended research duration.

Subsequently, the BERTopic model was then used to generate 30 topic IDs ( Figure 4 ). The internal commonalities of each topic ID were reviewed by critical care physicians and assigned a specific subtopic in intensive care research. The model was able to automatically classify the topics with high interpretability and the topic components were interpreted with ease. For instance, components in topic ID 5 consist of, in decreasing order of weightage: “learning,” “model,” “machine,” “machine learning,” “models,” “data,” “prediction,” and “performance.” This topic was consequently labeled “predictive model” (topic ID 5 in Multimedia Appendix 3 ).

The overall topic distribution in TIC studies was more uniform, while the OAD studies tended to be concentrated on several topics including topic ID 2 (kidney injury), 5 (predictive model), and 13 (sepsis). Some topics that were missing in OAD studies included 6 (pediatrics care), 21 (viral infections), 23 (health personnel and psychology), and 28 (nutrition and rehabilitation).

The similarity matrix shows that there was little overlap between the topics ( Multimedia Appendix 4 ). To facilitate the interpretability of the categories, the overlapping topic IDs were merged to form the final 22 topic families ( Multimedia Appendix 3 ).

Topics such as “healthcare associated infection,” “thoracic surgeries,” and “pregnancy related” research were among the more frequently discussed 15 topics in TIC studies but have limited publications in OAD studies. The topics of “predictive model,” “obesity,” and “fungal infections” were popular in OAD studies but not the TIC studies. Overall, the topic distributions of the TIC studies were distributed more evenly with the topic family of sepsis accounting for a quarter of the studies, while publications in the OAD studies were heavily skewed toward the predictive model (>40%) and sepsis (>30%; Figure 5 ).

Principal Results

This study conducted a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of OAD and TIC studies. NLP was used to facilitate this large-scale literature review. Studies using OADs mainly concentrated on a few topics, such as predictive modeling, while TIC studies covered a wider range of topics with a more balanced distribution.

Advantages of OAD Studies

OAD studies offer several advantages that have contributed to their increasing popularity in intensive care research. The granularity of data and easy access to large-cohort databases, such as MIMIC [ 39 ], has enabled researchers to perform predictive modeling and conduct various secondary analyses efficiently [ 40 , 41 ]. This accessibility has provided valuable opportunities for exploring specific aspects of patient care, evident in studies investigating phenomena like “weekend effects” and circadian rhythms in ICU patients before discharge [ 42 - 46 ]. The vast amount of longitudinal and time series data available in OADs has also facilitated the implementation of complex ML and deep learning methods [ 47 ].

Limitations of OAD Studies

However, it is crucial to acknowledge the retrospective nature of OAD data, which inherently limits the assessment of confounding factors and the ability to draw strong causal conclusions. The observational design of OAD studies may result in lower-quality evidence according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations) framework [ 48 , 49 ], and thus, the research from OAD studies has yet to be fully integrated into existing evidence-based guidelines, as exemplified by the omission of OAD studies in the 2021 sepsis guidelines [ 50 ]. Nevertheless, OADs remain a valuable resource for supplementing and complementing TIC studies, providing unique insights and enhanced predictive scores for intensive care settings.

Furthermore, approximately 50% of the studies using OADs published focused on predictive modeling. The increased usage of ML methods in predictive modeling has not been without critique. Some medical prediction problems inherently possess linear characteristics, and the selection of features may predominantly focus on already known strong predictors, leading to limited improvements in prediction accuracy with ML [ 51 ]. Additionally, interstudy heterogeneity poses a challenge in comparing results obtained from different ML models applied to the same data sets [ 52 ]. The ethical implications of relying solely on ML models to make high-risk health care decisions instead of involving clinical expertise are also relevant considerations [ 51 , 53 ].

While OADs provide comprehensive patient data, there are certain limitations in their ability to capture specific information essential for certain critical care research areas. Notably, data fields related to qualitative aspects such as ethics and end-of-life care [ 54 , 55 ], and health care personnel psychology [ 56 ] may be challenging, if not impossible, to obtain through OADs generated from EHRs. Consequently, TIC studies have played a pivotal role in addressing these limitations by capturing critical information that is integral to understanding ethical considerations, patient experiences, and health care provider psychology in intensive care [ 57 , 58 ].

Synergy Between OAD and TIC Studies

The synergy between OAD and TIC studies is a promising approach to enhance the comprehensiveness and robustness of intensive care research. OADs, with their large cohort sizes, can serve as external validation cohorts for ML models developed from TIC studies, potentially reducing the sample sizes required for prospective research. Furthermore, OAD studies can corroborate the results of TIC studies, benefiting from larger sample sizes and real-world data, thus providing more practical insights for implementation in intensive care settings [ 43 ]. The integration of OAD and TIC studies presents an opportunity to bridge the gaps in data availability and research methodologies, ultimately enriching the understanding and practice of critical care medicine.

Potential Impact of NLP

The usage of large language models such as BERTopic has proven to be a valuable tool for large-scale literature review and topic extraction [ 58 ]. This approach has enabled accurate, reliable, and granular topic generation, offering clinicians a more effective means of interpreting data compared to traditional bag-of-words models [ 59 ]. The potential of NLP to analyze scientific articles and identify trends and knowledge gaps holds promise for shaping the future of research in critical care medicine. As the volume of publications in critical care continues to grow and large language modeling continues to advance in health care [ 60 ], AI technology will be crucial in efficiently identifying and predicting emerging trends.

Future Directions

Future research in the field of critical care can explore novel applications of ML beyond predictive modeling. For instance, using ML to study patterns in how papers are cited, shared, and discussed on the web could help predict their potential impact on the scientific community. This analysis can aid in identifying highly influential papers and understanding the factors that contribute to their recognition. Additionally, investigations into methods for enhancing the interpretability and transparency of ML algorithms in critical care research would further facilitate the ethical and responsible use of AI technologies.

Strengths and Limitations

The study’s application of NLP-driven in analyzing scientific articles and identifying trends highlights the potential impact of AI technologies in streamlining literature reviews and identifying emerging trends more efficiently.

Another notable strength of this study is the usage of the WoS database, the world’s oldest and most extensively used repository of research publications and citations, encompassing approximately 34,000 journals [ 61 ]. The comprehensiveness of this database provides a robust representation of the literature in the field of intensive care research. Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge that some articles published in nonindexed journals might not have been captured, and future studies could benefit from considering additional databases to supplement our findings.

One other limitation lies in the classification of OAD and TIC studies, which may be subject to variations in the interpretation of keywords. However, we optimized the keyword combinations during the search process in the WoS database and implemented Python filtering techniques, resulting in a relatively high level of accuracy in our classifications. The number of studies was further corroborated with a manual search on PubMed and a review of the classifications of the studies was done by critical care physicians.

Although there were no specific language restrictions, the nature of the search term being in English inadvertently excluded valuable contributions from non-English research. This may potentially limit the generalizability of our findings to a broader international audience. In future investigations, the inclusion of articles from various languages could offer a more comprehensive and diverse perspective on intensive care research.

Conclusions

This study has provided valuable insights into the expanding landscape of intensive care research through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of a large number of publications by leveraging NLP technologies. While OAD studies have demonstrated significant promise, it is essential to view them as a complementary approach rather than a replacement for TIC studies. The unique strength of TIC studies lies in their ability to capture crucial qualitative information, which is essential for comprehensive and ethical decision-making. The integration of both OAD and TIC studies offers a synergistic approach to enriching our understanding of critical care medicine and advancing patient care outcomes. As NLP technology continues to advance, it holds the potential to offer a feasible and transformative alternative for literature review and bibliometric analysis.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Nicholas Brian Shannon for assistance with the manual review of the supervised keyword classification. This work was supported by the Duke-NUS Signature Research Programme, funded by the Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Data Availability

The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The complete set of code used in this study is readily available for download on GitHub [ 62 ].

Authors' Contributions

YK and NL played key roles in the conceptualization of the project. RY was responsible for formalizing the methodology and conducting data curation with the advisory of YK. YK contributed to the validation of the data, ensuring its relevance to the research objectives. RY took the lead in visualizing the data. Both YK and RY drafted the original manuscript. NL served as the project supervisor, overseeing the implementation, and providing valuable input in the writing, review, and editing phases.

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

Search terms for open-access database (OAD) studies with the cutoff by the years of publications.

Top 20 journals ranked by total citation in which the open-access database and traditional intensive care studies were published. The average citation per article was obtained with the total citation/total number of articles. The citation counts were obtained from Web of Science.

Topic ID and topic family and the components and weightage in each of the categories.

Similarity matrix of 30 topics.

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Abbreviations

Edited by A Mavragani; submitted 19.04.23; peer-reviewed by D Chrimes, S Pesälä; comments to author 14.07.23; revised version received 01.08.23; accepted 14.01.24; published 17.04.24.

©Yuhe Ke, Rui Yang, Nan Liu. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 17.04.2024.

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