Greenhalg, Trisha, and Rod Taylor:

Summary points

  • Qualitative methods aim to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them
  • Qualitative research may define preliminary questions which can then be addressed in quantitative studies
  • A good qualitative study will address a clinical problem through a clearly formulated question and using more than one research method (triangulation)
  • Analysis of qualitative data can and should be done using explicit, systematic, and reproducible methods

🔗Quantitative vs. qualitative vs. mixed methods

Adapted from UW-Madison Libraries Research Guides.

🔗Checklist for appraising qualitative research trials

Adapted from Greenhalgh, Trisha, and Rod Taylor. ‘How to Read a Paper: Papers That Go beyond Numbers (qualitative Research).’ BMJ 315, no. 7110 (September 20, 1997): 740–743.