Audit Trail

An audit trail in qualitative research consists of a thorough collection of documentation regarding all aspects of the research. Qualitative inquiry typically involves a design that constantly changes or emerges through the iterative processes of data collection and analysis and requires that the researcher make frequent decisions that can alter the course of the study. As a result, records of study processes can be vital in later providing justification of these actions. The audit trail provides a mechanism for retroactive assessment of the conduct of the inquiry and a means to address issues related to the rigor of the research as well as the trustworthiness of the results.

Typical documentation that constitutes this trail of evidence includes notes about data collection experiences, documentation of changes in design, the researcher's experience in the conduct of the study, and memos generated during data analysis. Fieldnotes are composed of the researcher's observations of a setting during a data collection encounter, including notes about the context of a data collection episode. Methodological notes contain critical information regarding alterations in design or data collection strategies. The audit trail enables the researcher to reconstruct the steps of the study and later provide justification for any changes that took place. Both the strategy and the rationale for the change are needed to provide evidence of the purpose and appropriateness of any modifications.

A reflexive journal provides a means to keep track of the researcher's thought processes during the study. Because the work of data analysis in qualitative research relies heavily on the cognitive processes of the researcher, the ability to document these processes and capture the researcher's own insights, interpretations, and reactions can be beneficial to the analysis process. In practice, there is considerable overlap among all of these aspects to be documented such that the separation of notes into unique bodies of evidence may be detrimental to the process of comprehensive record keeping. Fieldnotes may stand alone as a source of data, whereas the other components generally are closely integrated. Computer software designed for qualitative data analysis can be helpful in the construction of an audit trail through the ability to save copies or printouts of various stages of the analysis [Page 44]process as well as to record notes within the software while working with data.

The importance of an audit trail may be debatable for some forms of qualitative inquiry. Projects involving a team of researchers or large-scale program evaluation may find the audit trail technique particularly beneficial in demonstrating accountability throughout the research process. However, researchers using highly interpretive processes, such as hermeneutic inquiry, may find that documentation of the cognitive processes of analysis is especially challenging.