Rigor in Qualitative Research

As a concept, rigor is perhaps best thought of in terms of the quality of the research process. In essence, a more rigorous research process will result in more trustworthy findings. A number of features are thought to define rigorous qualitative research: transparency, maximal validity or credibility, maximal reliability or dependability, comparativeness, and reflexivity.

Transparency, as its name suggests, refers to clarity in describing the research process. Here researchers are providing their audience with a thorough description of the steps taken in conducting their research. They are, in effect, providing an audit trail. This accomplishes two main things. First, if others want to replicate the research to see whether they achieve similar results, they can. Second, it enables readers to assess whether the method chosen was the most appropriate for answering the chosen research question.

Because a valid or credible study requires that the data be represented fairly and accurately, the representation of the data also affects the rigor of a study. Various means can be used to help enhance credibility. First, looking for and citing negative cases is important because doing so illustrates that researchers are not just looking for cases that support their theory. Second, member checks can also add to the credibility of qualitative research because they indicate that researchers have confirmed their findings with the individuals from whom they have collected the data (i.e., the people whose ideas are being represented). When a study is reliable or dependable, similar participants and research methods should generally lead to similar results. One way to attend to this issue is to use more than one coder to see whether the same kinds of themes result from their analyses. Furthermore, regular discussions of coding results with colleagues can also be a means for improving dependability. This helps to assess whether researchers' interpretations are in line with what others are thinking.

Comparability is yet another criterion that helps to denote the rigor of a qualitative study. In essence, researchers should be comparing the various cases with one another so that they can build a theory that represents all of the voices present in their findings. Furthermore, it is also of value to compare findings with the findings of other research scientists so as to relate what has been found back to the broader research context.

Finally, a rigorous qualitative study is built on the notion of reflexivity. Here researchers must account for the fact that their presence has some influence on the research findings, and they should attempt to report how they, as the primary research instrument, may have influenced the study's results.

Using these criteria for building a rigorous research study will enable qualitative researchers to report results that are considered as both useful and credible by their peers.