Audit Trail

An audit trail is a collection of documentation that enables tracing the steps of any process or procedure. The term audit is commonly applied in accounting situations. In such a context, an audit involves reviewing records of accounting procedures and transactions to assess the validity of financial reports. The assortment of documentation and the pathways available for reviewing that documentation constitute the audit trail. Information technology contexts use audit trails for computer security, to trace, for instance, the path of a system intruder and, ideally, identify the source of any intrusion. Audit trails also are used in food distribution to ascertain the actual nature of food described as organic, for example; to trace the presence or absence of additives; and to locate the origin and pathways of items distributed across various settings. This latter function can be invaluable in public health situations; for example, a food-borne illness can be traced to an infected animal, processing plant, or food service handler.

The audit trail serves a comparable purpose in research applications. In research, the audit trail is used to evaluate decisions and analytic procedures throughout a study to demonstrate the soundness, appropriateness, and in essence the validity of conclusions. One of the original uses of an audit trail in relation to research was in association with large-scale program evaluation projects, and a specific audit process may be included as part of such a study. For example, evaluation of a statewide program to increase graduation rates from high school may involve a review of expenditures, test scores, student progress, graduation rates, and other outcome data. The researchers also might choose to conduct interviews or focus groups with teachers and students involved in the program. To confront questions that the results could be biased by political or personal aims, auditors can be employed to review the procedures of the researchers, ensuring that appropriate data were collected, that conclusions were consistent with the data, and that the results present a valid evaluation of the program under review.

In qualitative studies, because the entire parameters of a study cannot be anticipated in advance, changes often are implemented during a study. The researcher must maintain documentation of decisions and the rationale for any changes as a way to recall and substantiate that such actions were appropriate. In addition to documenting procedures for credibility purposes, an audit trail in qualitative research may include field notes, or notes regarding the behaviors and actions of people and other events happening in the situation where data are collected; methodological documentation; analytic documentation reflecting the researcher's thought processes during data analysis; and documentation of personal responses to capture the investigator's role and reactions as the study progresses. Ongoing developments in software for qualitative data analysis help to consolidate some of these processes by making the creation of field notes and methodological journals a part of the electronic data set.