what is the role of a hypothesis in qualitative research

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

What is a Research Hypothesis: How to Write it, Types, and Examples

Any research begins with a research question and a research hypothesis . A research question alone may not suffice to design the experiment(s) needed to answer it. A hypothesis is central to the scientific method. But what is a hypothesis ? A hypothesis is a testable statement that proposes a possible explanation to a phenomenon, and it may include a prediction. Next, you may ask what is a research hypothesis ? Simply put, a research hypothesis is a prediction or educated guess about the relationship between the variables that you want to investigate.  

It is important to be thorough when developing your research hypothesis. Shortcomings in the framing of a hypothesis can affect the study design and the results. A better understanding of the research hypothesis definition and characteristics of a good hypothesis will make it easier for you to develop your own hypothesis for your research. Let’s dive in to know more about the types of research hypothesis , how to write a research hypothesis , and some research hypothesis examples .  

Table of Contents

What is a hypothesis ?  

A hypothesis is based on the existing body of knowledge in a study area. Framed before the data are collected, a hypothesis states the tentative relationship between independent and dependent variables, along with a prediction of the outcome.  

What is a research hypothesis ?  

Young researchers starting out their journey are usually brimming with questions like “ What is a hypothesis ?” “ What is a research hypothesis ?” “How can I write a good research hypothesis ?”   

A research hypothesis is a statement that proposes a possible explanation for an observable phenomenon or pattern. It guides the direction of a study and predicts the outcome of the investigation. A research hypothesis is testable, i.e., it can be supported or disproven through experimentation or observation.     

Characteristics of a good hypothesis  

Here are the characteristics of a good hypothesis :  

• Clearly formulated and free of language errors and ambiguity  
• Concise and not unnecessarily verbose  
• Has clearly defined variables  
• Testable and stated in a way that allows for it to be disproven  
• Can be tested using a research design that is feasible, ethical, and practical   
• Specific and relevant to the research problem  
• Rooted in a thorough literature search  
• Can generate new knowledge or understanding.  

How to create an effective research hypothesis  

A study begins with the formulation of a research question. A researcher then performs background research. This background information forms the basis for building a good research hypothesis . The researcher then performs experiments, collects, and analyzes the data, interprets the findings, and ultimately, determines if the findings support or negate the original hypothesis.  

Let’s look at each step for creating an effective, testable, and good research hypothesis :  

• Identify a research problem or question: Start by identifying a specific research problem.   
• Review the literature: Conduct an in-depth review of the existing literature related to the research problem to grasp the current knowledge and gaps in the field.   
• Formulate a clear and testable hypothesis : Based on the research question, use existing knowledge to form a clear and testable hypothesis . The hypothesis should state a predicted relationship between two or more variables that can be measured and manipulated. Improve the original draft till it is clear and meaningful.  
• State the null hypothesis: The null hypothesis is a statement that there is no relationship between the variables you are studying.   
• Define the population and sample: Clearly define the population you are studying and the sample you will be using for your research.  
• Select appropriate methods for testing the hypothesis: Select appropriate research methods, such as experiments, surveys, or observational studies, which will allow you to test your research hypothesis .  

Remember that creating a research hypothesis is an iterative process, i.e., you might have to revise it based on the data you collect. You may need to test and reject several hypotheses before answering the research problem.  

How to write a research hypothesis  

When you start writing a research hypothesis , you use an “if–then” statement format, which states the predicted relationship between two or more variables. Clearly identify the independent variables (the variables being changed) and the dependent variables (the variables being measured), as well as the population you are studying. Review and revise your hypothesis as needed.  

An example of a research hypothesis in this format is as follows:  

“ If [athletes] follow [cold water showers daily], then their [endurance] increases.”  

Population: athletes  

Independent variable: daily cold water showers  

Dependent variable: endurance  

You may have understood the characteristics of a good hypothesis . But note that a research hypothesis is not always confirmed; a researcher should be prepared to accept or reject the hypothesis based on the study findings.  

Research hypothesis checklist  

Following from above, here is a 10-point checklist for a good research hypothesis :  

• Testable: A research hypothesis should be able to be tested via experimentation or observation.  
• Specific: A research hypothesis should clearly state the relationship between the variables being studied.  
• Based on prior research: A research hypothesis should be based on existing knowledge and previous research in the field.  
• Falsifiable: A research hypothesis should be able to be disproven through testing.  
• Clear and concise: A research hypothesis should be stated in a clear and concise manner.  
• Logical: A research hypothesis should be logical and consistent with current understanding of the subject.  
• Relevant: A research hypothesis should be relevant to the research question and objectives.  
• Feasible: A research hypothesis should be feasible to test within the scope of the study.  
• Reflects the population: A research hypothesis should consider the population or sample being studied.  
• Uncomplicated: A good research hypothesis is written in a way that is easy for the target audience to understand.  

By following this research hypothesis checklist , you will be able to create a research hypothesis that is strong, well-constructed, and more likely to yield meaningful results.  

Types of research hypothesis  

Different types of research hypothesis are used in scientific research:  

1. Null hypothesis:

A null hypothesis states that there is no change in the dependent variable due to changes to the independent variable. This means that the results are due to chance and are not significant. A null hypothesis is denoted as H0 and is stated as the opposite of what the alternative hypothesis states.   

Example: “ The newly identified virus is not zoonotic .”  

2. Alternative hypothesis:

This states that there is a significant difference or relationship between the variables being studied. It is denoted as H1 or Ha and is usually accepted or rejected in favor of the null hypothesis.  

Example: “ The newly identified virus is zoonotic .”  

3. Directional hypothesis :

This specifies the direction of the relationship or difference between variables; therefore, it tends to use terms like increase, decrease, positive, negative, more, or less.   

Example: “ The inclusion of intervention X decreases infant mortality compared to the original treatment .”   

4. Non-directional hypothesis:

While it does not predict the exact direction or nature of the relationship between the two variables, a non-directional hypothesis states the existence of a relationship or difference between variables but not the direction, nature, or magnitude of the relationship. A non-directional hypothesis may be used when there is no underlying theory or when findings contradict previous research.  

Example, “ Cats and dogs differ in the amount of affection they express .”  

5. Simple hypothesis :

A simple hypothesis only predicts the relationship between one independent and another independent variable.  

Example: “ Applying sunscreen every day slows skin aging .”  

6 . Complex hypothesis :

A complex hypothesis states the relationship or difference between two or more independent and dependent variables.   

Example: “ Applying sunscreen every day slows skin aging, reduces sun burn, and reduces the chances of skin cancer .” (Here, the three dependent variables are slowing skin aging, reducing sun burn, and reducing the chances of skin cancer.)  

7. Associative hypothesis:  

An associative hypothesis states that a change in one variable results in the change of the other variable. The associative hypothesis defines interdependency between variables.  

Example: “ There is a positive association between physical activity levels and overall health .”  

8 . Causal hypothesis:

A causal hypothesis proposes a cause-and-effect interaction between variables.  

Example: “ Long-term alcohol use causes liver damage .”  

Note that some of the types of research hypothesis mentioned above might overlap. The types of hypothesis chosen will depend on the research question and the objective of the study.  

Research hypothesis examples  

Here are some good research hypothesis examples :  

“The use of a specific type of therapy will lead to a reduction in symptoms of depression in individuals with a history of major depressive disorder.”  

“Providing educational interventions on healthy eating habits will result in weight loss in overweight individuals.”  

“Plants that are exposed to certain types of music will grow taller than those that are not exposed to music.”  

“The use of the plant growth regulator X will lead to an increase in the number of flowers produced by plants.”  

Characteristics that make a research hypothesis weak are unclear variables, unoriginality, being too general or too vague, and being untestable. A weak hypothesis leads to weak research and improper methods.   

Some bad research hypothesis examples (and the reasons why they are “bad”) are as follows:  

“This study will show that treatment X is better than any other treatment . ” (This statement is not testable, too broad, and does not consider other treatments that may be effective.)  

“This study will prove that this type of therapy is effective for all mental disorders . ” (This statement is too broad and not testable as mental disorders are complex and different disorders may respond differently to different types of therapy.)  

“Plants can communicate with each other through telepathy . ” (This statement is not testable and lacks a scientific basis.)  

Importance of testable hypothesis  

If a research hypothesis is not testable, the results will not prove or disprove anything meaningful. The conclusions will be vague at best. A testable hypothesis helps a researcher focus on the study outcome and understand the implication of the question and the different variables involved. A testable hypothesis helps a researcher make precise predictions based on prior research.  

To be considered testable, there must be a way to prove that the hypothesis is true or false; further, the results of the hypothesis must be reproducible.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on research hypothesis  

1. What is the difference between research question and research hypothesis ?  

A research question defines the problem and helps outline the study objective(s). It is an open-ended statement that is exploratory or probing in nature. Therefore, it does not make predictions or assumptions. It helps a researcher identify what information to collect. A research hypothesis , however, is a specific, testable prediction about the relationship between variables. Accordingly, it guides the study design and data analysis approach.

2. When to reject null hypothesis ?

A null hypothesis should be rejected when the evidence from a statistical test shows that it is unlikely to be true. This happens when the test statistic (e.g., p -value) is less than the defined significance level (e.g., 0.05). Rejecting the null hypothesis does not necessarily mean that the alternative hypothesis is true; it simply means that the evidence found is not compatible with the null hypothesis.  

3. How can I be sure my hypothesis is testable?  

A testable hypothesis should be specific and measurable, and it should state a clear relationship between variables that can be tested with data. To ensure that your hypothesis is testable, consider the following:  

• Clearly define the key variables in your hypothesis. You should be able to measure and manipulate these variables in a way that allows you to test the hypothesis.  
• The hypothesis should predict a specific outcome or relationship between variables that can be measured or quantified.   
• You should be able to collect the necessary data within the constraints of your study.  
• It should be possible for other researchers to replicate your study, using the same methods and variables.   
• Your hypothesis should be testable by using appropriate statistical analysis techniques, so you can draw conclusions, and make inferences about the population from the sample data.  
• The hypothesis should be able to be disproven or rejected through the collection of data.  

4. How do I revise my research hypothesis if my data does not support it?  

If your data does not support your research hypothesis , you will need to revise it or develop a new one. You should examine your data carefully and identify any patterns or anomalies, re-examine your research question, and/or revisit your theory to look for any alternative explanations for your results. Based on your review of the data, literature, and theories, modify your research hypothesis to better align it with the results you obtained. Use your revised hypothesis to guide your research design and data collection. It is important to remain objective throughout the process.  

5. I am performing exploratory research. Do I need to formulate a research hypothesis?  

As opposed to “confirmatory” research, where a researcher has some idea about the relationship between the variables under investigation, exploratory research (or hypothesis-generating research) looks into a completely new topic about which limited information is available. Therefore, the researcher will not have any prior hypotheses. In such cases, a researcher will need to develop a post-hoc hypothesis. A post-hoc research hypothesis is generated after these results are known.  

6. How is a research hypothesis different from a research question?

A research question is an inquiry about a specific topic or phenomenon, typically expressed as a question. It seeks to explore and understand a particular aspect of the research subject. In contrast, a research hypothesis is a specific statement or prediction that suggests an expected relationship between variables. It is formulated based on existing knowledge or theories and guides the research design and data analysis.

7. Can a research hypothesis change during the research process?

Yes, research hypotheses can change during the research process. As researchers collect and analyze data, new insights and information may emerge that require modification or refinement of the initial hypotheses. This can be due to unexpected findings, limitations in the original hypotheses, or the need to explore additional dimensions of the research topic. Flexibility is crucial in research, allowing for adaptation and adjustment of hypotheses to align with the evolving understanding of the subject matter.

8. How many hypotheses should be included in a research study?

The number of research hypotheses in a research study varies depending on the nature and scope of the research. It is not necessary to have multiple hypotheses in every study. Some studies may have only one primary hypothesis, while others may have several related hypotheses. The number of hypotheses should be determined based on the research objectives, research questions, and the complexity of the research topic. It is important to ensure that the hypotheses are focused, testable, and directly related to the research aims.

9. Can research hypotheses be used in qualitative research?

Yes, research hypotheses can be used in qualitative research, although they are more commonly associated with quantitative research. In qualitative research, hypotheses may be formulated as tentative or exploratory statements that guide the investigation. Instead of testing hypotheses through statistical analysis, qualitative researchers may use the hypotheses to guide data collection and analysis, seeking to uncover patterns, themes, or relationships within the qualitative data. The emphasis in qualitative research is often on generating insights and understanding rather than confirming or rejecting specific research hypotheses through statistical testing.

Editage All Access is a subscription-based platform that unifies the best AI tools and services designed to speed up, simplify, and streamline every step of a researcher’s journey. The Editage All Access Pack is a one-of-a-kind subscription that unlocks full access to an AI writing assistant, literature recommender, journal finder, scientific illustration tool, and exclusive discounts on professional publication services from Editage.  

Based on 22+ years of experience in academia, Editage All Access empowers researchers to put their best research forward and move closer to success. Explore our top AI Tools pack, AI Tools + Publication Services pack, or Build Your Own Plan. Find everything a researcher needs to succeed, all in one place –  Get All Access now starting at just $14 a month !    

Related Posts

Top 7 Tried and Tested Paraphrasing Techniques

Annex vs Appendix: What is the difference?

• Resources Home 🏠
• Try SciSpace Copilot
• Search research papers
• Add Copilot Extension
• Try AI Detector
• Try Paraphraser
• Try Citation Generator
• April Papers
• June Papers
• July Papers

The Craft of Writing a Strong Hypothesis

Table of Contents

Writing a hypothesis is one of the essential elements of a scientific research paper. It needs to be to the point, clearly communicating what your research is trying to accomplish. A blurry, drawn-out, or complexly-structured hypothesis can confuse your readers. Or worse, the editor and peer reviewers.

A captivating hypothesis is not too intricate. This blog will take you through the process so that, by the end of it, you have a better idea of how to convey your research paper's intent in just one sentence.

What is a Hypothesis?

The first step in your scientific endeavor, a hypothesis, is a strong, concise statement that forms the basis of your research. It is not the same as a thesis statement , which is a brief summary of your research paper .

The sole purpose of a hypothesis is to predict your paper's findings, data, and conclusion. It comes from a place of curiosity and intuition . When you write a hypothesis, you're essentially making an educated guess based on scientific prejudices and evidence, which is further proven or disproven through the scientific method.

The reason for undertaking research is to observe a specific phenomenon. A hypothesis, therefore, lays out what the said phenomenon is. And it does so through two variables, an independent and dependent variable.

The independent variable is the cause behind the observation, while the dependent variable is the effect of the cause. A good example of this is “mixing red and blue forms purple.” In this hypothesis, mixing red and blue is the independent variable as you're combining the two colors at your own will. The formation of purple is the dependent variable as, in this case, it is conditional to the independent variable.

Different Types of Hypotheses‌

Types of hypotheses

Some would stand by the notion that there are only two types of hypotheses: a Null hypothesis and an Alternative hypothesis. While that may have some truth to it, it would be better to fully distinguish the most common forms as these terms come up so often, which might leave you out of context.

Apart from Null and Alternative, there are Complex, Simple, Directional, Non-Directional, Statistical, and Associative and casual hypotheses. They don't necessarily have to be exclusive, as one hypothesis can tick many boxes, but knowing the distinctions between them will make it easier for you to construct your own.

1. Null hypothesis

A null hypothesis proposes no relationship between two variables. Denoted by H 0 , it is a negative statement like “Attending physiotherapy sessions does not affect athletes' on-field performance.” Here, the author claims physiotherapy sessions have no effect on on-field performances. Even if there is, it's only a coincidence.

2. Alternative hypothesis

Considered to be the opposite of a null hypothesis, an alternative hypothesis is donated as H1 or Ha. It explicitly states that the dependent variable affects the independent variable. A good  alternative hypothesis example is “Attending physiotherapy sessions improves athletes' on-field performance.” or “Water evaporates at 100 °C. ” The alternative hypothesis further branches into directional and non-directional.

• Directional hypothesis: A hypothesis that states the result would be either positive or negative is called directional hypothesis. It accompanies H1 with either the ‘<' or ‘>' sign.
• Non-directional hypothesis: A non-directional hypothesis only claims an effect on the dependent variable. It does not clarify whether the result would be positive or negative. The sign for a non-directional hypothesis is ‘≠.'

3. Simple hypothesis

A simple hypothesis is a statement made to reflect the relation between exactly two variables. One independent and one dependent. Consider the example, “Smoking is a prominent cause of lung cancer." The dependent variable, lung cancer, is dependent on the independent variable, smoking.

4. Complex hypothesis

In contrast to a simple hypothesis, a complex hypothesis implies the relationship between multiple independent and dependent variables. For instance, “Individuals who eat more fruits tend to have higher immunity, lesser cholesterol, and high metabolism.” The independent variable is eating more fruits, while the dependent variables are higher immunity, lesser cholesterol, and high metabolism.

5. Associative and casual hypothesis

Associative and casual hypotheses don't exhibit how many variables there will be. They define the relationship between the variables. In an associative hypothesis, changing any one variable, dependent or independent, affects others. In a casual hypothesis, the independent variable directly affects the dependent.

6. Empirical hypothesis

Also referred to as the working hypothesis, an empirical hypothesis claims a theory's validation via experiments and observation. This way, the statement appears justifiable and different from a wild guess.

Say, the hypothesis is “Women who take iron tablets face a lesser risk of anemia than those who take vitamin B12.” This is an example of an empirical hypothesis where the researcher  the statement after assessing a group of women who take iron tablets and charting the findings.

7. Statistical hypothesis

The point of a statistical hypothesis is to test an already existing hypothesis by studying a population sample. Hypothesis like “44% of the Indian population belong in the age group of 22-27.” leverage evidence to prove or disprove a particular statement.

Characteristics of a Good Hypothesis

Writing a hypothesis is essential as it can make or break your research for you. That includes your chances of getting published in a journal. So when you're designing one, keep an eye out for these pointers:

• A research hypothesis has to be simple yet clear to look justifiable enough.
• It has to be testable — your research would be rendered pointless if too far-fetched into reality or limited by technology.
• It has to be precise about the results —what you are trying to do and achieve through it should come out in your hypothesis.
• A research hypothesis should be self-explanatory, leaving no doubt in the reader's mind.
• If you are developing a relational hypothesis, you need to include the variables and establish an appropriate relationship among them.
• A hypothesis must keep and reflect the scope for further investigations and experiments.

Separating a Hypothesis from a Prediction

Outside of academia, hypothesis and prediction are often used interchangeably. In research writing, this is not only confusing but also incorrect. And although a hypothesis and prediction are guesses at their core, there are many differences between them.

A hypothesis is an educated guess or even a testable prediction validated through research. It aims to analyze the gathered evidence and facts to define a relationship between variables and put forth a logical explanation behind the nature of events.

Predictions are assumptions or expected outcomes made without any backing evidence. They are more fictionally inclined regardless of where they originate from.

For this reason, a hypothesis holds much more weight than a prediction. It sticks to the scientific method rather than pure guesswork. "Planets revolve around the Sun." is an example of a hypothesis as it is previous knowledge and observed trends. Additionally, we can test it through the scientific method.

Whereas "COVID-19 will be eradicated by 2030." is a prediction. Even though it results from past trends, we can't prove or disprove it. So, the only way this gets validated is to wait and watch if COVID-19 cases end by 2030.

Finally, How to Write a Hypothesis

Quick tips on writing a hypothesis

1.  Be clear about your research question

A hypothesis should instantly address the research question or the problem statement. To do so, you need to ask a question. Understand the constraints of your undertaken research topic and then formulate a simple and topic-centric problem. Only after that can you develop a hypothesis and further test for evidence.

2. Carry out a recce

Once you have your research's foundation laid out, it would be best to conduct preliminary research. Go through previous theories, academic papers, data, and experiments before you start curating your research hypothesis. It will give you an idea of your hypothesis's viability or originality.

Making use of references from relevant research papers helps draft a good research hypothesis. SciSpace Discover offers a repository of over 270 million research papers to browse through and gain a deeper understanding of related studies on a particular topic. Additionally, you can use SciSpace Copilot , your AI research assistant, for reading any lengthy research paper and getting a more summarized context of it. A hypothesis can be formed after evaluating many such summarized research papers. Copilot also offers explanations for theories and equations, explains paper in simplified version, allows you to highlight any text in the paper or clip math equations and tables and provides a deeper, clear understanding of what is being said. This can improve the hypothesis by helping you identify potential research gaps.

3. Create a 3-dimensional hypothesis

Variables are an essential part of any reasonable hypothesis. So, identify your independent and dependent variable(s) and form a correlation between them. The ideal way to do this is to write the hypothetical assumption in the ‘if-then' form. If you use this form, make sure that you state the predefined relationship between the variables.

In another way, you can choose to present your hypothesis as a comparison between two variables. Here, you must specify the difference you expect to observe in the results.

4. Write the first draft

Now that everything is in place, it's time to write your hypothesis. For starters, create the first draft. In this version, write what you expect to find from your research.

Clearly separate your independent and dependent variables and the link between them. Don't fixate on syntax at this stage. The goal is to ensure your hypothesis addresses the issue.

5. Proof your hypothesis

After preparing the first draft of your hypothesis, you need to inspect it thoroughly. It should tick all the boxes, like being concise, straightforward, relevant, and accurate. Your final hypothesis has to be well-structured as well.

Research projects are an exciting and crucial part of being a scholar. And once you have your research question, you need a great hypothesis to begin conducting research. Thus, knowing how to write a hypothesis is very important.

Now that you have a firmer grasp on what a good hypothesis constitutes, the different kinds there are, and what process to follow, you will find it much easier to write your hypothesis, which ultimately helps your research.

Now it's easier than ever to streamline your research workflow with SciSpace Discover . Its integrated, comprehensive end-to-end platform for research allows scholars to easily discover, write and publish their research and fosters collaboration.

It includes everything you need, including a repository of over 270 million research papers across disciplines, SEO-optimized summaries and public profiles to show your expertise and experience.

If you found these tips on writing a research hypothesis useful, head over to our blog on Statistical Hypothesis Testing to learn about the top researchers, papers, and institutions in this domain.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. what is the definition of hypothesis.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a hypothesis is defined as “An idea or explanation of something that is based on a few known facts, but that has not yet been proved to be true or correct”.

2. What is an example of hypothesis?

The hypothesis is a statement that proposes a relationship between two or more variables. An example: "If we increase the number of new users who join our platform by 25%, then we will see an increase in revenue."

3. What is an example of null hypothesis?

A null hypothesis is a statement that there is no relationship between two variables. The null hypothesis is written as H0. The null hypothesis states that there is no effect. For example, if you're studying whether or not a particular type of exercise increases strength, your null hypothesis will be "there is no difference in strength between people who exercise and people who don't."

4. What are the types of research?

• Fundamental research

• Applied research

• Qualitative research

• Quantitative research

• Mixed research

• Exploratory research

• Longitudinal research

• Cross-sectional research

• Field research

• Laboratory research

• Fixed research

• Flexible research

• Action research

• Policy research

• Classification research

• Comparative research

• Causal research

• Inductive research

• Deductive research

5. How to write a hypothesis?

• Your hypothesis should be able to predict the relationship and outcome.

• Avoid wordiness by keeping it simple and brief.

• Your hypothesis should contain observable and testable outcomes.

• Your hypothesis should be relevant to the research question.

6. What are the 2 types of hypothesis?

• Null hypotheses are used to test the claim that "there is no difference between two groups of data".

• Alternative hypotheses test the claim that "there is a difference between two data groups".

7. Difference between research question and research hypothesis?

A research question is a broad, open-ended question you will try to answer through your research. A hypothesis is a statement based on prior research or theory that you expect to be true due to your study. Example - Research question: What are the factors that influence the adoption of the new technology? Research hypothesis: There is a positive relationship between age, education and income level with the adoption of the new technology.

8. What is plural for hypothesis?

The plural of hypothesis is hypotheses. Here's an example of how it would be used in a statement, "Numerous well-considered hypotheses are presented in this part, and they are supported by tables and figures that are well-illustrated."

9. What is the red queen hypothesis?

The red queen hypothesis in evolutionary biology states that species must constantly evolve to avoid extinction because if they don't, they will be outcompeted by other species that are evolving. Leigh Van Valen first proposed it in 1973; since then, it has been tested and substantiated many times.

10. Who is known as the father of null hypothesis?

The father of the null hypothesis is Sir Ronald Fisher. He published a paper in 1925 that introduced the concept of null hypothesis testing, and he was also the first to use the term itself.

11. When to reject null hypothesis?

You need to find a significant difference between your two populations to reject the null hypothesis. You can determine that by running statistical tests such as an independent sample t-test or a dependent sample t-test. You should reject the null hypothesis if the p-value is less than 0.05.

You might also like

Consensus GPT vs. SciSpace GPT: Choose the Best GPT for Research

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework: Understanding the Differences

Types of Essays in Academic Writing - Quick Guide (2024)

Chapter 1. Introduction

“Science is in danger, and for that reason it is becoming dangerous” -Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity

Why an Open Access Textbook on Qualitative Research Methods?

I have been teaching qualitative research methods to both undergraduates and graduate students for many years.  Although there are some excellent textbooks out there, they are often costly, and none of them, to my mind, properly introduces qualitative research methods to the beginning student (whether undergraduate or graduate student).  In contrast, this open-access textbook is designed as a (free) true introduction to the subject, with helpful, practical pointers on how to conduct research and how to access more advanced instruction.  

Textbooks are typically arranged in one of two ways: (1) by technique (each chapter covers one method used in qualitative research); or (2) by process (chapters advance from research design through publication).  But both of these approaches are necessary for the beginner student.  This textbook will have sections dedicated to the process as well as the techniques of qualitative research.  This is a true “comprehensive” book for the beginning student.  In addition to covering techniques of data collection and data analysis, it provides a road map of how to get started and how to keep going and where to go for advanced instruction.  It covers aspects of research design and research communication as well as methods employed.  Along the way, it includes examples from many different disciplines in the social sciences.

The primary goal has been to create a useful, accessible, engaging textbook for use across many disciplines.  And, let’s face it.  Textbooks can be boring.  I hope readers find this to be a little different.  I have tried to write in a practical and forthright manner, with many lively examples and references to good and intellectually creative qualitative research.  Woven throughout the text are short textual asides (in colored textboxes) by professional (academic) qualitative researchers in various disciplines.  These short accounts by practitioners should help inspire students.  So, let’s begin!

What is Research?

When we use the word research , what exactly do we mean by that?  This is one of those words that everyone thinks they understand, but it is worth beginning this textbook with a short explanation.  We use the term to refer to “empirical research,” which is actually a historically specific approach to understanding the world around us.  Think about how you know things about the world. [1] You might know your mother loves you because she’s told you she does.  Or because that is what “mothers” do by tradition.  Or you might know because you’ve looked for evidence that she does, like taking care of you when you are sick or reading to you in bed or working two jobs so you can have the things you need to do OK in life.  Maybe it seems churlish to look for evidence; you just take it “on faith” that you are loved.

Only one of the above comes close to what we mean by research.  Empirical research is research (investigation) based on evidence.  Conclusions can then be drawn from observable data.  This observable data can also be “tested” or checked.  If the data cannot be tested, that is a good indication that we are not doing research.  Note that we can never “prove” conclusively, through observable data, that our mothers love us.  We might have some “disconfirming evidence” (that time she didn’t show up to your graduation, for example) that could push you to question an original hypothesis , but no amount of “confirming evidence” will ever allow us to say with 100% certainty, “my mother loves me.”  Faith and tradition and authority work differently.  Our knowledge can be 100% certain using each of those alternative methods of knowledge, but our certainty in those cases will not be based on facts or evidence.

For many periods of history, those in power have been nervous about “science” because it uses evidence and facts as the primary source of understanding the world, and facts can be at odds with what power or authority or tradition want you to believe.  That is why I say that scientific empirical research is a historically specific approach to understand the world.  You are in college or university now partly to learn how to engage in this historically specific approach.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, there was a newfound respect for empirical research, some of which was seriously challenging to the established church.  Using observations and testing them, scientists found that the earth was not at the center of the universe, for example, but rather that it was but one planet of many which circled the sun. [2]   For the next two centuries, the science of astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry emerged and became disciplines taught in universities.  All used the scientific method of observation and testing to advance knowledge.  Knowledge about people , however, and social institutions, however, was still left to faith, tradition, and authority.  Historians and philosophers and poets wrote about the human condition, but none of them used research to do so. [3]

It was not until the nineteenth century that “social science” really emerged, using the scientific method (empirical observation) to understand people and social institutions.  New fields of sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology emerged.  The first sociologists, people like Auguste Comte and Karl Marx, sought specifically to apply the scientific method of research to understand society, Engels famously claiming that Marx had done for the social world what Darwin did for the natural world, tracings its laws of development.  Today we tend to take for granted the naturalness of science here, but it is actually a pretty recent and radical development.

To return to the question, “does your mother love you?”  Well, this is actually not really how a researcher would frame the question, as it is too specific to your case.  It doesn’t tell us much about the world at large, even if it does tell us something about you and your relationship with your mother.  A social science researcher might ask, “do mothers love their children?”  Or maybe they would be more interested in how this loving relationship might change over time (e.g., “do mothers love their children more now than they did in the 18th century when so many children died before reaching adulthood?”) or perhaps they might be interested in measuring quality of love across cultures or time periods, or even establishing “what love looks like” using the mother/child relationship as a site of exploration.  All of these make good research questions because we can use observable data to answer them.

What is Qualitative Research?

“All we know is how to learn. How to study, how to listen, how to talk, how to tell.  If we don’t tell the world, we don’t know the world.  We’re lost in it, we die.” -Ursula LeGuin, The Telling

At its simplest, qualitative research is research about the social world that does not use numbers in its analyses.  All those who fear statistics can breathe a sigh of relief – there are no mathematical formulae or regression models in this book! But this definition is less about what qualitative research can be and more about what it is not.  To be honest, any simple statement will fail to capture the power and depth of qualitative research.  One way of contrasting qualitative research to quantitative research is to note that the focus of qualitative research is less about explaining and predicting relationships between variables and more about understanding the social world.  To use our mother love example, the question about “what love looks like” is a good question for the qualitative researcher while all questions measuring love or comparing incidences of love (both of which require measurement) are good questions for quantitative researchers. Patton writes,

Qualitative data describe.  They take us, as readers, into the time and place of the observation so that we know what it was like to have been there.  They capture and communicate someone else’s experience of the world in his or her own words.  Qualitative data tell a story. ( Patton 2002:47 )

Qualitative researchers are asking different questions about the world than their quantitative colleagues.  Even when researchers are employed in “mixed methods” research ( both quantitative and qualitative), they are using different methods to address different questions of the study.  I do a lot of research about first-generation and working-college college students.  Where a quantitative researcher might ask, how many first-generation college students graduate from college within four years? Or does first-generation college status predict high student debt loads?  A qualitative researcher might ask, how does the college experience differ for first-generation college students?  What is it like to carry a lot of debt, and how does this impact the ability to complete college on time?  Both sets of questions are important, but they can only be answered using specific tools tailored to those questions.  For the former, you need large numbers to make adequate comparisons.  For the latter, you need to talk to people, find out what they are thinking and feeling, and try to inhabit their shoes for a little while so you can make sense of their experiences and beliefs.

Examples of Qualitative Research

You have probably seen examples of qualitative research before, but you might not have paid particular attention to how they were produced or realized that the accounts you were reading were the result of hours, months, even years of research “in the field.”  A good qualitative researcher will present the product of their hours of work in such a way that it seems natural, even obvious, to the reader.  Because we are trying to convey what it is like answers, qualitative research is often presented as stories – stories about how people live their lives, go to work, raise their children, interact with one another.  In some ways, this can seem like reading particularly insightful novels.  But, unlike novels, there are very specific rules and guidelines that qualitative researchers follow to ensure that the “story” they are telling is accurate , a truthful rendition of what life is like for the people being studied.  Most of this textbook will be spent conveying those rules and guidelines.  Let’s take a look, first, however, at three examples of what the end product looks like.  I have chosen these three examples to showcase very different approaches to qualitative research, and I will return to these five examples throughout the book.  They were all published as whole books (not chapters or articles), and they are worth the long read, if you have the time.  I will also provide some information on how these books came to be and the length of time it takes to get them into book version.  It is important you know about this process, and the rest of this textbook will help explain why it takes so long to conduct good qualitative research!

Example 1 : The End Game (ethnography + interviews)

Corey Abramson is a sociologist who teaches at the University of Arizona.   In 2015 he published The End Game: How Inequality Shapes our Final Years ( 2015 ). This book was based on the research he did for his dissertation at the University of California-Berkeley in 2012.  Actually, the dissertation was completed in 2012 but the work that was produced that took several years.  The dissertation was entitled, “This is How We Live, This is How We Die: Social Stratification, Aging, and Health in Urban America” ( 2012 ).  You can see how the book version, which was written for a more general audience, has a more engaging sound to it, but that the dissertation version, which is what academic faculty read and evaluate, has a more descriptive title.  You can read the title and know that this is a study about aging and health and that the focus is going to be inequality and that the context (place) is going to be “urban America.”  It’s a study about “how” people do something – in this case, how they deal with aging and death.  This is the very first sentence of the dissertation, “From our first breath in the hospital to the day we die, we live in a society characterized by unequal opportunities for maintaining health and taking care of ourselves when ill.  These disparities reflect persistent racial, socio-economic, and gender-based inequalities and contribute to their persistence over time” ( 1 ).  What follows is a truthful account of how that is so.

Cory Abramson spent three years conducting his research in four different urban neighborhoods.  We call the type of research he conducted “comparative ethnographic” because he designed his study to compare groups of seniors as they went about their everyday business.  It’s comparative because he is comparing different groups (based on race, class, gender) and ethnographic because he is studying the culture/way of life of a group. [4]   He had an educated guess, rooted in what previous research had shown and what social theory would suggest, that people’s experiences of aging differ by race, class, and gender.  So, he set up a research design that would allow him to observe differences.  He chose two primarily middle-class (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly White) and two primarily poor neighborhoods (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly African American).  He hung out in senior centers and other places seniors congregated, watched them as they took the bus to get prescriptions filled, sat in doctor’s offices with them, and listened to their conversations with each other.  He also conducted more formal conversations, what we call in-depth interviews, with sixty seniors from each of the four neighborhoods.  As with a lot of fieldwork , as he got closer to the people involved, he both expanded and deepened his reach –

By the end of the project, I expanded my pool of general observations to include various settings frequented by seniors: apartment building common rooms, doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, pharmacies, senior centers, bars, parks, corner stores, shopping centers, pool halls, hair salons, coffee shops, and discount stores. Over the course of the three years of fieldwork, I observed hundreds of elders, and developed close relationships with a number of them. ( 2012:10 )

When Abramson rewrote the dissertation for a general audience and published his book in 2015, it got a lot of attention.  It is a beautifully written book and it provided insight into a common human experience that we surprisingly know very little about.  It won the Outstanding Publication Award by the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course and was featured in the New York Times .  The book was about aging, and specifically how inequality shapes the aging process, but it was also about much more than that.  It helped show how inequality affects people’s everyday lives.  For example, by observing the difficulties the poor had in setting up appointments and getting to them using public transportation and then being made to wait to see a doctor, sometimes in standing-room-only situations, when they are unwell, and then being treated dismissively by hospital staff, Abramson allowed readers to feel the material reality of being poor in the US.  Comparing these examples with seniors with adequate supplemental insurance who have the resources to hire car services or have others assist them in arranging care when they need it, jolts the reader to understand and appreciate the difference money makes in the lives and circumstances of us all, and in a way that is different than simply reading a statistic (“80% of the poor do not keep regular doctor’s appointments”) does.  Qualitative research can reach into spaces and places that often go unexamined and then reports back to the rest of us what it is like in those spaces and places.

Example 2: Racing for Innocence (Interviews + Content Analysis + Fictional Stories)

Jennifer Pierce is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.  Trained as a sociologist, she has written a number of books about gender, race, and power.  Her very first book, Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, published in 1995, is a brilliant look at gender dynamics within two law firms.  Pierce was a participant observer, working as a paralegal, and she observed how female lawyers and female paralegals struggled to obtain parity with their male colleagues.

Fifteen years later, she reexamined the context of the law firm to include an examination of racial dynamics, particularly how elite white men working in these spaces created and maintained a culture that made it difficult for both female attorneys and attorneys of color to thrive. Her book, Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action , published in 2012, is an interesting and creative blending of interviews with attorneys, content analyses of popular films during this period, and fictional accounts of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.  The law firm she chose to study had come under an affirmative action order and was in the process of implementing equitable policies and programs.  She wanted to understand how recipients of white privilege (the elite white male attorneys) come to deny the role they play in reproducing inequality.  Through interviews with attorneys who were present both before and during the affirmative action order, she creates a historical record of the “bad behavior” that necessitated new policies and procedures, but also, and more importantly , probed the participants ’ understanding of this behavior.  It should come as no surprise that most (but not all) of the white male attorneys saw little need for change, and that almost everyone else had accounts that were different if not sometimes downright harrowing.

I’ve used Pierce’s book in my qualitative research methods courses as an example of an interesting blend of techniques and presentation styles.  My students often have a very difficult time with the fictional accounts she includes.  But they serve an important communicative purpose here.  They are her attempts at presenting “both sides” to an objective reality – something happens (Pierce writes this something so it is very clear what it is), and the two participants to the thing that happened have very different understandings of what this means.  By including these stories, Pierce presents one of her key findings – people remember things differently and these different memories tend to support their own ideological positions.  I wonder what Pierce would have written had she studied the murder of George Floyd or the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 or any number of other historic events whose observers and participants record very different happenings.

This is not to say that qualitative researchers write fictional accounts.  In fact, the use of fiction in our work remains controversial.  When used, it must be clearly identified as a presentation device, as Pierce did.  I include Racing for Innocence here as an example of the multiple uses of methods and techniques and the way that these work together to produce better understandings by us, the readers, of what Pierce studied.  We readers come away with a better grasp of how and why advantaged people understate their own involvement in situations and structures that advantage them.  This is normal human behavior , in other words.  This case may have been about elite white men in law firms, but the general insights here can be transposed to other settings.  Indeed, Pierce argues that more research needs to be done about the role elites play in the reproduction of inequality in the workplace in general.

Example 3: Amplified Advantage (Mixed Methods: Survey Interviews + Focus Groups + Archives)

The final example comes from my own work with college students, particularly the ways in which class background affects the experience of college and outcomes for graduates.  I include it here as an example of mixed methods, and for the use of supplementary archival research.  I’ve done a lot of research over the years on first-generation, low-income, and working-class college students.  I am curious (and skeptical) about the possibility of social mobility today, particularly with the rising cost of college and growing inequality in general.  As one of the few people in my family to go to college, I didn’t grow up with a lot of examples of what college was like or how to make the most of it.  And when I entered graduate school, I realized with dismay that there were very few people like me there.  I worried about becoming too different from my family and friends back home.  And I wasn’t at all sure that I would ever be able to pay back the huge load of debt I was taking on.  And so I wrote my dissertation and first two books about working-class college students.  These books focused on experiences in college and the difficulties of navigating between family and school ( Hurst 2010a, 2012 ).  But even after all that research, I kept coming back to wondering if working-class students who made it through college had an equal chance at finding good jobs and happy lives,

What happens to students after college?  Do working-class students fare as well as their peers?  I knew from my own experience that barriers continued through graduate school and beyond, and that my debtload was higher than that of my peers, constraining some of the choices I made when I graduated.  To answer these questions, I designed a study of students attending small liberal arts colleges, the type of college that tried to equalize the experience of students by requiring all students to live on campus and offering small classes with lots of interaction with faculty.  These private colleges tend to have more money and resources so they can provide financial aid to low-income students.  They also attract some very wealthy students.  Because they enroll students across the class spectrum, I would be able to draw comparisons.  I ended up spending about four years collecting data, both a survey of more than 2000 students (which formed the basis for quantitative analyses) and qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, archival research, and participant observation).  This is what we call a “mixed methods” approach because we use both quantitative and qualitative data.  The survey gave me a large enough number of students that I could make comparisons of the how many kind, and to be able to say with some authority that there were in fact significant differences in experience and outcome by class (e.g., wealthier students earned more money and had little debt; working-class students often found jobs that were not in their chosen careers and were very affected by debt, upper-middle-class students were more likely to go to graduate school).  But the survey analyses could not explain why these differences existed.  For that, I needed to talk to people and ask them about their motivations and aspirations.  I needed to understand their perceptions of the world, and it is very hard to do this through a survey.

By interviewing students and recent graduates, I was able to discern particular patterns and pathways through college and beyond.  Specifically, I identified three versions of gameplay.  Upper-middle-class students, whose parents were themselves professionals (academics, lawyers, managers of non-profits), saw college as the first stage of their education and took classes and declared majors that would prepare them for graduate school.  They also spent a lot of time building their resumes, taking advantage of opportunities to help professors with their research, or study abroad.  This helped them gain admission to highly-ranked graduate schools and interesting jobs in the public sector.  In contrast, upper-class students, whose parents were wealthy and more likely to be engaged in business (as CEOs or other high-level directors), prioritized building social capital.  They did this by joining fraternities and sororities and playing club sports.  This helped them when they graduated as they called on friends and parents of friends to find them well-paying jobs.  Finally, low-income, first-generation, and working-class students were often adrift.  They took the classes that were recommended to them but without the knowledge of how to connect them to life beyond college.  They spent time working and studying rather than partying or building their resumes.  All three sets of students thought they were “doing college” the right way, the way that one was supposed to do college.   But these three versions of gameplay led to distinct outcomes that advantaged some students over others.  I titled my work “Amplified Advantage” to highlight this process.

These three examples, Cory Abramson’s The End Game , Jennifer Peirce’s Racing for Innocence, and my own Amplified Advantage, demonstrate the range of approaches and tools available to the qualitative researcher.  They also help explain why qualitative research is so important.  Numbers can tell us some things about the world, but they cannot get at the hearts and minds, motivations and beliefs of the people who make up the social worlds we inhabit.  For that, we need tools that allow us to listen and make sense of what people tell us and show us.  That is what good qualitative research offers us.

How Is This Book Organized?

This textbook is organized as a comprehensive introduction to the use of qualitative research methods.  The first half covers general topics (e.g., approaches to qualitative research, ethics) and research design (necessary steps for building a successful qualitative research study).  The second half reviews various data collection and data analysis techniques.  Of course, building a successful qualitative research study requires some knowledge of data collection and data analysis so the chapters in the first half and the chapters in the second half should be read in conversation with each other.  That said, each chapter can be read on its own for assistance with a particular narrow topic.  In addition to the chapters, a helpful glossary can be found in the back of the book.  Rummage around in the text as needed.

Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Research Design Process.  How does one begin a study? What is an appropriate research question?  How is the study to be done – with what methods ?  Involving what people and sites?  Although qualitative research studies can and often do change and develop over the course of data collection, it is important to have a good idea of what the aims and goals of your study are at the outset and a good plan of how to achieve those aims and goals.  Chapter 2 provides a road map of the process.

Chapter 3 describes and explains various ways of knowing the (social) world.  What is it possible for us to know about how other people think or why they behave the way they do?  What does it mean to say something is a “fact” or that it is “well-known” and understood?  Qualitative researchers are particularly interested in these questions because of the types of research questions we are interested in answering (the how questions rather than the how many questions of quantitative research).  Qualitative researchers have adopted various epistemological approaches.  Chapter 3 will explore these approaches, highlighting interpretivist approaches that acknowledge the subjective aspect of reality – in other words, reality and knowledge are not objective but rather influenced by (interpreted through) people.

Chapter 4 focuses on the practical matter of developing a research question and finding the right approach to data collection.  In any given study (think of Cory Abramson’s study of aging, for example), there may be years of collected data, thousands of observations , hundreds of pages of notes to read and review and make sense of.  If all you had was a general interest area (“aging”), it would be very difficult, nearly impossible, to make sense of all of that data.  The research question provides a helpful lens to refine and clarify (and simplify) everything you find and collect.  For that reason, it is important to pull out that lens (articulate the research question) before you get started.  In the case of the aging study, Cory Abramson was interested in how inequalities affected understandings and responses to aging.  It is for this reason he designed a study that would allow him to compare different groups of seniors (some middle-class, some poor).  Inevitably, he saw much more in the three years in the field than what made it into his book (or dissertation), but he was able to narrow down the complexity of the social world to provide us with this rich account linked to the original research question.  Developing a good research question is thus crucial to effective design and a successful outcome.  Chapter 4 will provide pointers on how to do this.  Chapter 4 also provides an overview of general approaches taken to doing qualitative research and various “traditions of inquiry.”

Chapter 5 explores sampling .  After you have developed a research question and have a general idea of how you will collect data (Observations?  Interviews?), how do you go about actually finding people and sites to study?  Although there is no “correct number” of people to interview , the sample should follow the research question and research design.  Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research involves nonprobability sampling.  Chapter 5 explains why this is so and what qualities instead make a good sample for qualitative research.

Chapter 6 addresses the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research.  Related to epistemological issues of how we know anything about the social world, qualitative researchers understand that we the researchers can never be truly neutral or outside the study we are conducting.  As observers, we see things that make sense to us and may entirely miss what is either too obvious to note or too different to comprehend.  As interviewers, as much as we would like to ask questions neutrally and remain in the background, interviews are a form of conversation, and the persons we interview are responding to us .  Therefore, it is important to reflect upon our social positions and the knowledges and expectations we bring to our work and to work through any blind spots that we may have.  Chapter 6 provides some examples of reflexivity in practice and exercises for thinking through one’s own biases.

Chapter 7 is a very important chapter and should not be overlooked.  As a practical matter, it should also be read closely with chapters 6 and 8.  Because qualitative researchers deal with people and the social world, it is imperative they develop and adhere to a strong ethical code for conducting research in a way that does not harm.  There are legal requirements and guidelines for doing so (see chapter 8), but these requirements should not be considered synonymous with the ethical code required of us.   Each researcher must constantly interrogate every aspect of their research, from research question to design to sample through analysis and presentation, to ensure that a minimum of harm (ideally, zero harm) is caused.  Because each research project is unique, the standards of care for each study are unique.  Part of being a professional researcher is carrying this code in one’s heart, being constantly attentive to what is required under particular circumstances.  Chapter 7 provides various research scenarios and asks readers to weigh in on the suitability and appropriateness of the research.  If done in a class setting, it will become obvious fairly quickly that there are often no absolutely correct answers, as different people find different aspects of the scenarios of greatest importance.  Minimizing the harm in one area may require possible harm in another.  Being attentive to all the ethical aspects of one’s research and making the best judgments one can, clearly and consciously, is an integral part of being a good researcher.

Chapter 8 , best to be read in conjunction with chapter 7, explains the role and importance of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) .  Under federal guidelines, an IRB is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects .  Every institution that receives funding from the federal government has an IRB.  IRBs have the authority to approve, require modifications to (to secure approval), or disapprove research.  This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects.  Chapter 8 reviews the history of IRBs and the work they do but also argues that IRBs’ review of qualitative research is often both over-inclusive and under-inclusive.  Some aspects of qualitative research are not well understood by IRBs, given that they were developed to prevent abuses in biomedical research.  Thus, it is important not to rely on IRBs to identify all the potential ethical issues that emerge in our research (see chapter 7).

Chapter 9 provides help for getting started on formulating a research question based on gaps in the pre-existing literature.  Research is conducted as part of a community, even if particular studies are done by single individuals (or small teams).  What any of us finds and reports back becomes part of a much larger body of knowledge.  Thus, it is important that we look at the larger body of knowledge before we actually start our bit to see how we can best contribute.  When I first began interviewing working-class college students, there was only one other similar study I could find, and it hadn’t been published (it was a dissertation of students from poor backgrounds).  But there had been a lot published by professors who had grown up working class and made it through college despite the odds.  These accounts by “working-class academics” became an important inspiration for my study and helped me frame the questions I asked the students I interviewed.  Chapter 9 will provide some pointers on how to search for relevant literature and how to use this to refine your research question.

Chapter 10 serves as a bridge between the two parts of the textbook, by introducing techniques of data collection.  Qualitative research is often characterized by the form of data collection – for example, an ethnographic study is one that employs primarily observational data collection for the purpose of documenting and presenting a particular culture or ethnos.  Techniques can be effectively combined, depending on the research question and the aims and goals of the study.   Chapter 10 provides a general overview of all the various techniques and how they can be combined.

The second part of the textbook moves into the doing part of qualitative research once the research question has been articulated and the study designed.  Chapters 11 through 17 cover various data collection techniques and approaches.  Chapters 18 and 19 provide a very simple overview of basic data analysis.  Chapter 20 covers communication of the data to various audiences, and in various formats.

Chapter 11 begins our overview of data collection techniques with a focus on interviewing , the true heart of qualitative research.  This technique can serve as the primary and exclusive form of data collection, or it can be used to supplement other forms (observation, archival).  An interview is distinct from a survey, where questions are asked in a specific order and often with a range of predetermined responses available.  Interviews can be conversational and unstructured or, more conventionally, semistructured , where a general set of interview questions “guides” the conversation.  Chapter 11 covers the basics of interviews: how to create interview guides, how many people to interview, where to conduct the interview, what to watch out for (how to prepare against things going wrong), and how to get the most out of your interviews.

Chapter 12 covers an important variant of interviewing, the focus group.  Focus groups are semistructured interviews with a group of people moderated by a facilitator (the researcher or researcher’s assistant).  Focus groups explicitly use group interaction to assist in the data collection.  They are best used to collect data on a specific topic that is non-personal and shared among the group.  For example, asking a group of college students about a common experience such as taking classes by remote delivery during the pandemic year of 2020.  Chapter 12 covers the basics of focus groups: when to use them, how to create interview guides for them, and how to run them effectively.

Chapter 13 moves away from interviewing to the second major form of data collection unique to qualitative researchers – observation .  Qualitative research that employs observation can best be understood as falling on a continuum of “fly on the wall” observation (e.g., observing how strangers interact in a doctor’s waiting room) to “participant” observation, where the researcher is also an active participant of the activity being observed.  For example, an activist in the Black Lives Matter movement might want to study the movement, using her inside position to gain access to observe key meetings and interactions.  Chapter  13 covers the basics of participant observation studies: advantages and disadvantages, gaining access, ethical concerns related to insider/outsider status and entanglement, and recording techniques.

Chapter 14 takes a closer look at “deep ethnography” – immersion in the field of a particularly long duration for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of a particular culture or social world.  Clifford Geertz called this “deep hanging out.”  Whereas participant observation is often combined with semistructured interview techniques, deep ethnography’s commitment to “living the life” or experiencing the situation as it really is demands more conversational and natural interactions with people.  These interactions and conversations may take place over months or even years.  As can be expected, there are some costs to this technique, as well as some very large rewards when done competently.  Chapter 14 provides some examples of deep ethnographies that will inspire some beginning researchers and intimidate others.

Chapter 15 moves in the opposite direction of deep ethnography, a technique that is the least positivist of all those discussed here, to mixed methods , a set of techniques that is arguably the most positivist .  A mixed methods approach combines both qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection, commonly by combining a survey that is analyzed statistically (e.g., cross-tabs or regression analyses of large number probability samples) with semi-structured interviews.  Although it is somewhat unconventional to discuss mixed methods in textbooks on qualitative research, I think it is important to recognize this often-employed approach here.  There are several advantages and some disadvantages to taking this route.  Chapter 16 will describe those advantages and disadvantages and provide some particular guidance on how to design a mixed methods study for maximum effectiveness.

Chapter 16 covers data collection that does not involve live human subjects at all – archival and historical research (chapter 17 will also cover data that does not involve interacting with human subjects).  Sometimes people are unavailable to us, either because they do not wish to be interviewed or observed (as is the case with many “elites”) or because they are too far away, in both place and time.  Fortunately, humans leave many traces and we can often answer questions we have by examining those traces.  Special collections and archives can be goldmines for social science research.  This chapter will explain how to access these places, for what purposes, and how to begin to make sense of what you find.

Chapter 17 covers another data collection area that does not involve face-to-face interaction with humans: content analysis .  Although content analysis may be understood more properly as a data analysis technique, the term is often used for the entire approach, which will be the case here.  Content analysis involves interpreting meaning from a body of text.  This body of text might be something found in historical records (see chapter 16) or something collected by the researcher, as in the case of comment posts on a popular blog post.  I once used the stories told by student loan debtors on the website studentloanjustice.org as the content I analyzed.  Content analysis is particularly useful when attempting to define and understand prevalent stories or communication about a topic of interest.  In other words, when we are less interested in what particular people (our defined sample) are doing or believing and more interested in what general narratives exist about a particular topic or issue.  This chapter will explore different approaches to content analysis and provide helpful tips on how to collect data, how to turn that data into codes for analysis, and how to go about presenting what is found through analysis.

Where chapter 17 has pushed us towards data analysis, chapters 18 and 19 are all about what to do with the data collected, whether that data be in the form of interview transcripts or fieldnotes from observations.  Chapter 18 introduces the basics of coding , the iterative process of assigning meaning to the data in order to both simplify and identify patterns.  What is a code and how does it work?  What are the different ways of coding data, and when should you use them?  What is a codebook, and why do you need one?  What does the process of data analysis look like?

Chapter 19 goes further into detail on codes and how to use them, particularly the later stages of coding in which our codes are refined, simplified, combined, and organized.  These later rounds of coding are essential to getting the most out of the data we’ve collected.  As students are often overwhelmed with the amount of data (a corpus of interview transcripts typically runs into the hundreds of pages; fieldnotes can easily top that), this chapter will also address time management and provide suggestions for dealing with chaos and reminders that feeling overwhelmed at the analysis stage is part of the process.  By the end of the chapter, you should understand how “findings” are actually found.

The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to the effective presentation of data results.  Chapter 20 covers the many ways that researchers communicate their studies to various audiences (academic, personal, political), what elements must be included in these various publications, and the hallmarks of excellent qualitative research that various audiences will be expecting.  Because qualitative researchers are motivated by understanding and conveying meaning , effective communication is not only an essential skill but a fundamental facet of the entire research project.  Ethnographers must be able to convey a certain sense of verisimilitude , the appearance of true reality.  Those employing interviews must faithfully depict the key meanings of the people they interviewed in a way that rings true to those people, even if the end result surprises them.  And all researchers must strive for clarity in their publications so that various audiences can understand what was found and why it is important.

The book concludes with a short chapter ( chapter 21 ) discussing the value of qualitative research. At the very end of this book, you will find a glossary of terms. I recommend you make frequent use of the glossary and add to each entry as you find examples. Although the entries are meant to be simple and clear, you may also want to paraphrase the definition—make it “make sense” to you, in other words. In addition to the standard reference list (all works cited here), you will find various recommendations for further reading at the end of many chapters. Some of these recommendations will be examples of excellent qualitative research, indicated with an asterisk (*) at the end of the entry. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example of qualitative research can teach you more about conducting research than any textbook can (this one included). I highly recommend you select one to three examples from these lists and read them along with the textbook.

A final note on the choice of examples – you will note that many of the examples used in the text come from research on college students.  This is for two reasons.  First, as most of my research falls in this area, I am most familiar with this literature and have contacts with those who do research here and can call upon them to share their stories with you.  Second, and more importantly, my hope is that this textbook reaches a wide audience of beginning researchers who study widely and deeply across the range of what can be known about the social world (from marine resources management to public policy to nursing to political science to sexuality studies and beyond).  It is sometimes difficult to find examples that speak to all those research interests, however. A focus on college students is something that all readers can understand and, hopefully, appreciate, as we are all now or have been at some point a college student.

Recommended Reading: Other Qualitative Research Textbooks

I’ve included a brief list of some of my favorite qualitative research textbooks and guidebooks if you need more than what you will find in this introductory text.  For each, I’ve also indicated if these are for “beginning” or “advanced” (graduate-level) readers.  Many of these books have several editions that do not significantly vary; the edition recommended is merely the edition I have used in teaching and to whose page numbers any specific references made in the text agree.

Barbour, Rosaline. 2014. Introducing Qualitative Research: A Student’s Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  A good introduction to qualitative research, with abundant examples (often from the discipline of health care) and clear definitions.  Includes quick summaries at the ends of each chapter.  However, some US students might find the British context distracting and can be a bit advanced in some places.  Beginning .

Bloomberg, Linda Dale, and Marie F. Volpe. 2012. Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Specifically designed to guide graduate students through the research process. Advanced .

Creswell, John W., and Cheryl Poth. 2018 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions .  4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a classic and one of the go-to books I used myself as a graduate student.  One of the best things about this text is its clear presentation of five distinct traditions in qualitative research.  Despite the title, this reasonably sized book is about more than research design, including both data analysis and how to write about qualitative research.  Advanced .

Lareau, Annette. 2021. Listening to People: A Practical Guide to Interviewing, Participant Observation, Data Analysis, and Writing It All Up .  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A readable and personal account of conducting qualitative research by an eminent sociologist, with a heavy emphasis on the kinds of participant-observation research conducted by the author.  Despite its reader-friendliness, this is really a book targeted to graduate students learning the craft.  Advanced .

Lune, Howard, and Bruce L. Berg. 2018. 9th edition.  Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences.  Pearson . Although a good introduction to qualitative methods, the authors favor symbolic interactionist and dramaturgical approaches, which limits the appeal primarily to sociologists.  Beginning .

Marshall, Catherine, and Gretchen B. Rossman. 2016. 6th edition. Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Very readable and accessible guide to research design by two educational scholars.  Although the presentation is sometimes fairly dry, personal vignettes and illustrations enliven the text.  Beginning .

Maxwell, Joseph A. 2013. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach .  3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. A short and accessible introduction to qualitative research design, particularly helpful for graduate students contemplating theses and dissertations. This has been a standard textbook in my graduate-level courses for years.  Advanced .

Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a comprehensive text that served as my “go-to” reference when I was a graduate student.  It is particularly helpful for those involved in program evaluation and other forms of evaluation studies and uses examples from a wide range of disciplines.  Advanced .

Rubin, Ashley T. 2021. Rocking Qualitative Social Science: An Irreverent Guide to Rigorous Research. Stanford : Stanford University Press.  A delightful and personal read.  Rubin uses rock climbing as an extended metaphor for learning how to conduct qualitative research.  A bit slanted toward ethnographic and archival methods of data collection, with frequent examples from her own studies in criminology. Beginning .

Weis, Lois, and Michelle Fine. 2000. Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research . New York: Teachers College Press.  Readable and accessibly written in a quasi-conversational style.  Particularly strong in its discussion of ethical issues throughout the qualitative research process.  Not comprehensive, however, and very much tied to ethnographic research.  Although designed for graduate students, this is a recommended read for students of all levels.  Beginning .

Patton’s Ten Suggestions for Doing Qualitative Research

The following ten suggestions were made by Michael Quinn Patton in his massive textbooks Qualitative Research and Evaluations Methods . This book is highly recommended for those of you who want more than an introduction to qualitative methods. It is the book I relied on heavily when I was a graduate student, although it is much easier to “dip into” when necessary than to read through as a whole. Patton is asked for “just one bit of advice” for a graduate student considering using qualitative research methods for their dissertation.  Here are his top ten responses, in short form, heavily paraphrased, and with additional comments and emphases from me:

• Make sure that a qualitative approach fits the research question. The following are the kinds of questions that call out for qualitative methods or where qualitative methods are particularly appropriate: questions about people’s experiences or how they make sense of those experiences; studying a person in their natural environment; researching a phenomenon so unknown that it would be impossible to study it with standardized instruments or other forms of quantitative data collection.
• Study qualitative research by going to the original sources for the design and analysis appropriate to the particular approach you want to take (e.g., read Glaser and Straus if you are using grounded theory )
• Find a dissertation adviser who understands or at least who will support your use of qualitative research methods. You are asking for trouble if your entire committee is populated by quantitative researchers, even if they are all very knowledgeable about the subject or focus of your study (maybe even more so if they are!)
• Really work on design. Doing qualitative research effectively takes a lot of planning.  Even if things are more flexible than in quantitative research, a good design is absolutely essential when starting out.
• Practice data collection techniques, particularly interviewing and observing. There is definitely a set of learned skills here!  Do not expect your first interview to be perfect.  You will continue to grow as a researcher the more interviews you conduct, and you will probably come to understand yourself a bit more in the process, too.  This is not easy, despite what others who don’t work with qualitative methods may assume (and tell you!)
• Have a plan for analysis before you begin data collection. This is often a requirement in IRB protocols , although you can get away with writing something fairly simple.  And even if you are taking an approach, such as grounded theory, that pushes you to remain fairly open-minded during the data collection process, you still want to know what you will be doing with all the data collected – creating a codebook? Writing analytical memos? Comparing cases?  Having a plan in hand will also help prevent you from collecting too much extraneous data.
• Be prepared to confront controversies both within the qualitative research community and between qualitative research and quantitative research. Don’t be naïve about this – qualitative research, particularly some approaches, will be derided by many more “positivist” researchers and audiences.  For example, is an “n” of 1 really sufficient?  Yes!  But not everyone will agree.
• Do not make the mistake of using qualitative research methods because someone told you it was easier, or because you are intimidated by the math required of statistical analyses. Qualitative research is difficult in its own way (and many would claim much more time-consuming than quantitative research).  Do it because you are convinced it is right for your goals, aims, and research questions.
• Find a good support network. This could be a research mentor, or it could be a group of friends or colleagues who are also using qualitative research, or it could be just someone who will listen to you work through all of the issues you will confront out in the field and during the writing process.  Even though qualitative research often involves human subjects, it can be pretty lonely.  A lot of times you will feel like you are working without a net.  You have to create one for yourself.  Take care of yourself.
• And, finally, in the words of Patton, “Prepare to be changed. Looking deeply at other people’s lives will force you to look deeply at yourself.”
• We will actually spend an entire chapter ( chapter 3 ) looking at this question in much more detail! ↵
• Note that this might have been news to Europeans at the time, but many other societies around the world had also come to this conclusion through observation.  There is often a tendency to equate “the scientific revolution” with the European world in which it took place, but this is somewhat misleading. ↵
• Historians are a special case here.  Historians have scrupulously and rigorously investigated the social world, but not for the purpose of understanding general laws about how things work, which is the point of scientific empirical research.  History is often referred to as an idiographic field of study, meaning that it studies things that happened or are happening in themselves and not for general observations or conclusions. ↵
• Don’t worry, we’ll spend more time later in this book unpacking the meaning of ethnography and other terms that are important here.  Note the available glossary ↵

An approach to research that is “multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter.  This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.  Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials – case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts – that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives." ( Denzin and Lincoln 2005:2 ). Contrast with quantitative research .

In contrast to methodology, methods are more simply the practices and tools used to collect and analyze data.  Examples of common methods in qualitative research are interviews , observations , and documentary analysis .  One’s methodology should connect to one’s choice of methods, of course, but they are distinguishable terms.  See also methodology .

A proposed explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.  The positing of a hypothesis is often the first step in quantitative research but not in qualitative research.  Even when qualitative researchers offer possible explanations in advance of conducting research, they will tend to not use the word “hypothesis” as it conjures up the kind of positivist research they are not conducting.

The foundational question to be addressed by the research study.  This will form the anchor of the research design, collection, and analysis.  Note that in qualitative research, the research question may, and probably will, alter or develop during the course of the research.

An approach to research that collects and analyzes numerical data for the purpose of finding patterns and averages, making predictions, testing causal relationships, and generalizing results to wider populations.  Contrast with qualitative research .

Data collection that takes place in real-world settings, referred to as “the field;” a key component of much Grounded Theory and ethnographic research.  Patton ( 2002 ) calls fieldwork “the central activity of qualitative inquiry” where “‘going into the field’ means having direct and personal contact with people under study in their own environments – getting close to people and situations being studied to personally understand the realities of minutiae of daily life” (48).

The people who are the subjects of a qualitative study.  In interview-based studies, they may be the respondents to the interviewer; for purposes of IRBs, they are often referred to as the human subjects of the research.

The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge.  For researchers, it is important to recognize and adopt one of the many distinguishing epistemological perspectives as part of our understanding of what questions research can address or fully answer.  See, e.g., constructivism , subjectivism, and  objectivism .

An approach that refutes the possibility of neutrality in social science research.  All research is “guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 13).  In contrast to positivism , interpretivism recognizes the social constructedness of reality, and researchers adopting this approach focus on capturing interpretations and understandings people have about the world rather than “the world” as it is (which is a chimera).

The cluster of data-collection tools and techniques that involve observing interactions between people, the behaviors, and practices of individuals (sometimes in contrast to what they say about how they act and behave), and cultures in context.  Observational methods are the key tools employed by ethnographers and Grounded Theory .

Research based on data collected and analyzed by the research (in contrast to secondary “library” research).

The process of selecting people or other units of analysis to represent a larger population. In quantitative research, this representation is taken quite literally, as statistically representative.  In qualitative research, in contrast, sample selection is often made based on potential to generate insight about a particular topic or phenomenon.

A method of data collection in which the researcher asks the participant questions; the answers to these questions are often recorded and transcribed verbatim. There are many different kinds of interviews - see also semistructured interview , structured interview , and unstructured interview .

The specific group of individuals that you will collect data from.  Contrast population.

The practice of being conscious of and reflective upon one’s own social location and presence when conducting research.  Because qualitative research often requires interaction with live humans, failing to take into account how one’s presence and prior expectations and social location affect the data collected and how analyzed may limit the reliability of the findings.  This remains true even when dealing with historical archives and other content.  Who we are matters when asking questions about how people experience the world because we, too, are a part of that world.

The science and practice of right conduct; in research, it is also the delineation of moral obligations towards research participants, communities to which we belong, and communities in which we conduct our research.

An administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution with which it is affiliated. The IRB is charged with the responsibility of reviewing all research involving human participants. The IRB is concerned with protecting the welfare, rights, and privacy of human subjects. The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, monitor, and require modifications in all research activities that fall within its jurisdiction as specified by both the federal regulations and institutional policy.

Research, according to US federal guidelines, that involves “a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research:  (1) Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or  (2) Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.”

One of the primary methodological traditions of inquiry in qualitative research, ethnography is the study of a group or group culture, largely through observational fieldwork supplemented by interviews. It is a form of fieldwork that may include participant-observation data collection. See chapter 14 for a discussion of deep ethnography. 

A form of interview that follows a standard guide of questions asked, although the order of the questions may change to match the particular needs of each individual interview subject, and probing “follow-up” questions are often added during the course of the interview.  The semi-structured interview is the primary form of interviewing used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences.  It is sometimes referred to as an “in-depth” interview.  See also interview and  interview guide .

A method of observational data collection taking place in a natural setting; a form of fieldwork .  The term encompasses a continuum of relative participation by the researcher (from full participant to “fly-on-the-wall” observer).  This is also sometimes referred to as ethnography , although the latter is characterized by a greater focus on the culture under observation.

A research design that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, as in the case of a survey supplemented by interviews.

An epistemological perspective that posits the existence of reality through sensory experience similar to empiricism but goes further in denying any non-sensory basis of thought or consciousness.  In the social sciences, the term has roots in the proto-sociologist August Comte, who believed he could discern “laws” of society similar to the laws of natural science (e.g., gravity).  The term has come to mean the kinds of measurable and verifiable science conducted by quantitative researchers and is thus used pejoratively by some qualitative researchers interested in interpretation, consciousness, and human understanding.  Calling someone a “positivist” is often intended as an insult.  See also empiricism and objectivism.

A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest; most universities have an archive of material related to the university’s history, as well as other “special collections” that may be of interest to members of the community.

A method of both data collection and data analysis in which a given content (textual, visual, graphic) is examined systematically and rigorously to identify meanings, themes, patterns and assumptions.  Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is concerned with gathering and interpreting an existing body of material.    

A word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data (Saldaña 2021:5).

Usually a verbatim written record of an interview or focus group discussion.

The primary form of data for fieldwork , participant observation , and ethnography .  These notes, taken by the researcher either during the course of fieldwork or at day’s end, should include as many details as possible on what was observed and what was said.  They should include clear identifiers of date, time, setting, and names (or identifying characteristics) of participants.

The process of labeling and organizing qualitative data to identify different themes and the relationships between them; a way of simplifying data to allow better management and retrieval of key themes and illustrative passages.  See coding frame and  codebook.

A methodological tradition of inquiry and approach to analyzing qualitative data in which theories emerge from a rigorous and systematic process of induction.  This approach was pioneered by the sociologists Glaser and Strauss (1967).  The elements of theory generated from comparative analysis of data are, first, conceptual categories and their properties and, second, hypotheses or generalized relations among the categories and their properties – “The constant comparing of many groups draws the [researcher’s] attention to their many similarities and differences.  Considering these leads [the researcher] to generate abstract categories and their properties, which, since they emerge from the data, will clearly be important to a theory explaining the kind of behavior under observation.” (36).

A detailed description of any proposed research that involves human subjects for review by IRB.  The protocol serves as the recipe for the conduct of the research activity.  It includes the scientific rationale to justify the conduct of the study, the information necessary to conduct the study, the plan for managing and analyzing the data, and a discussion of the research ethical issues relevant to the research.  Protocols for qualitative research often include interview guides, all documents related to recruitment, informed consent forms, very clear guidelines on the safekeeping of materials collected, and plans for de-identifying transcripts or other data that include personal identifying information.

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods Copyright © 2023 by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

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.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

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.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

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 .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bhandari, P. (2023, June 22). What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/

Is this article helpful?

Pritha Bhandari

Other students also liked, qualitative vs. quantitative research | differences, examples & methods, how to do thematic analysis | step-by-step guide & examples, get unlimited documents corrected.

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Qualitative Research : Definition

Qualitative research is the naturalistic study of social meanings and processes, using interviews, observations, and the analysis of texts and images.  In contrast to quantitative researchers, whose statistical methods enable broad generalizations about populations (for example, comparisons of the percentages of U.S. demographic groups who vote in particular ways), qualitative researchers use in-depth studies of the social world to analyze how and why groups think and act in particular ways (for instance, case studies of the experiences that shape political views).   

Events and Workshops

• Introduction to NVivo Have you just collected your data and wondered what to do next? Come join us for an introductory session on utilizing NVivo to support your analytical process. This session will only cover features of the software and how to import your records. Please feel free to attend any of the following sessions below: April 25th, 2024 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Green Library - SVA Conference Room 125 May 9th, 2024 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Green Library - SVA Conference Room 125
• Next: Choose an approach >>
• Choose an approach
• Find studies
• Learn methods
• Getting Started
• Get software
• Get data for secondary analysis
• Network with researchers

• Last Updated: May 23, 2024 1:27 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.stanford.edu/qualitative_research

What Is A Research (Scientific) Hypothesis? A plain-language explainer + examples

By:  Derek Jansen (MBA)  | Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2020

If you’re new to the world of research, or it’s your first time writing a dissertation or thesis, you’re probably noticing that the words “research hypothesis” and “scientific hypothesis” are used quite a bit, and you’re wondering what they mean in a research context .

“Hypothesis” is one of those words that people use loosely, thinking they understand what it means. However, it has a very specific meaning within academic research. So, it’s important to understand the exact meaning before you start hypothesizing. 

Research Hypothesis 101

• What is a hypothesis ?
• What is a research hypothesis (scientific hypothesis)?
• Requirements for a research hypothesis
• Definition of a research hypothesis
• The null hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

Let’s start with the general definition of a hypothesis (not a research hypothesis or scientific hypothesis), according to the Cambridge Dictionary:

Hypothesis: an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved.

In other words, it’s a statement that provides an explanation for why or how something works, based on facts (or some reasonable assumptions), but that has not yet been specifically tested . For example, a hypothesis might look something like this:

Hypothesis: sleep impacts academic performance.

This statement predicts that academic performance will be influenced by the amount and/or quality of sleep a student engages in – sounds reasonable, right? It’s based on reasonable assumptions , underpinned by what we currently know about sleep and health (from the existing literature). So, loosely speaking, we could call it a hypothesis, at least by the dictionary definition.

But that’s not good enough…

Unfortunately, that’s not quite sophisticated enough to describe a research hypothesis (also sometimes called a scientific hypothesis), and it wouldn’t be acceptable in a dissertation, thesis or research paper . In the world of academic research, a statement needs a few more criteria to constitute a true research hypothesis .

What is a research hypothesis?

A research hypothesis (also called a scientific hypothesis) is a statement about the expected outcome of a study (for example, a dissertation or thesis). To constitute a quality hypothesis, the statement needs to have three attributes – specificity , clarity and testability .

Let’s take a look at these more closely.

Need a helping hand?

Hypothesis Essential #1: Specificity & Clarity

A good research hypothesis needs to be extremely clear and articulate about both what’ s being assessed (who or what variables are involved ) and the expected outcome (for example, a difference between groups, a relationship between variables, etc.).

Let’s stick with our sleepy students example and look at how this statement could be more specific and clear.

Hypothesis: Students who sleep at least 8 hours per night will, on average, achieve higher grades in standardised tests than students who sleep less than 8 hours a night.

As you can see, the statement is very specific as it identifies the variables involved (sleep hours and test grades), the parties involved (two groups of students), as well as the predicted relationship type (a positive relationship). There’s no ambiguity or uncertainty about who or what is involved in the statement, and the expected outcome is clear.

Contrast that to the original hypothesis we looked at – “Sleep impacts academic performance” – and you can see the difference. “Sleep” and “academic performance” are both comparatively vague , and there’s no indication of what the expected relationship direction is (more sleep or less sleep). As you can see, specificity and clarity are key.

Hypothesis Essential #2: Testability (Provability)

A statement must be testable to qualify as a research hypothesis. In other words, there needs to be a way to prove (or disprove) the statement. If it’s not testable, it’s not a hypothesis – simple as that.

For example, consider the hypothesis we mentioned earlier:

Hypothesis: Students who sleep at least 8 hours per night will, on average, achieve higher grades in standardised tests than students who sleep less than 8 hours a night.  

We could test this statement by undertaking a quantitative study involving two groups of students, one that gets 8 or more hours of sleep per night for a fixed period, and one that gets less. We could then compare the standardised test results for both groups to see if there’s a statistically significant difference. 

Again, if you compare this to the original hypothesis we looked at – “Sleep impacts academic performance” – you can see that it would be quite difficult to test that statement, primarily because it isn’t specific enough. How much sleep? By who? What type of academic performance?

So, remember the mantra – if you can’t test it, it’s not a hypothesis 🙂

Defining A Research Hypothesis

You’re still with us? Great! Let’s recap and pin down a clear definition of a hypothesis.

A research hypothesis (or scientific hypothesis) is a statement about an expected relationship between variables, or explanation of an occurrence, that is clear, specific and testable.

So, when you write up hypotheses for your dissertation or thesis, make sure that they meet all these criteria. If you do, you’ll not only have rock-solid hypotheses but you’ll also ensure a clear focus for your entire research project.

What about the null hypothesis?

You may have also heard the terms null hypothesis , alternative hypothesis, or H-zero thrown around. At a simple level, the null hypothesis is the counter-proposal to the original hypothesis.

For example, if the hypothesis predicts that there is a relationship between two variables (for example, sleep and academic performance), the null hypothesis would predict that there is no relationship between those variables.

At a more technical level, the null hypothesis proposes that no statistical significance exists in a set of given observations and that any differences are due to chance alone.

And there you have it – hypotheses in a nutshell. 

If you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you. If you need hands-on help developing and testing your hypotheses, consider our private coaching service , where we hold your hand through the research journey.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

16 Comments

Very useful information. I benefit more from getting more information in this regard.

Very great insight,educative and informative. Please give meet deep critics on many research data of public international Law like human rights, environment, natural resources, law of the sea etc

In a book I read a distinction is made between null, research, and alternative hypothesis. As far as I understand, alternative and research hypotheses are the same. Can you please elaborate? Best Afshin

This is a self explanatory, easy going site. I will recommend this to my friends and colleagues.

Very good definition. How can I cite your definition in my thesis? Thank you. Is nul hypothesis compulsory in a research?

It’s a counter-proposal to be proven as a rejection

Please what is the difference between alternate hypothesis and research hypothesis?

It is a very good explanation. However, it limits hypotheses to statistically tasteable ideas. What about for qualitative researches or other researches that involve quantitative data that don’t need statistical tests?

In qualitative research, one typically uses propositions, not hypotheses.

could you please elaborate it more

I’ve benefited greatly from these notes, thank you.

This is very helpful

well articulated ideas are presented here, thank you for being reliable sources of information

Excellent. Thanks for being clear and sound about the research methodology and hypothesis (quantitative research)

I have only a simple question regarding the null hypothesis. – Is the null hypothesis (Ho) known as the reversible hypothesis of the alternative hypothesis (H1? – How to test it in academic research?

this is very important note help me much more

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

• What Is Research Methodology? Simple Definition (With Examples) - Grad Coach - […] Contrasted to this, a quantitative methodology is typically used when the research aims and objectives are confirmatory in nature. For example,…

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• My Bibliography
• Collections
• Citation manager

Save citation to file

Email citation, add to collections.

• Create a new collection
• Add to an existing collection

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search, create a file for external citation management software, your rss feed, qualitative study, affiliations.

• 1 University of Nebraska Medical Center
• 2 GDB Research and Statistical Consulting
• 3 GDB Research and Statistical Consulting/McLaren Macomb Hospital
• PMID: 29262162
• Bookshelf ID: NBK470395

Qualitative research is a type of research that explores and provides deeper insights into real-world problems. Instead of collecting numerical data points or intervening or introducing treatments just like in quantitative research, qualitative research helps generate hypothenar to 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 standalone study, purely relying on qualitative data, or part of mixed-methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative data. This review introduces the readers to some basic concepts, definitions, terminology, and applications of qualitative research.

Qualitative research, at its core, asks open-ended questions whose answers are not easily put into numbers, such as "how" and "why." Due to the open-ended nature of the research questions, qualitative research design is often not linear like quantitative design. One of the strengths of qualitative research is its ability to explain processes and patterns of human behavior that can be difficult to quantify. Phenomena such as experiences, attitudes, and behaviors can be complex to capture accurately and quantitatively. In contrast, a qualitative approach allows participants themselves to explain how, why, or what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing at a particular 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 essential 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 other, qualitative and quantitative work are neither necessarily opposites, nor are they incompatible. While qualitative and quantitative approaches are different, they are not necessarily opposites and 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 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.

Copyright © 2024, StatPearls Publishing LLC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

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.

• Introduction
• Issues of Concern
• Clinical Significance
• Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes
• Review Questions

Similar articles

• Folic acid supplementation and malaria susceptibility and severity among people taking antifolate antimalarial drugs in endemic areas. Crider K, Williams J, Qi YP, Gutman J, Yeung L, Mai C, Finkelstain J, Mehta S, Pons-Duran C, Menéndez C, Moraleda C, Rogers L, Daniels K, Green P. Crider K, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 Feb 1;2(2022):CD014217. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD014217. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022. PMID: 36321557 Free PMC article.
• Macromolecular crowding: chemistry and physics meet biology (Ascona, Switzerland, 10-14 June 2012). Foffi G, Pastore A, Piazza F, Temussi PA. Foffi G, et al. Phys Biol. 2013 Aug;10(4):040301. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/10/4/040301. Epub 2013 Aug 2. Phys Biol. 2013. PMID: 23912807
• The future of Cochrane Neonatal. Soll RF, Ovelman C, McGuire W. Soll RF, et al. Early Hum Dev. 2020 Nov;150:105191. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105191. Epub 2020 Sep 12. Early Hum Dev. 2020. PMID: 33036834
• Invited review: Qualitative research in dairy science-A narrative review. Ritter C, Koralesky KE, Saraceni J, Roche S, Vaarst M, Kelton D. Ritter C, et al. J Dairy Sci. 2023 Sep;106(9):5880-5895. doi: 10.3168/jds.2022-23125. Epub 2023 Jul 18. J Dairy Sci. 2023. PMID: 37474366 Review.
• Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities for health and well-being in adults: a review of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Husk K, Lovell R, Cooper C, Stahl-Timmins W, Garside R. Husk K, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 May 21;2016(5):CD010351. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD010351.pub2. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016. PMID: 27207731 Free PMC article. Review.
• Moser A, Korstjens I. Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 1: Introduction. Eur J Gen Pract. 2017 Dec;23(1):271-273. - PMC - PubMed
• Cleland JA. The qualitative orientation in medical education research. Korean J Med Educ. 2017 Jun;29(2):61-71. - PMC - PubMed
• Foley G, Timonen V. Using Grounded Theory Method to Capture and Analyze Health Care Experiences. Health Serv Res. 2015 Aug;50(4):1195-210. - PMC - PubMed
• Devers KJ. How will we know "good" qualitative research when we see it? Beginning the dialogue in health services research. Health Serv Res. 1999 Dec;34(5 Pt 2):1153-88. - PMC - PubMed
• Huston P, Rowan M. Qualitative studies. Their role in medical research. Can Fam Physician. 1998 Nov;44:2453-8. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

• Search in PubMed
• Search in MeSH
• Add to Search

Related information

• Cited in Books

LinkOut - more resources

Full text sources.

• NCBI Bookshelf

• Citation Manager

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

Chapter 2: The Importance of Theory and Literature

There is nothing more practical than a good theory.

— Kurt Lewin, 1951, p. 169

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following:

• Outline the main assumptions of positivist, interpretive, critical, and pragmatic paradigms.
• Explain why decolonization is necessary for learning about Indigenous knowledges.
• Define and differentiate between theoretical frameworks and theories.
• Distinguish between deductive and inductive reasoning and explain how the role of theory differs in qualitative and quantitative research.
• Formulate social research questions.
• Explain the importance of a literature review.
• Locate appropriate literature and evaluate sources of information found on the internet.

INTRODUCTION

In chapter 1, you were introduced to scientific reasoning as a desirable alternative to learning about the social world through tradition, common sense, authority, and personal experience. In addition, you learned to distinguish between basic and applied research and that research methods are used to collect data for a variety of purposes (e.g., to explore, describe, explain, or evaluate some phenomenon). In this chapter, you will learn about paradigms that shape our views of social research and alternative worldviews in the form of Indigenous knowledges. You will learn about theoretical frameworks and the importance of theory and prior research for informing the development of new research. Finally, this chapter helps you locate and evaluate sources of information you find in the library and on the internet.

INQUIRY PARADIGMS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

At the most general level, a paradigm is a set of “basic beliefs” or a “worldview” that helps us make sense of the world, including our own place in it (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Earl Babbie and Jason Edgerton (2024) define a paradigm as “a theoretical perspective including a set of assumptions about reality that guide research questions” (Some Social Science Paradigms section). As a broad framework, a paradigm includes assumptions about the nature of knowledge (a branch of philosophy called epistemology), assumptions about the nature of reality or the way things are (a branch of philosophy called ontology), and assumptions about how we go about solving problems and gathering information (a system of principles or practices collectively known as methodology). The assumptions are interrelated in the sense that how one views the nature of reality (an ontological stance) influences beliefs about one’s relationship to that reality (an epistemological stance) and how one would go about examining that reality (a methodological stance) (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). This will become clearer as we compare the assumptions of four distinct and competing inquiry paradigms.

Positivist Paradigm

French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) first used the term social physics (later called sociology ) to describe a positivist science of society that could teach us about the social world through research and theorizing (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2021) . The positivist paradigm is a belief system aimed at discovering universal laws based on the assumption that a singular reality exists independent of individuals and their role in it. Positivism rests on a worldview like that of the natural sciences, which stresses objectivity and truth as discovered through direct empirical methods. In its most extreme form, positivism will accept as knowledge-only events that can verified through sensory experience (Bell et al., 2022). The goal of positivism is to explain events and relationships via a search for antecedent causes that produce outcomes. Within a positivist paradigm, the search for empirical truth begins with what is already known about an area. From that starting point, probable causes are “deduced” using logical reasoning, and then theories are tested for accuracy. Systematic observation and experimental methods are commonly employed modes of inquiry and the data obtained is quantifiable.

Interpretive Paradigm

The interpretive paradigm (also called constructivism) arose in part as a critique of positivism for its failure to recognize the importance of subjectivity in human-centred approaches. The interpretive paradigm worldview rests on the assumption that reality is socially constructed in the form of mental representations created and recreated by people through their experiences and interactions in social contexts (Lincoln et al., 2024). As such, “multiple realities exist” for any given individual (Guba, 1996), and these individual realities are largely “self-created” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). The focus of the interpretive paradigm is on understanding individuals’ perceptions of reality, including how events and interactions come to have meaning for them, rather than identifying objective phenomena or social facts that exist outside of individuals and relationships. This generally necessitates a qualitative research strategy, such as ethnography, which brings the researcher into close contact with those being studied for prolonged periods of time; as a result, relationships develop and insight is gained from within those relationships. As Palys and Atchison (2014) put it, “good theory is not imposed; rather, it emerges from direct observation and contact with people in context” (p. 23).

Critical Paradigm

Another worldview that emphasizes interpretation and understanding is the critical paradigm . The critical paradigm rests on an assumption that “human nature operates in a world that is based on a struggle for power” (Lincoln et al., 2024, p. 81). The critical paradigm focuses specifically on determining the role power plays in the creation of knowledge, frequently using qualitative strategies. The critical approach is more of a critique concerning how and why particular views become the dominant ones and how privilege and oppression interact, often as the result of defining characteristics such as gender, race and ethnicity, and social class (Lincoln et al., 2024). Beyond examining inequality, there is also an emphasis on “praxis,” whereby scholars provide knowledge that can help to end powerlessness (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022). To the extent that research can identify ways in which groups are disadvantaged and identify the causes of subordination, it can also be used to help resolve the inequities. Various theoretical perspectives and theories stem from a critical-interpretative stance including feminist inquiry, critical race theory, critical disabilities studies, and queer theory. [1]

Pragmatic Paradigm

Finally, in contrast to the dichotomy between the objectivity of positivism and the subjectivity of interpretive approaches, an impartial outlook is offered by a more recent paradigm called the pragmatic paradigm . The pragmatic view “arises out of actions, situations, and consequences rather than antecedent conditions” and is concerned with “applications—what works—and solutions to problems” (Creswell & Creswell, 2023, p. 11). This problem-centred worldview is not based in any philosophy, nor does it necessitate the use of a certain form of reasoning or research technique. It does, however, emphasize the importance of methodology for solving problems and advocates for the use of combined qualitative and quantitative approaches for a more complete understanding. Historically, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches has proven problematic given the opposing assumptions upon which each approach is based. The pragmatic paradigm offers a solution to the dichotomy. As John W. Creswell and J. David Creswell (2023) note, “pragmatists do not see the world as an absolute unity. In a similar way, mixed methods researchers look to many approaches for collecting and analyzing data rather than subscribing to any one way (e.g., quantitative or qualitative)” (p. 12). Thus, the starting point is the issue or research problem, which itself suggests the most applicable means for further research exploration. Mixed method approaches to research that are grounded in a pragmatic paradigm are discussed in more detail in chapter 11.

Test Yourself

• Which paradigm seeks to discover universal laws?
• Which paradigm is most concerned with objective reality?
• Which paradigm is problem-centred?
• Which paradigm rests on the assumption that reality is socially constructed?

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES AND RESEARCH PARADIGMS

It is important to note that the paradigms discussed thus far have philosophical and research underpinnings based on dominant Euro-Western modes of thought. Indigenous scholars highlight the value of reclaiming alternative worldviews stemming from the silenced cultural perspectives of groups that are marginalized, underprivileged, and/or have suffered European colonization (e.g., see Battiste, 2000; Belanger & Hanrahan, 2022; Quinless, 2022; Smith, 2021; Warrior, 1995). “ Indigenous knowledges are diverse learning processes that come from living intimately with the land, working with the resources surrounding the land base, and the relationships that it has fostered over time and place. These are physical, social, and spiritual relationships that continue to be the foundations of its world views and ways of knowing that define their relationships with each other and others” (Battiste, 2013, p. 33). These Indigenous, sometimes called “traditional,” knowledges contain a wealth of pragmatic lessons in diverse areas from environmental conservation to cultural protocols and familial relationships.

The loss of language stemming from forced assimilation via structural mechanisms such as residential schools and Eurocentric educational systems poses challenges for the maintenance of Indigenous knowledges, though elders continue to play a vital role in the verification and transmission of Indigenous cultures. Note that researchers and their methods used to research Indigenous knowledges have historically been mainly non-Indigenous, and hence even the discourse of the colonized is shaped “through imperial eyes” (Smith, 2021). By employing decolonized methods, involving Indigenous researchers, including Indigenous peoples as active participants in research processes, listening to the teachings of elders, and recognizing the role that non-Indigenous researchers and Western methodologies have played in shaping the discourse on colonized Others, we can begin to remove the Eurocentric lens. The term colonized Other is used here to refer to Indigenous peoples in Canada who have experienced European colonization, but it can also be used more collectively to include those who are “disenfranchised” and “dispossessed” elsewhere in the world (e.g., those living in marginalized communities in underdeveloped countries) as described by Chilisa (2020, p. 9).

Decolonization is not one type of methodology but rather is “a process of conducting research in such a way that the worldviews of those who have suffered a long history of oppression and marginalization are given space to communicate from their frames of reference” (Chilisa, 2020, p. 11). For example, instead of asking volunteers to complete a questionnaire worded by the researcher to learn about participants’ views and experiences as prescribed by traditional social science methods, a former student of one of the authors named Reith Charlesworth (2016) spent several months developing relationships and establishing trust with program attendees before participating in a sharing circle she co-facilitated with an Indigenous social worker. The sharing circle included a feast and provided the opportunity for women to tell stories that ultimately helped Reith better understand social and structural barriers experienced by young Indigenous mothers in a parenting program at iHuman Youth Society in Edmonton, Alberta. [2]

Since Indigenous knowledge structures encompass a dynamic array of beliefs and lived experiences held by various individuals identifying with vastly different tribal groups in many different locations, it is difficult to identify common features. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization defines local and Indigenous knowledge as the

understandings, skills and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings. For rural and Indigenous Peoples, local knowledge informs decision-making about fundamental aspects of day-to-day life. This knowledge is integral to a cultural complex that also encompasses language, systems of classification, resource use practices, social interactions, ritual and spirituality.” (UNESCO, 2024)

In her book on Indigenous methodologies, Margaret Kovach (2021) explains:

The scope and basis of an Indigenous epistemology encompasses: multiple sources of knowledge, more commonly recognized as holism (scope); a tangible and intangible animate world that is process oriented and cyclical, such as that expressed in verb-oriented language (e.g., with ing endings), which comprise many Indigenous languages (basis); and a web of interdependent, contextual, relationships over time, such as with place, family and community (basis)(p. 68).

Whereas the aim of a positivist paradigm is to discover universal laws, an Indigenous research paradigm seeks to challenge colonized ways of thinking and to employ decolonized research methods that enable a respectful reclaiming of Indigenous cultures and knowledges. Because Indigenous knowledges are largely maintained through oral transmission and cultural practices, Indigenous methodologies also include ceremonies and formal protocols, and they are amenable to narrative inquiry as in the case of sharing circles and storytelling (Kovach, 2021). When it comes to employing Indigenous research methods, the fundamental point to remember is that the research process and the resulting data and knowledge stemming from it are integrally based on “relational actions”—that is, the personal relationships and connections that are formed with Indigenous communities based on trust (Kovach, 2021).

• What are Indigenous knowledges?
• In research, what does decolonization mean?

Activity: Understanding Research Paradigms

Theoretical frameworks and theories.

Positivist, interpretive, critical, and pragmatic paradigms all offer a broad worldview from which theoretical frameworks emerge. Theoretical frameworks are perspectives based on core assumptions that provide a foundation for examining the social world at different levels. Theoretical frameworks that operate at the macro level tend to focus on “larger social forces,” while those dealing with the micro level are aimed at understanding “individual experiences” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022, p. 4).

Within the discipline of sociology, the functionalist, conflict, interactionist, feminist, and postmodern frameworks provide different lenses from which we can view society. The functionalist framework is a macro-level perspective that views society as being made up of certain structures—such as the family, education, and religion—that are essential for maintaining social order and stability. For example, a primary function of the family is to provide for the social, emotional, and economic well-being of its members and to serve as a key agent of socialization. The functionalist framework is rooted in positivism in its focus on observables in the form of social facts and universal truths. The conflict framework is also a macro-level perspective, but it is rooted in the critical paradigm in its examination of power and its emphasis on the prevalence of inequality in society as groups compete for scarce resources. Karl Marx (1818–1883), considered a key founder of this perspective, emphasized the central role of the economy in the creation of conflict and explained how workers in society are exploited and alienated under systems of capitalism (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2021).

The symbolic interactionist framework is a micro-level perspective attributed to the early work of sociologists George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) and Herbert Blumer (1900–1987). The symbolic interactionist framework depicts society as consisting of individuals engaged in a variety of communications based on shared understandings (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022). The emphasis here is on how individuals create meaning using symbols and language. Note how this framework emerges from interpretivism, with its emphasis on the importance of subjective meaning for individuals that is constructed and interpreted within interactions. For example, although two siblings in a familial union understand and relate to each other based on common features, such as a shared language and upbringing, they also each experience and recall events somewhat differently, based on their unique perspectives and relations toward one another. The symbolic interactionist perspective often guides qualitative researchers as they design strategies for uncovering meaning in groups and contexts.

With roots in the critical paradigm, the feminist framework [3]   rests on the premise that men and women should be treated equal in all facets of social life (e.g., family, employment, law, and policy). The feminist framework includes a diverse range of perspectives (e.g., radical, socialist, post-colonial), operates at both the micro and macro levels, and is especially helpful in demonstrating ways in which society is structured by gender and how gender roles differentially impact males and females. For example, feminist scholars are quick to point out that women in relationships with men continue to adhere to traditional gender role expectations, doing more than their share of housework and experiencing less free time compared to their partners (e.g., Bianchi, 2011; Guppy & Luongo, 2015). Even in egalitarian relationships (based on equality in principle) where both partners are Canadian academics working outside of the home, women assume more of the caregiving and household obligations at the expense of work-life balance (Wilton & Ross, 2017). COVID-19 exacerbated  gender inequalities with Canadian women spending close to 50 hours per week more than men on childcare during the pandemic (Johnston et al., 2020).

Finally, emerging post-World War II, the postmodern framework emphasizes the ways in which society has changed dramatically, particularly in relation to technological advances. The postmodern framework speaks out against singular monolithic structures and forces. It traces the intersectional features of inequality, including race, class, and gender, and focuses specifically on the effects of the digital age. This framework complicates dualistic boundaries between the micro and macro (arguing that they are one and the same) and calls into question the singular truths of earlier frameworks such as Marxism and functionalism. Postmodern perspectives are especially helping in guiding research in areas of media literacy, globalization, and environmental studies.

Drilling down another layer, within broader theoretical perspectives, we can locate particular theories . Within the functionalist framework, for example, we find Robert Merton’s (1938) strain theory of deviance, which explains how people adapt when there is a discrepancy between societal goals (what we are supposed to aspire to) and the legitimate means for obtaining them. Or, within the symbolic interactionist perspective, we can locate Edwin Lemert’s (1951) labelling theory of deviance, which explains a process whereby people may come to view themselves as lifelong deviants. Theories are discussed in more detail in the next section.

THE ROLE OF THEORY IN RESEARCH

A theory “is a set of propositions intended to explain a fact or a phenomenon” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022, p. 9). The propositions are usually expressed as statements that reflect the main assumptions of the theory. For example, Edwin Sutherland’s (1947) differential association theory is a theory about crime, and it is explained in nine propositions. To give you a sense of the theory, the first proposition is that “criminal behaviour is learned”; the second is that “criminal behaviour is learned in interactions with other persons in a process of communication” (p. 6). Taken together, the propositions in differential association theory explain how crime is learned through interactions with others in much the same way as non-criminal behaviour is learned. That is, members of small groups with whom we spend time and who we feel are important may teach us the techniques and motives needed to develop criminal tendencies.

Deductive Forms of Reasoning

Theory doesn’t happen in isolation from research; it can both inform the research process and develop from it. Theory that informs the research process is known as deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is a “theory-driven approach that typically concludes with [empirical] generalizations based on research findings” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022, p. 26). A deductive approach to social research is often a “top-down” linear one that begins with a research idea that is grounded in theory. A hypothesis or “testable research statement that includes at least two variables” is derived from the theory and this sets the stage for data collection (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022, p. 29). A variable is a “categorical concept for properties of people or entities that can differ and change” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2022, pp. 25–26; as discussed in more detail in chapter 4). In a study on crime, criminal behaviour (e.g., the presence or absence of it) or a certain type of crime is likely to be a main variable of interest, along with another variable regularly associated with crime, such as age, sex, or race. For example, based on a theory of aggression, a hypothesis could be that men are more likely than women to commit physical assaults.

Activity: Deductive Research Process

Testing hypotheses derived from theories.

Based on the tenets of Sutherland’s (1947) differential association theory, Reiss and Rhodes (1964) “deduced” that delinquent boys are likely to engage in the same acts of deviance as their closest friends, since these are the people from whom they learn the techniques, motives, and definitions favourable to committing crimes. Specifically, they tested a hypothesis that the probability of an individual committing a delinquent act (e.g., auto theft, an assault, and vandalism) would be dependent upon his two closest friends also committing that act. The researchers looked at six different delinquent acts among 299 triads (i.e., groups of three), wherein each boy reported on his delinquency and indicated whether he committed the act alone or in the presence of others. In support of the theory, Reiss and Rhodes (1964) found that boys who committed delinquent acts were more likely to have close friends that committed the same acts. Figure 2.2 summarizes the logic of a typical research process based on deductive reasoning.

Inductive Forms of Reasoning

An inductive reasoning approach is more “bottom-up,” beginning with observations and ending with the discovery of patterns and themes that are usually informed by theory or help establish and thereby “induce” new theory (see figure 2.3).

For example, Lowe and McClement (2011) examined the experience of spousal bereavement through interviews with young Canadian women whose husbands passed away. Over the course of data collection, the researchers identified various common themes including “elements of losses” such as the loss of companionship and the loss of hopes and dreams for the future. They also identified a notion of “who am I?” as the widows relayed their attempts to redefine themselves as single, in relation to other men, with their friends, and as single parents. Although the lived experience of young Canadian widows as a specific group of interest had not been previously explored, the researchers interpreted their findings within the context of previous studies and theoretical frameworks, such as Bowman’s (1997) earlier research on facing the loss of dreams and Shaffer’s (1993) dissertation research on rebuilding identity following the loss of a spouse. Lowe and McClement (2011) also identified the importance of making connections through memories as a means of adapting, suggesting a direction for additional research and the potential for an eventual theory on the development of relationships following the loss of a spouse.

The Role of Theory in Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Note that the role and use of theory differs depending on whether the study is quantitative (i.e., based on deductive reasoning) or qualitative (i.e., based on inductive reasoning). Recall from chapter 1 that qualitative research often seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of a research issue from the perspective of those who are affected first-hand. The research process begins with an interest in an area such as cannabis use and a research question (e.g., What do parents perceive their role to be in the education of cannabis use?). Data collection is often undertaken through a technique such as qualitative interviews, where researchers ask open-ended questions to learn as much as possible from interviewees. For example, Haines-Saah et al. (2018) asked parents of adolescent drug users what their experiences were like talking to their children about drug use. Theory is usually brought into an analysis to help make sense of the responses collected. In some cases, new theory develops out of the research findings. The “discovery of theory from data systematically obtained from social research” is better known as grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 2007, p. 2) since it is intricately linked to the data and context within which it developed. In most instances of qualitative research, theory plays a central role at various stages (e.g., in the formulation of the research question, in the initial stages of data coding, and especially toward the end of the data-analysis process). Findings from the cannabis study were interpreted in theoretical frameworks of risk and responsibility, as parents discussed cannabis use largely from a health narrative of drugs negatively impacting a developing brain or a blame narrative where parents viewed themselves as the primary agents of prevention (Haines-Saah et al., 2018).

In contrast, theory is the starting point for most quantitative studies. On one hand, a theory provides a set of interrelated ideas that organize the existing knowledge in a meaningful way and help to explain it (Cozby et al., 2020). For example, demographic transition theory helps to identify universal stages of population change as countries progress from pre-industrial societies through to post-industrial economies (Landry, 1934; Notestein, 1945). In countries characterized by the more advanced industrial stage of development, birth rates are low, corresponding to people having fewer children due to various considerations (e.g., birth control, female participation in the workforce, reliance on exported manufactured goods, greater emphasis on higher educational attainment). Despite the specificity of economic and social issues that vary from one country to the next, we can still identify broader commonalities such a declining birth rate coupled with an already low death rate in all countries that have reached the industrial stage of development, including Canada. Hence, this early theory is still useful today for explaining differences between countries in early industrial, industrial, and post-industrial stages of development.

In addition, a theory provides a focal point that draws our attention to issues and events in a manner that helps to generate new interest and knowledge (Cozby et al., 2020). For example, conflict theorists showed us how capitalism and its focus on economic productivity is linked to major environmental issues, including the high extraction of natural resources and the high accumulation of waste (Schnaiberg, 1980). Schnaiberg’s early framing of capitalism as a “treadmill of production” spawned additional interest in the study of modern industry, highlighting ways in which environmental issues are constructed as “proeconomic” measures in part because of alliances formed between capitalists, workers, and the state (Gould et al., 2008). Conflict theorists also direct our attention to the capitalist “treadmill of accumulation,” which, in its reliance on ever-increasing amounts of expansion and exploitation, renders attempts at sustainable capitalism largely unattainable from an environmental standpoint (Foster et al., 2010). With ongoing concerns about carbon emissions, conflict theorists are now asking the question: How much is enough? suggesting we need to aim for carbon minimalism through efforts at simplicity and sufficiency if we hope to tackle the climate crisis (Alter, 2024).

On the other hand, using theory as a starting point necessitates the development of specific propositions and the prior classifications of key concepts and assumptions before data collection begins. As Mathew David and Carole D. Sutton (2011) explain,

there are advantages and disadvantages here. Those who seek to classify their qualities prior to data collection can be accused of imposing their own priorities, while those who seek to allow classifications to emerge during the research process are thereby unable to use the data collection period to test their subsequent theories. They too can then be accused of imposing their own priorities because it is hard to confirm or disprove their interpretations as no ‘testing’ has been done. (p. 92)

You will learn more about the criteria used to evaluate research in chapter 4. For now, consider that both approaches, while different, have equal merit and drawbacks. Inductive and deductive approaches are probably best viewed as different components of the same research cycle, with some researchers beginning with theories and ending with observations, and others doing the reverse (Wallace, 1971).

Research on the Net

Classical Social  Theory Course

Classical social theory remains highly relevant today, guiding and informing the research of social scientists around the world. Professors at the University of Amsterdam have developed a free online course on Classical Social Theory for anyone interested in learning more about the works of influential social science theorists from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim.

• What is theory?
• What does a hypothesis contain?
• In what ways is a research process based on deductive reasoning different from one based on inductive reasoning?
• How do the role and use of theory differ in a qualitative versus quantitative study?
• What is grounded theory?

FORMULATING RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Although most of this chapter has focused on the role of theory for guiding the development of research and helping to inform research outcomes, research begins even before this, with a general area of interest. Every research study begins with a topic of interest. As a general worldview can be narrowed into a specific theory, a general area of interest can be shaped into a specific research question. Think about the last time you were asked to write an essay on a topic of interest or if you are considering continuing your studies into graduate school, what a general area of interest might entail. For a student in sociology, a broad area of interest could be the family, gender and sexualities, deviance, globalization, or social inequality. A student in psychology is more likely to consider the areas of developmental psychology, cognition, neuropsychology, or clinical testing, to name a few. Someone in anthropology may have a starting interest that lends itself more to archaeology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, or linguistics.

Locating a Topic of Interest

Within a broad area of interest, there are topics or issues that are focus points for research. For example, a sociologist specializing in social inequality might wish to learn more about the distribution of poverty in Canada or the barriers to housing experienced by those who are homeless. A developmental psychologist may be studying the intellectual, emotional, or perceptual development of children. Someone in anthropological linguistics might be interested in the evolution of language dialects or the loss of a mother tongue over time. Regardless of the topic you choose, your research interest is likely to centre on social groups (e.g., homeless people, children with developmental delays, Indigenous peoples who speak an endangered language) or social structures, policies, and processes that affect groups (e.g., barriers to housing, definitions of poverty, cannabis legislation, health benefit coverage).

Framing an Interest into a Social Research Question

Recall from chapter 1 that a social research question is designed to explore, describe, explain, or critically evaluate a topic of interest. This means as you develop your topic of interest, you need to consider how the wording of the question suggests the most appropriate course of action for answering it. A social research question is “a question about the social world that one seeks to answer through the collection and analysis of firsthand, verifiable, empirical data” (Schutt, 2022, p. 33). A question beginning with “What is it like to …” often implies an exploratory purpose, inductive reasoning, and a qualitative research method. A question beginning with “Why” may presuppose a search for causes, and this is generally undertaken for an explanatory purpose based on deductive reasoning and a quantitative method, such as an experiment. Alternatively, “Why” might also imply inductive reasoning that is designed to get the essence of a first-hand experience using a qualitative approach. Research questions that are designed to evaluate a program or service are likely to be formulated along the lines of “Is this working?” Program evaluations are often based on qualitative methods, but the approaches and methods vary considerably and may include mixed methods, depending on the nature of the program or policy. Descriptive studies, often resting on a research question such as “What are its main features?” tend to be heavily represented in the quantitative realm (especially when the data are gathered through surveys). However, like evaluation research, descriptive studies are amenable to qualitative methods, especially in the case of field observation, which can produce highly descriptive forms of data.

Framing an interest is not a process that occurs instantly; rather it is one that you develop over time, eventually shaping your interest into a manageable research question that will direct a study that contributes to the existing body of knowledge. You will need to start with a general area, select a topic, issue, or focus within that area, and then look at the literature before refining your topic into a central social research question. Figure 2.4 provides two examples of the progression from a general area to a more specific question.

• What does a research study begin with?
• What is a social research question?

THE IMPORTANCE OF A LITERATURE REVIEW

If you plan to conduct research, you will need to be familiar with what is already known about your research interest before you finalize your research question. It is important that you at least examine the literature relevant to your topic of interest before you commit to a specific research question. You are likely to modify your research question once you learn more about the topic from a literature review.

A literature review is essential for these reasons:

• First, a literature review tells you how much has already been done in this area. For example, if you are interested in carrying out a study on the portrayal of gender stereotypes in the media, it is important for you to know that you are going to be delving into an area that has been heavily researched for decades. There are literally millions of previous studies on the gender stereotypes in movies, on television, in magazines, and on the internet. In this case, your research question would not be exploratory in nature. One of your next steps with this topic would be to narrow your focus (e.g., perhaps you are more interested in male stereotypes portrayed in magazine advertisements).
• Second, a literature review helps familiarize you with what is already known in the area. Continuing with an interest in stereotyped depictions of males, the literature can help you learn more about the construction of masculinity and how the male body is depicted in advertising. For example, Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore (1986) note that advertising has increasingly come to celebrate a young, lean, and highly muscular body. This helps you choose an area that most interests you and that you can build upon with your own research (or that you can identify for an area of future research).
• Third, a literature review helps you understand the debates and main points of interest within an area of study. Existing literature can inform you about how the portrayal of gender stereotypes in the media can lead people to become dissatisfied with their body image or engage in extreme practices and measures designed to obtain an ideal body image (e.g., dieting, fitness, cosmetic surgery). The literature can also help you understand similarities and differences in the ways in which men and women are portrayed, or how depictions of men have changed over time. These considerations may further shape the direction you elect to take with a current or future research project.
• Fourth, a literature review highlights what still needs to be done in an area of interest. By examining previous research, you can find out researchers’ suggestions for additional studies, where replications would be helpful, or areas that still need to be addressed. The discussion section at the end of most academic articles typically includes a few sentences that explicitly address how the current study could have been improved upon and/or point out a direction for future research. This is where you will obtain a sense of how you could design a study that builds on the existing literature but also contributes something new.
• Lastly, a literature review can help you define important theories and concepts as well as establish guidelines for how you will need to carry out your own study . For example, if you wish to clarify how male bodies are shown in magazine advertisements, it would be practical to locate examples by other researchers that have already established standard ways to describe and code the body of a central character in an advertisement appearing in magazines.

Research is a conversation

As the following video illustrates, when you are tasked with coming up with a research question, it is important to remember that you are entering into a discussion with other academics who have come before you.

Research is a Conversation by UNLV University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC . [Video transcript –  See Appendix D 2.1 ]

In what ways is a literature review essential in the development of a research question?

LOCATING RELEVANT LITERATURE

Resist the temptation to simply search the public internet with your preferred browser for any available resources you can find on your topic of interest. Search engines like Google prioritize links that are from paid sponsors, so the resources that appear first are likely not the most relevant or even appropriate references for your area of interest. Meanwhile, many of the research articles you find using a search engine like Google are behind a paywall requiring that you pay to read more relevant content published by academic publishers. In addition to commercial interests, the public internet also suffers from a lack of quality control; the information you glean from web pages you find on the internet can be obsolete, and worse, fraught with errors.

The best sources of information for a literature review include periodicals, books, and book chapters located in or accessed through a library in a post-secondary institution. You can probably browse an online catalogue system for your post-secondary institution’s library from any computer, if you can access the internet and you are officially registered as a student.

Searching for Books

Books are especially useful when researching specific theories, research methodologies, and the historic context of a topic. Sometimes edited volumes of books contain short research papers written by different authors, which can also be useful when conducting academic research. The search engine on your library’s home page is where you can find books (including eBooks). If you know the title of the book you are looking for, simply type the title into the search box. Putting the title in quotes (e.g., “The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada”) will locate that exact title in the results if it is available. If you instead want to explore what is out there on your topic, enter some relevant keywords. In library databases you will want to put an AND  between each different keyword that you search for. For example, if you try searching for a book using the combined keywords male AND stereotypes , you will probably locate a list of starting resources. If there are more than 50 books on this topic, you might try male AND stereotypes AND media to narrow your search a bit further. You can also search for words with similar meanings by putting an OR  between the terms that you use in brackets, for instance, (male OR masculine OR masculinity) AND stereotypes AND media . After doing a search, most library catalogues will give you options to the left of your results to limit to just books or eBooks, as well as limiting by publication date and to books on general subject areas.

Searching for Periodicals

Periodicals (including magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals) are publications that contain articles written by different authors. Periodicals are released  periodically at regular intervals such as daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, or annually. Popular press periodicals (e.g., Maclean’s, Reader’s Digest , newspapers, and news websites) contain articles that are less scientific and more general-interest focused than scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed periodicals. Scholarly journals published by academic and professional organizations (e.g., universities) are the form of periodical most often cited by your instructors as credible sources for you to use in writing essays and research reports. Scholarly journals contain articles on basic research authored by academics and researchers with expertise in their respective areas. Articles found in scholarly journals have undergone considerable scrutiny in a competitive selection process that rests on peer review and evaluation prior to publication. This helps to ensure that only up-to-date, high-quality research based on sound practices makes it to the publication stage. Examples of Canadian sociological periodicals include the Canadian Journal of Sociology and the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology . Note that there are hundreds of periodicals spanning a range of related disciplines (e.g., Canadian Journal of Criminology , Canadian Journal of Economics , Canadian Journal of Political Science , and Canadian Psychology ) and more specialized topics (e.g., Sex Roles , Child Abuse and Neglect , Contemporary Drug Problems , Educational Gerontology ).

Similar to books, in many cases, you can access journals online using the search box on a university library’s homepage or through a database available on a library’s website. If an article is available in “full text,” you can usually download the entire article onto a storage device, so you can later retrieve it for further reading. Comprehensive databases for locating articles on research in the social sciences include Social Sciences Citation Index (part of Web of Science), Academic Search Complete, PsychINFO, SocINDEX, Sociological Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Anthropology Plus. For example, Academic Search Complete is dubbed one of the most comprehensive multidiscipline full-text databases, containing 5,812 full-text journals and magazines on a range of subjects, including psychology, religion, and philosophy (EBSCO Information Services, 2024).

Searching for Government Information

Depending on your research topic, you may find it helpful to reference research findings and statistics provided by governments. Governments at all levels hire researchers to conduct research on a range of topics to help inform public policy and address societal issues. This is one case where you will have to search for information that is available publicly on the internet. Websites like Statistics Canada and Government of Canada Publications contain a lot of content, however, and can be difficult to search. One strategy that can help with this is to perform a site search using Google. Simply enter site:  into Google followed by the domain of the website you would like to search along with relevant keywords to locate information on that site containing those words. For instance, site:statcan.gc.ca affordable housing  will locate statistics and analysis on housing needs available through Statistics Canada.

Research in Action

Fact Checking and Source Evaluation 

It is not enough to simply locate sources of information on an area of interest and assume that you have appropriate materials for learning about the area of interest. While academic journals undergo a peer-review process that helps to provide a check on the quality, accuracy, and currency of the published materials, the internet has little or no quality control. If you use the internet to find sources of information, such as webpages with links to various articles and other resources, it is important to evaluate that information before using it to inform your research.

SIFT & PICK 

Librarians at MacEwan University Library (2023) suggest you assess the quality of information you find through this SIFT and PICK strategy:

Review the Library’s SIFT and PICK handout [PDF] to learn more.

AFP Fact Check is a department within a larger news agency called Agence France-Press (AFP) dedicated to verifying and providing accurate news coverage. Here, you can find trending stories and search for topics such as “vaccination” to locate the most recent forms of misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine reported as news.  Visit AFP Canada for exclusively Canadian coverage.

• What are the best sources of information for a literature review?

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• Outline the main assumptions of positivist, interpretative, critical, and pragmatic paradigms. The positivist paradigm emphasizes objectivity and the importance of discovering truth using empirical methods. The interpretive paradigm stresses the importance of subjective understanding and discovering meaning as it exists for the people experiencing it. The critical paradigm focuses on the role of power in the creation of knowledge. The pragmatic paradigm begins with a research problem and determines a course of action for studying it based on what seems most appropriate given that research problem.
• Explain why decolonization is necessary for learning about Indigenous knowledges. For Indigenous knowledges to be derived from Indigenous sources in an authentic and respectful manner, those who have suffered colonization need to be given the space to communicate on their own terms from their frames of reference, as opposed to trying to obtain information via research methods that are based on Euro-Western influences.
• Define and differentiate between theoretical frameworks and theories. Theoretical frameworks are perspectives based on core assumptions that provide a foundation for examining the social world at different levels. For example, theoretical frameworks at the macro level tend to focus on broader social forces, while those at the micro level emphasize individual experiences. Theories develop from theoretical perspectives, and they include propositions that are intended to explain a fact or phenomenon of interest.
• Distinguish between deductive and inductive reasoning and explain how the role of theory differs in qualitative and quantitative research. Deductive reasoning is a top-down, theory-driven approach that concludes with generalizations based on research findings. Inductive reasoning is a bottom-up approach that begins with observations and typically ends with theory construction. Inductive approaches to reasoning guide qualitative research processes, while deductive approaches guide the stages of quantitative research. Theory tends to be the starting point for quantitative research, while it is interspersed throughout and emphasized more in the later stages of qualitative research.
• Formulate social research questions. Based on a broad area of interest and a careful literature review, a researcher eventually shapes a research interest into a social research question, which is a question about the social world that is answered through the collection and analysis of data. For example, a researcher might begin with an interest in gender that develops into an examination of the effects of body size on income for male and female workers, as demonstrated earlier in the chapter.
• Explain the importance of a literature review. A literature review is the starting point for formulating social research questions. A literature review helps to identify what is already known about and still needs to be done in an area of interest. A literature review also points out debates and issues in an area of interest, along with the most relevant concepts and means for going about studying the issue in more depth.
• Locate appropriate literature and evaluate sources of information found on the internet. Appropriate literature sources include periodicals, books, and government documents, most of which can be accessed online through the library at post-secondary institutions. You should evaluate the quality of information gleaned from websites prior to using that information as a primary source in a literature review. Evaluating information on the internet generally takes the form of asking questions that centre on the source, timeliness, accuracy, and relevance of the site. For example, in assessing accuracy, you can ask “Is the information free of spelling, grammatical, and technical errors?” and “Where did the information come from?”

RESEARCH REFLECTION

• Read Margaret Kovach’s (2018) chapter titled Doing Indigenous methodologies: A letter to a research class in N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (5th ed., pp. 108–150). Sage. Based on your reading, explain why the author claims it is not possible to do Indigenous methodologies. Also note the ways in which Indigenous methodologies are relational in nature.
• Identify a general area of interest to you. Within that area of interest, develop two social research questions—one that implies an exploratory purpose and one that implies an explanatory purpose. Which paradigm introduced at the beginning of the chapter do you think best represents the research questions you developed? Explain why this is the case.
• In what ways is an article found in a scholarly journal likely to be more appropriate as a reference source for a research topic than one located using a search engine such as Bing or Google?

LEARNING THROUGH PRACTICE

Objective: To assess information on the internet

Directions:

• Use Google to locate a website that contains relevant information on a topic of interest.
• Who created the site and what are their credentials?
• What are the qualifications of authors associated with the site?
• Is it possible to verify the accuracy of any of the claims made on this site?
• Is an educational purpose for this site evident?
• Is the site objective (or free from bias)?
• Is the site free of advertisements?
• Can you tell when the site was created?
• Was the site updated recently?
• Are there properly cited references on the site?
• Are there any errors on site (e.g., spelling, grammatical)?
• What rating would you give this site out of 100, if 100 percent is “perfect” and 0 stands for “without any merit.” Explain why you think the site deserves this rating based on the questions listed above.

RESEARCH RESOURCES

• To learn more about social theorists and the underpinnings of social theory, refer to Ritzer, G., and Stepnisky, J. (2021). S ociological theory (11th ed.). Sage.
• For an introduction to Indigenous ways of knowing, as well as historical and contemporary issues involving Canada’s First Peoples, refer to Belanger, Y. D. and Hanrahan, M. (2022). Ways of knowing: An introduction to Indigenous studies in Canada (4th ed.). Top Hat.
• To learn about decolonizing strategies and the potential for Indigenizing education, read Cote-Meek, S., and Moeke-Pickering, T. (2020). Decolonizing and Indigenizing education in Canada . Canadian Scholars Press.
• To learn how Indigenous knowledge structures inform research conducted by Indigenous scholars, see Kovach, M. (2021). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations and contexts . University of Toronto Press.
• For more information on feminist inquiry, critical race theory, critical disabilities studies, and queer theory , refer to The Sage handbook of qualitative research (6th ed.) (2024), edited by Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, Michael D. Giardina, and Gaile S. Cannella. ↵
• The sharing circle was part of a larger community-based project carried out by Reith Charlesworth during the winter of 2016, under the supervision of Brianna Olson, an Anishnaabe (First Nations) Métis woman/social worker who was iHuman’s program manager, and Dr. Alissa Overend, Reith’s research mentor at MacEwan University. Dr. Diane Symbaluk taught the foundational research methods course for this project in the fall of 2015 and set up/oversaw student placements as the faculty coordinator for the 2015–2016 calendar year. ↵
• An in-depth discussion of feminist perspectives is beyond the scope of this book. To learn about feminist standpoints and their relationships to research methodology, I recommend The handbook of feminist research: Theory and praxis (2nd ed.), edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber (2012). For insight into conceptions of power, refer to The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity , by Amy Allen (1999). ↵

A theoretical perspective including a set of assumptions about reality that guide research questions.

A worldview that upholds the importance of discovering truth through direct experience using empirical methods.

A worldview that rests on the assumption that reality is socially constructed and must be understood from the perspective of those experiencing it.

A worldview that is critical of paradigms that fail to acknowledge the role of power in the creation of knowledge and that is aimed at bringing about empowering change.

A worldview that rests on the assumption that reality is best understood in terms of the practical consequences of actions undertaken to solve problems.

Diverse learning processes that come from living intimately with the land and working with the resources surrounding the land base and the relationships that it has fostered over time and place.

A process of conducting research in such a way that the worldview of those who have suffered a long history of oppression and marginalization are given space to communicate from their frames of reference.

A perspective based on core assumptions.

The level of broader social forces.

The level of individual experiences and choices.

A set of propositions intended to explain a fact or phenomenon.

A theory-driven approach that typically concludes with empirical generalizations based on research findings.

A testable statement that contains at least two variables.

A categorical concept for properties of people or events that can differ and change.

A bottom-up approach beginning with observations and ending with the discovery of patterns and themes informed by theory.

Theory discovered from the systematic observation and analysis of data.

A question about the social world that is answered through the collection and analysis of first-hand, verifiable, empirical data.

Publications that contain articles written by different authors and are released at regular intervals.

Research Methods: Exploring the Social World in Canadian Context Copyright © 2024 by Diane Symbaluk & Robyn Hall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• Privacy Policy

Home » Qualitative Research – Methods, Analysis Types and Guide

Qualitative Research – Methods, Analysis Types and Guide

Table of Contents

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

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

Qualitative Research Methods

Case Study – Methods, Examples and Guide

Explanatory Research – Types, Methods, Guide

Mixed Methods Research – Types & Analysis

Ethnographic Research -Types, Methods and Guide

Correlational Research – Methods, Types and...

The purpose of qualitative research

Cite this chapter.

• Janice M. Morse 3 &
• Peggy Anne Field 4  

728 Accesses

5 Citations

Research fills a vital and important role in society: it is the means by which discoveries are made, ideas are confirmed or refuted, events controlled or predicted and theory developed or refined. All of these functions contribute to the development of knowledge. However, no single research approach fulfills all of these functions, and the contribution of qualitative research is both vital and unique to the goals of research in general. Qualitative research enables us to make sense of reality, to describe and explain the social world and to develop explanatory models and theories. It is the primary means by which the theoretical foundations of social sciences may be constructed or re-examined.

Research is to see what everybody has seen and to think what nobody has thought. (Albert Szent-Gyorgy)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

Bohannan, L. (1956/1992) Shakespeare in the bush, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 20–30.

Google Scholar  

Brace, C.L., Gamble, G.R. and Bond, J.T. (eds) (1971) Race and Intelligence: Anthropological Studies Number 8 , American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.

Burton, A. (1974) The nature of personality theory, in Operational Theories of Personality , (ed. A. Burton), Brunner/Mazel, New York, pp. 1–19.

Chapman, C.R. (1976) Measurement of pain: problems and issues. Advances in Pain Research and Therapy , 1 , 345.

Corbin, J. (1986) Coding, writing memos, and diagramming, in From Practice to Grounded Theory , (eds W.C. Chenitz and J.M. Swanson), Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, CA, pp. 91–101.

Duffy, M.E. (1985) Designing nursing research: the qualitative — quantitative debate. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 10 , 225–32.

Article   PubMed   CAS   Google Scholar  

Elliott, M.R. (1983) Maternal infant bonding. Canadian Nurse , 79 (8), 28–31.

PubMed   CAS   Google Scholar  

Engelhardt, H.T. (1974/1992) The disease of masturbation: values and the concept of disease, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 5–19.

Feyerabend, P. (1978) Against Method , Varo, London.

Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures , Basic Books, New York.

Glaser, B.G. (1978) Theoretical Sensitivity , The Sociology Press, Mill Valley, CA.

Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research , Aldine, Chicago.

Goodwin, L.D. and Goodwin, W.L. (1984) Qualitative vs. quantitative research or qualitative and quantitative research? Nursing Research , 33 (6), 378–80.

Hinds, P.S., Chaves, D.E. and Cypess, S.M. (1992) Context as a source of meaning and understanding, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 31–49.

Klaus, M.H. and Kennel, J.H. (1976) Parent Infant Bonding: The Impact of Early Separation or Loss on Family Development , Mosby, St Louis.

Morse, J.M. (1989/1992) ‘Euch, those are for your husband!’: examination of cultural values and assumptions associated with breastfeeding, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 50–60.

Morse, J.M. (1992) If you believe in theories.... Qualitative Health Research , 2 (3), 259–61.

Article   Google Scholar  

Morse, J.M., Harrison, M. and Prowse, M. (1986) Minimal breastfeeding. Journal of Obstetric Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing , 15 (4), 333–8.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Pelto, P.J. and Pelto, G.H. (1978) Anthropological Research: The Structure of Inquiry , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Scheper-Hughes, N. (1992) Death Without Weeping , University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Smith, J.K. (1983) Quantitative versus qualitative research: an attempt to clarify the issue. Educational Researcher , 12 (3), 6–13.

Smith, J.K. and Heshusius, L. (1986) Closing down the conversation: the end of the quantitative — qualitative debate among educational inquirers. Educational Researcher , 15 , 4–12.

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques , Sage, Newbury Park, CA.

Tesch, S. (1981) Disease causality and politics. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law , 6 (1), 369–89.

Vidich, A.J. and Lyman, S.M. (1994) Qualitative methods: their history in sociology and anthropology, in Handbook of Qualitative Research , (eds N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 23–59.

Wolcott, H.F. (1992) Posturing in qualitative research, in The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education , (eds M.D. LeCompte, W.L. Millroy and J. Preissle), Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp. 3–52.

Further Reading

Atkinson, P. (1994) Some perils of paradigms. Qualitative Health Research , 5 (1).

Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds) (1994) Part II: Major paradigms and perspectives, in Handbook of Qualitative Research , Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 99–198.

Filstead, W.J. (ed.) (1970) Qualitative Methodology: Firsthand Involvement with the Social World , Rand McNally, Chicago.

Gilbert, N. (ed.) (1993) Researching Social Life , Sage, London.

Glassner, B. and Moreno, J.D. (eds) (1989) The Qualitative-Quantitative Distinction in the Social Sciences , Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Hammersley, M. (ed) (1993) Social Research: Philosophy, Politics and Practice , Sage, London.

Morse, J.M. (ed.) (1992) Part I: The characteristics of qualitative research, in Qualitative Health Research , Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 69–90.

Morse, J.M., Bottorff, J.L., Neander, W. et al. (1991/1992) Comparative analysis of conceptualizations and theories of caring, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 69–90.

Noblit, G.W. and Engel, J.D. (1991/1992) The holistic injunction: an ideal and a moral imperative for qualitative research, in Qualitative Health Research , (ed. J.M. Morse), Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 43–63.

Rabinow, P. and Sullivan, W.M. (eds) (1979) Interpretive Social Science: A Reader , University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Smith, R.B. and Manning, P.K. (eds) (1982) A Handbook of Social Science Methods , Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Nursing, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Janice M. Morse ( Professor of Nursing and Behavioural Science )

Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Canada

Peggy Anne Field ( Professor Emeritus )

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Janice M. Morse and Peggy Anne Field

About this chapter

Morse, J.M., Field, P.A. (1996). The purpose of qualitative research. In: Nursing Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-4471-9_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-4471-9_1

Publisher Name : Springer, Boston, MA

Print ISBN : 978-0-412-60510-9

Online ISBN : 978-1-4899-4471-9

eBook Packages : Springer Book Archive

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Verify originality of an essay

Get ideas for your paper

Find top study documents

What is qualitative research? Approaches, methods, and examples

Updated 23 Jul 2024

Students in social sciences frequently seek to understand how people feel, think, and behave in specific situations or relationships that evolve over time. To achieve this, they employ various techniques and data collection methods in qualitative research allowing for a deeper exploration of human experiences. Participant observation, in-depth interviews, and other qualitative methods are commonly used to gather rich, detailed data to uncover key aspects of social behavior and relationships. What is qualitative research? This article will answer this question and guide you through the essentials of this methodology, including data collection techniques and analytical approaches.

Qualitative research definition and significance 

This inquiry method is helpful for learners interested in how to conduct research . It focuses on understanding human behavior, experiences, and social phenomena from the perspective of those involved. What does qualitative mean? It uses non-numerical data, such as interviews, observations, and textual analysis, to understand people’s feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Where and when is it used?

Qualitative analysis is crucial in education, healthcare, social sciences, marketing, and business. It helps gain detailed insights into behaviors, experiences, and cultural phenomena. This approach is fundamental during exploratory phases, for understanding complex issues, and when context-specific insights are required. By focusing on depth over breadth, this approach is often employed when researchers seek to explore complex issues, understand the context of a phenomenon, or investigate things that are not easily quantifiable. It uncovers rich, nuanced data essential for developing theories and evaluating programs.

Why is qualitative research important in academia?

• It sheds light on complex phenomena and human experiences that quantitative methods may overlook.
• This method offers contextual understanding by studying subjects in their natural environments, which is crucial for grasping real-world complexities.
• It adapts flexibly to evolving study findings and allows for adjusting approaches as new ideas emerge.
• It collects rich, detailed data through interviews, observations, and analysis, offering a comprehensive view of the exploration topic.
• Qualitative research studies focus on new or less explored areas, helping to identify key variables and generate hypotheses for further study.
• This approach focuses on understanding individuals' perspectives, motivations, and emotions, essential in fields like sociology, psychology, and education.
• It supports theory development by providing empirical data that can create new theories and frameworks (you may read about “What is a conceptual framework?” and learn about other frameworks on the EduBirdie website).
• It improves practices in fields such as education and healthcare by offering insights into practitioners' and clients' needs and experiences.

The difference between qualitative and quantitative studies

Now that you know the answer to “Why is qualitative data important?”, let’s consider how this method differs from quantitative. Both studies represent two main types of research methods. The qualitative approach focuses on understanding behaviors, experiences, and perspectives using interviews, observations, and analyzing texts. These studies are based on reflexivity and aim to explore complexities and contexts, often generating new ideas or theories. Researchers analyze data to find patterns and themes, clarifying the details. However, findings demonstrated in the results section of a research paper may not apply broadly because they often use small, specific groups rather than large, random samples.

Quantitative studies, on the other hand, emphasize numerical data and statistical analysis to measure variables and relationships. They use methods such as surveys, experiments, or analyzing existing data to collect structured information. The goal is quantifying phenomena, testing hypotheses, and determining correlations or causes. Statistical methods are used to analyze data, identifying patterns and significance. Quantitative studies produce results that can be applied to larger populations, providing generalizable findings. However, they may lack the detailed context that qualitative methods offer.

The approaches to qualitative research 

To better understand the answer to “What is qualitative research?”, it’s necessary to consider various approaches within this methodology, each with its unique focus, implications, and functions. 

1. Phenomenology.

This theory aims to understand and describe the lived experiences of individuals regarding a particular phenomenon. 

Peculiarities:

• Focuses on personal experiences and perceptions.
• Seeks to uncover the essence of a phenomenon.
• Uses in-depth interviews and first-person accounts.

Example: Studying the experiences of people living with chronic illness to understand how it affects their daily lives.

2. Ethnography.

The approach involves immersive, long-term observation and participation in particular cultural or social contexts. 

• Provides a deep understanding of cultural practices and social interactions.
• Involves participant observation and fieldwork.
• Researchers often live within the community they are studying.

Example: Observing and participating in the daily life of a rural village to understand its social structure and cultural practices.

3. Grounded theory.

This approach seeks to develop a research paper problem statement and theories based on participant data.

• Focuses on creating new theories rather than analyzing existing ones.
• Uses a systematic process of data collection and analysis.
• Involves constant comparison and coding of data.

Example: Developing a theory on how people cope with job loss by interviewing and analyzing the experiences of unemployed individuals.

4. Case study.

Case studies involve an in-depth examination of a single case or a small number of cases.

• Provides detailed, holistic insights.
• Can involve individuals, groups, organizations, or events.
• Uses multiple data sources such as interviews, observations, and documents.

Example: One of the qualitative research examples is analyzing a specific company’s approach to innovation to understand its success factors.

5. Narrative research.

This methodology focuses on the stories and personal interpretations of individuals.

• Emphasizes the chronological sequence and context of events.
• Seeks to understand how people make sense of their experiences.
• Uses interviews, diaries, and autobiographies.

Example: Collecting and analyzing the life stories of veterans to understand their experiences during and after military service.

6. Action research.

This theoretical model involves a collaborative approach in which researchers and participants work together to solve a problem or improve a situation.

• Aims for practical outcomes and improvements.
• Involves cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.
• Often used in educational, organizational, and community settings.

Example: Teachers collaborating with researchers to develop and test new teaching approaches to improve student engagement.

7. Discourse analysis.

It examines language use in texts, conversations, and other forms of communication.

• Focuses on how language shapes social reality and power dynamics.
• Analyzes speech, written texts, and media content.
• Explores the underlying meanings and implications of language.

Example: Analyzing political speeches to understand how leaders construct and convey their messages to the public.

Each of these examples of qualitative research offers unique tools and perspectives, enabling researchers to delve deeply into complex issues and gain a rich understanding of the issue they study.

Qualitative research methods

Various techniques exist to explore phenomena in depth and understand the complexities of human behavior, experiences, and social interactions. Some key methodologies that are commonly used in different sciences include several approaches.

Unstructured interviews;

These are informal and open-ended, designed to capture detailed narratives without imposing preconceived notions. Researchers typically start with a broad question and encourage interviewees to share their stories freely.

Semi-structured interviews;

They involve a core set of questions that allow researchers to explore topics deeply, adapting their inquiries based on responses received. This method of qualitative research design aims to gather rich, descriptive information, such as understanding what qualities make a good teacher.

Open questionnaire surveys;

They differ from closed-ended surveys in that they seek opinions and descriptions through open-ended questions. They allow for gathering diverse viewpoints from a larger group than one-on-one interviews would permit.

Observation;

It relies on researchers' skills to observe and interpret unbiased behaviors or activities. For instance, in education research, observation might track how students stay focused and manage distractions, recorded through field notes taken during or shortly after the observation.

Keeping logs and diaries;

This involves participants or researchers documenting daily activities or study contexts. Participants might record their social interactions or exercise routines, giving detailed data for later analysis. Researchers may also maintain diaries to document study contexts, helping to explain findings and other information sources.

All types of qualitative research have their strengths for gathering detailed information and exploring the social, cultural, and psychological aspects of exploration topics. Learners often use several methods (triangulation) to confirm their findings and deepen their understanding of complex subjects. If you need assistance choosing the most appropriate method to explore, feel free to contact our website, as we offer essays for sale and support with academic papers. 

Advantages and disadvantages of the qualitative research methodology

This approach has unique strengths, making it valuable in many sciences. One of the primary advantages of qualitative research is its ability to capture participants' voices and perspectives accurately. It is highly adaptable, allowing researchers to modify the technique as new questions and ideas arise. This flexibility allows researchers to investigate new ideas and trends without being limited to set methods from the start. While this approach has many strengths, it also has significant drawbacks. A research paper writer faces practical and theoretical limitations when analyzing and interpreting data. Let’s consider all the pros and cons of this methodology in detail.

Strengths of qualitative research:

• Adaptability: Data gathering and analysis can be adjusted as new patterns or ideas develop, ensuring the study remains relevant and responsive.
• Real-world contexts: Research often occurs in natural conditions, providing a more authentic understanding of phenomena and describing the particularities of human behavior and interactions.
• Rich insights: Detailed analysis of people’s feelings, perceptions, and experiences can be useful for designing, testing, or developing systems, products, and services.
• Innovation: Open-ended responses allow experts to discover new problems or opportunities, leading to innovative ideas and approaches.

Limitations of qualitative research:

• Unpredictability: Real-world conditions often introduce uncontrolled factors, making this approach less reliable and difficult to replicate.
• Bias: The qualitative method relies heavily on the researcher’s viewpoint, leading to subjective interpretations. This makes it challenging to replicate studies and achieve consistent results.
• Limited applicability: Small, specific samples give detailed information but limit the ability to generalize findings to a broader population. Conclusions about the qualitative research topics may be biased and not representative of the wider population.
• Time and effort: Analyzing qualitative data is time-consuming and labor-intensive. While software can help, much of the analysis must be done manually, requiring significant effort and expertise.

So, qualitative methodology offers significant benefits, such as adaptability, real-world context, rich insights, and fostering innovation. However, it also presents challenges like unpredictability, bias, limited applicability, or time- and labor-intensive. Understanding these pros and cons helps researchers make informed decisions about when and how to effectively utilize various types of qualitative research designs in their studies.

Final thoughts

Qualitative research provides a valuable understanding of complicated human experiences and social situations, making it a strong tool in various areas of study. Despite its challenges, such as unreliability, subjectivity, and limited generalizability, its strengths in flexibility, natural settings, and generating meaningful insights make it an essential approach. If you are one of the students looking to incorporate qualitative methodology into their academic papers, EduBirdie is here to help. Our experts can guide you through the process, ensuring your work is thorough, credible, and impactful.

Was this helpful?

Thanks for your feedback.

Written by Elizabeth Miller

Seasoned academic writer, nurturing students' writing skills. Expert in citation and plagiarism. Contributing to EduBirdie since 2019. Aspiring author and dedicated volunteer. You will never have to worry about plagiarism as I write essays 100% from scratch. Vast experience in English, History, Ethics, and more.

Related Blog Posts

Discover how to compose acknowledgements in research paper.

This post will help you learn about the use of acknowledgements in research paper and determine how they are composed and why they must be present ...

How to conduct research: best tips from experienced EduBirdie writers

Have you ever got your scholarly task and been unsure how to start research? Are you a first-year student beginning your project? Whatever the case...

Research Papers on Economics: Writing Tips

More and more students nowadays are faced with the problem: How to write an economics paper. Research papers are one of the main results of researc...

Join our 150K of happy users

• Get original papers written according to your instructions
• Save time for what matters most

• Open access
• Published: 12 July 2024

Unlocking potential: a qualitative exploration guiding the implementation and evaluation of professional role substitution models in healthcare

• Rumbidzai N. Mutsekwa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8200-3026 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Katrina L. Campbell   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4479-1284 3 , 4 , 5 ,
• Russell Canavan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0155-3219 6 ,
• Rebecca L. Angus   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1839-9641 1 , 7 ,
• Liza-Jane McBride   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6336-5934 8 &
• Joshua M. Byrnes   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6562-711X 3 , 4  

Implementation Science Communications volume  5 , Article number:  73 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

233 Accesses

3 Altmetric

Metrics details

As role substitution models gain prominence in healthcare, understanding the factors shaping their effectiveness is paramount. This study aimed to investigate factors that impact the implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models in healthcare, with a focus on understanding the variables that determine their success or failure in adoption, execution, continuity, and outcomes.

The exploratory qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with key opinion leaders, decision makers, facilitators, recipients, and frontline implementers, who had influence and involvement in the implementation of professional role substitution models. Data analysis was guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

Between November 2022 and April 2023, 39 stakeholders were interviewed. Factors influencing implementation and evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models of care aligned with the five core CFIR domains (innovation, outer setting, inner setting, individuals, implementation process) and outcome domain incorporating implementation and innovation outcomes. The six themes identified within these CFIR domains were, respectively; i) Examining the dynamics of innovation catalysts, evidence, advantages, and disadvantages; ii) Navigating the complex landscape of external factors that influence implementation and evaluation; iii) Impact of internal structural, political, and cultural contexts; iv) The roles and contributions of individuals in the process; v) Essential phases and strategies for effective implementation; and vi) The assessment of outcomes derived from allied health professional role substitution models.

Conclusions

The study highlights the complex interplay of contextual and individual factors that influence the implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models. It emphasises the need for collaboration among diverse stakeholders to navigate the challenges and leverage the opportunities presented by expanded healthcare roles. Understanding these multifaceted factors can contribute to the development of an empowered workforce and a healthcare system that is more efficient, effective, safe, and sustainable, ultimately benefiting patients.

Peer Review reports

Contributions to literature

• There is limited understanding of the complex interplay of contextual and individual factors that influence implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models of care.

• This study provides comprehensive guidance on successful implementation and evaluation of new models of care which influences efficient use of resources in healthcare.

• This study contributes to recognised gaps in literature, seeking to demonstrate value proposition of professional role substitution models of care. This study has identified outcome measures that can determine the successful implementation and impact of these models of care

The healthcare sector plays a crucial role in ensuring the well-being of individuals and society, but it is facing challenges due to a growing and ageing population. The demand for high-quality healthcare has increased significantly, while the shortage of healthcare workers has become a pressing concern [ 1 , 2 ]. Workforce reforms are now being prioritised in healthcare to shape the future of healthcare delivery. These reforms include initiatives to increase the number of healthcare workers, enhance the quality and duration of healthcare education and training, and diversify the healthcare workforce.

One key strategy to address healthcare challenges is the expanded scope of practice for non-medical healthcare professionals [ 3 ]. This expansion entails a discrete knowledge and skill base beyond the recognised scope of practice within a specific jurisdiction's regulatory framework [ 4 ]. It empowers healthcare practitioners such as nurse practitioners, allied health professionals, and physician assistants to practice to the full extent of their training and education, or to extend their scope of practice beyond traditional boundaries [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Consequently, they can perform a broader range of tasks, including those previously reserved for medical doctors.

Professional role substitution models have improved patients' access to healthcare services [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that these alternative healthcare delivery models can provide safe and effective care that patients find acceptable. Nurse practitioners and advanced nurses in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia expand primary care roles, including diagnosis, prescribing, patient education, managing long-term conditions, and minor surgeries [ 9 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Physician assistants (PAs) in countries like the US, Canada, and the Netherlands work closely with physicians, conducting assessments, diagnosing, treating common illnesses, and providing patient education. PAs improve healthcare access, especially in underserved and rural areas with physician shortages [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].

In developing countries with limited healthcare resources, professional role substitution models are vital for addressing shortages of skilled healthcare providers and improving access to essential services. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, task shifting from physicians to nurses and community health workers addresses the scarcity of skilled providers [ 17 , 18 ]. Community health workers, trained to deliver basic healthcare services and education, play crucial roles in preventive and promotive interventions, particularly in rural and underserved areas [ 18 ]. Nurse-led clinics have also proven successful in delivering comprehensive primary care services, such as antenatal care and family planning, alleviating pressure on strained healthcare systems [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].

Allied health professionals, encompassing disciplines such as speech pathology, pharmacy, dietetics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, radiography, sonography, psychology, and social work, are increasingly vital in diverse healthcare settings. Supported by mounting evidence of their effectiveness, their role continues to expand [ 10 , 22 ]. Despite substantial growth, particularly notable in Australia where they rank as the second-largest healthcare group, [ 23 ] the implementation of professional role substitution within allied health is relatively new compared to fields like nursing and physician assistants [ 24 ].

The successful implementation of all professional role substitution models including allied health is complex and contingent on various factors which are not currently well understood or defined [ 10 , 22 , 25 ]. To ensure success, it is essential to consider the impact on patients, healthcare professionals, and the healthcare system [ 25 ]. This must be approached from a multi-stakeholder perspective, involving experts in the field, key opinion leaders, healthcare leaders, decision makers, policy makers, recipients, and frontline implementers.

Research into the expanded scope of practice within allied health disciplines, including implementation and performance evaluation, is crucial [ 6 , 23 , 25 , 26 ]. Previous studies have highlighted patients' perceptions and experiences of healthcare quality in role substitution models [ 27 , 28 ]. While clinicians express support for performance evaluation, there's a gap between support and effective implementation [ 29 ]. There's also a lack of agreed-upon approaches for measuring performance [ 25 , 29 ]. Collaborative efforts involving multiple stakeholders are essential for understanding robust evaluation methods and optimising alternative models of care for healthcare transformation and sustainability [ 25 ].

To address this gap in knowledge and practice, this study aimed to describe the individual and contextual factors that influence the implementation and performance evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify outcome measures that can demonstrate the successful implementation and impact of these models of care.

Study approach and design

An exploratory qualitative approach was used to explore expectations, perceptions, and experiences of stakeholders involved in the implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models of care. Semi-structured interviews were chosen as the primary method of data collection to allow for flexible exploration of specific topics and issues, maximising the richness of the data [ 30 ]. The study adhered to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines [ 31 ]. Please see Additional file 1

Study setting

This study was conducted within the public healthcare system of the State of Queensland, Australia. This comprises 16 hospital and health services and approximately 35,000 allied health professionals [ 32 ]. Queensland initiated an allied health strategy in 2014 to expand professionals' scope of practice, resulting in the establishment of 133 distinct models of care by 2019 [ 24 , 33 , 34 ]. Examining this system offers valuable insights into implementing and evaluating professional role substitution models, providing practical understanding within a specific healthcare context.

Study participants and recruitment

A purposeful sampling strategy was employed to recruit key stakeholders at various levels of the healthcare system who were involved in some way in the implementation and performance evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models of care. Participants included experts in the field, key opinion leaders, decision makers, recipients, and frontline implementers, implementation facilitators and support teams. A sampling matrix was used to consider factors such as location, affiliation, organisational role, tenure, and profession ensuring diversity and representation across the different dimension of the healthcare system. While a specific target number of participants was not predetermined, our aim was to achieve saturation in the sample, ensuring comprehensive coverage of perspectives and experiences relevant to our research objectives. Email invitations were sent to potential participants/participant groups, along with study information and consent forms. Those who agreed to participate contacted the principal investigator to arrange a suitable interview time.

Positionality of researchers

The research team comprised individuals with diverse backgrounds and roles, including experts in professional role substitution, health services research, economics, qualitative study methodology, and healthcare management.

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki with approval granted by Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service (HREC/2020/QGC/62104) and Griffith University (GU Ref No: 2020/876). All participants provided written informed consent.

Data collection

An interview guide was developed by the research team to ensure coverage of the study aims and objectives (Additional file 2). The guide was pilot tested with three eligible participants, resulting in minor wording adjustments for clarity. Interviews were conducted either face-to-face or via video conferencing with only interviewer and participant present. The semi-structured interviews were designed to elicit open-ended responses from participants, with the interviewer using prompts and probing techniques as needed. Data collection continued until data saturation was reached, indicating that no new themes were emerging [ 35 ]. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and supplemented with field notes for additional context and consistency. Each participant was allocated an anonymous identifier, comprising their participant number along with a descriptor of their role or professional background. (e.g., P34, Workforce and Education). Participants were offered the opportunity to check their transcript.

Data analysis and interpretation

Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographic data, such as participants' time in their current role, age, gender, and education level. Exploration of contextual influences on implementation and performance evaluation was guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) [ 36 ]. The CFIR is a comprehensive framework that focuses on understanding and improving the implementation and evaluation of health innovations. Its adaptability enables integration into various contexts, fostering analysis and facilitating cross-study comparisons. This versatility supports a systematic approach to evaluating implementation processes and outcomes, thereby enriching our understanding of innovation dynamics across diverse settings [ 36 ].

It consists of six domains: 1. Innovation domain (the model of care being implemented), 2. Outer setting (the healthcare system in which the inner setting exists) 3. Inner setting (the site in which the model of care is implemented e.g., hospital) 4. Individuals (the roles and characteristics of individuals involved in the implementation process), 5. Implementation process (the activities and strategies used to implement the model of care), 6. Implementation outcomes (perceptions and measures of implementation success or failure), and Innovation outcomes (outcomes that capture success or failure of model of care) [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].

A reflexive thematic approach was taken for qualitative analysis [ 39 ]. The analysis began deductively with codes derived from the CFIR, followed by inductive coding to identify additional categories. These codes were assigned using CFIR definitions, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and appropriate quote examples. NVivo V10 software (QSR International Ltd.) was used to facilitate data management.

Investigator triangulation was employed, with the principal researcher (R.N.M) coding all interviews and 20% of the interviews coded by a second researcher (R.L.A) to enhance reliability and provide different perspectives [ 40 ]. All authors participated in summarising codes prioritised for analysis and interpreting the results. A matrix was created to compare the ratings of each CFIR construct, focusing on any differences among stakeholders. Data extracts were selected to illustrate themes and subthemes, incorporating multiple perspectives for interpretation.

Study population

A total of 39 stakeholders from various hospital and health services across Queensland were interviewed. The stakeholders represented a broad spectrum of positions and roles within the healthcare system, categorised into eight groups: allied health clinicians, medical practitioners/general practitioners, nursing staff, allied health leadership, hospital and health services/statewide leadership, recipients, implementation support personnel, workforce and education. Table 1 provides demographic details of the participants.

Participants had been in their roles on average 11 years, (range 1-27 years). Interviews had an average duration of 32 minutes (range 15-59 minutes). Five interviews were conducted face to face with the remainder ( n =34) conducted through video conferencing.

Six themes were identified which aligned with the five CFIR domains and the outcomes domain. Twenty-seven underlying constructs and subconstructs of the CFIR were identified as factors influencing implementation of professional role substitution in our analysis. Ten constructs were identified in the implementation and innovation outcome categories. Main domains and constructs are illustrated in Fig. 1 .

Key implementation and evaluation constructs for professional role substitution models of care

Innovation domain

Examining the dynamics of innovation catalysts, evidence, advantages, and disadvantages in allied health professional role substitution models of care.

The following section delineates the three primary constructs aligning with CFIR domains and an additional domain, namely "relative disadvantage." These constructs were identified from the perspectives of participants regarding professional role substitution models of care as an innovative approach.

Innovation source

Participants recognised healthcare system strain due to workforce shortages, rising costs, and increased needs with policies now prioritising workforce reform as a key healthcare strategy. The 2006 Australian Productivity Commission review, focusing on optimising scope, competencies, and job redesign was frequently cited by interviewees as the catalyst for change. The Ministerial Taskforce on Health Practitioner Expanded Scope of Practice (Queensland), alongside similar taskforces nationwide, played a vital role in implementing allied-health professional role substitution models of care. “There were a broad range of stakeholders involved in the task force across Queensland Health and external to Queensland in 2014. There was a number of recommendations in the report with overall endorsement from the Minister.” (P34, Workforce and Education)

Furthermore, the Allied Health Professions' Office supported these efforts by funding care models, addressing legislative barriers, developing training, supporting research, monitoring progress, and sharing achievements. A participant explained, ‘The office was charged with implementing the recommendations and to test these models of care. Particularly things like requesting and interpreting forms for diagnostic imaging and requesting pathology.” ( P34, Workforce and Education)

Evidence base

Participants expressed varying perspectives on the evidence base for professional role substitution models of care. Some noted a reliance on grey literature or information from pilots, highlighting the limited evidence supporting certain models. Conversely, others believed the evidence base was robust and questioned the need for further piloting. “It should be business as usual and that’s something we’ve tried to promote where we’ve got evidence from other jurisdictions and internationally. There should then be efforts to implement and try and replicate those results and take it to scale.” (P34, Workforce and Education).

Established services in other countries and professions influenced the implementation in Australia. Clinician leads or facilitators with prior experience in allied health models were identified as key enablers of this process. One participant shared their experience stating, “I was involved with that over there in the UK and so I came with that mentality to Queensland. When I worked as a fellow, I was surprised that there wasn’t that model, and I advocated for it and was told we don’t do that here. So, we ended up running extra clinics as fellows to see the long-wait patients when I knew that back in the UK it would have been [allied health discipline ].” (P19, Medical Specialist)

Relative advantage

Participants, healthcare professional and patients alike identified several advantages of allied health professional role substitution models. These models improved access to care, particularly benefiting underserved areas, and boosted efficiency by “streamlining decision-making and minimising duplication” (P19, Medical specialist). A patient shared their positive experience, stating, “If anything, I thought I was really special. I got pushed ahead really. I didn’t have to wait so long, and I wasn’t made to feel silly for my symptoms and they were investigated. The whole experience was positive.” ( P39, Consumer/Recipient)

While considered cost-effective by those interviewed due to reduced reliance on specialists in resource-limited settings, many highlighted the need for further cost-effectiveness data. One participant mentioned,

“You can get comparable or sometimes a better service at a lower cost using alternate models of care.” (P17, Medical Specialist)

Participants indicated that these models enabled allied health professionals to provide comprehensive, patient-centred care, enhancing overall healthcare experiences and patient satisfaction. Another viewpoint shared was, “ It's about getting patients to clinicians with holistic skill sets rather than just the medical model. Traditionally, patients wait a long time to see a medical professional, only to be referred back to the same clinician “, ( P15, Implementation Support). Additionally, clinicians working in these roles noted , “So, they’re kind of getting that one stop assessment, where the speech pathologist looks at the functional component, as well as pathology or organic disease” (P13, Allied Health Clinician). Moreover, they promoted professional growth, job satisfaction, and workforce retention through expanded roles and skill development opportunities, fostering collaboration among healthcare professionals from various disciplines for improved patient outcomes. One individual expressed “That responsibility and that extra challenge for me is where I get the buzz. (P 12, Allied Health Clinician )

Relative disadvantage

In addition to the benefits of professional role substitution in healthcare, participants emphasised other key factors. Patient safety and care quality surfaced as paramount concerns. A participant with workforce and education background stated, “There was a lot of the discussion and particularly the negative media coverage around the model of care. I was quite driven to answer the questions, or the concerns raised by the health professionals around safety .” (P29, Workforce and Education)

The imperative of ensuring skill, competence, and appropriate clinical governance was strongly emphasised. In some settings, participants flagged the potential for resistance and conflicts with traditional providers and organisations, driven by apprehensions about expertise encroachment, de-skilling, and role ambiguity. A Medical Specialist (P19) highlighted this, “The risk is that if you promote therapists from being treating therapists to being screening and treating therapists, you’re on the risk of deskilling your (medical) workers.”

Building public and patient trust, especially in unfamiliar models, highlighted the importance of transparent communication and educational efforts, as noted by both consumers and healthcare professionals. A patient shared, “I really didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t been to a clinic like that before and I didn’t know what they were going to do”. (P39, Consumer/recipient). A healthcare professional suggested, “ Another barrier is patient perception, especially if they are expecting to see a doctor” but went on to add , “In my experience this has often not been the case with patients often reassured once they have had a thorough assessment ” (P13, Allied Health Clinician) Initial challenges in interaction with General Practitioners (GPs), were also highlighted with one participant noting, “ See the problems at the beginning where the GPs would ring up and say, I wanted a specialist opinion, and I got a physiotherapist. But once they were educated, those complaints dropped off especially when the patient satisfaction scores were high” (P19, Medical Specialist).

The implementation of these models often demands additional investments in training and supervision, with a consideration of their economic and logistical impact on the healthcare system required. Lastly, “striking a delicate balance between expanded scopes and core responsibilities” (P 25, Allied Health Leadership) is essential. Another participant noted, “ It is also worth considering the amount of time it takes for this training and to set up these roles. It is also important to consider the cost. Once you have a model of care set up well, what’s my sustainability plan for this model in relation to, succession planning, leave management, etcetera ? “(P15, Implementation Support)

Outer setting

Navigating the complex landscape of external factors that influence implementation and evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models of care, partnerships and connections.

Collaborative care teams and strong referral networks emerged as crucial elements for successful role substitution practice. Participants emphasised the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, where professionals from various disciplines worked together to provide holistic patient care. Furthermore, partnerships with specialists, hospitals, community resources, and primary care facilities were highlighted as essential for ensuring seamless transitions and continuity of care. This was articulated by one GP, (P7) “I think for me and my style of medicine, it’s helpful. I really enjoyed that sort of team, that real MDT and holistic approach to patient care.”

Policies and laws

Implementing professional role substitution and scope extension may require legal and regulatory adjustments, including redefining boundaries and establishing standards which participants noted as a challenge. Variations across jurisdictions, were highlighted emphasising the need for a national approach to align state and federal policies. An occupational therapist identified legislative barriers stating, “Legislation prevents us from ordering imaging, but we all have local agreements with our departments that enable us to order basic radiology. But we want to be able to order that radiology in our general role as well and potentially expand that into other forms of the imaging down the road. This role has expanded even further in the UK to some of those therapists prescribing and referring people for MRIs and CT scans.” (P11, Allied Health Clinician)

Both allied health clinicians and medical doctors expressed concerns about legal accountability in the event of adverse events or complications in professional role substitution models. Stakeholders, including allied health clinicians, medical doctors, and healthcare leaders, emphasised the importance of assurance of indemnity through health services. “We’re protected by public indemnity in this system. And ultimately the directors are responsible for all the patients, even the ones we don’t directly treat. So that model protected our junior doctors and subsequently protects the therapists as well ” (P19, Medical Specialist). Participants also acknowledged the need for regular training and re-assessment of knowledge and skills for medical professionals but were uncertain about the lack of similar scrutiny and regulation mechanisms for allied health clinicians in professional role substitution roles.

Participants had differing perspectives on funding for new models of care. Implementing professional role substitution models of care often relied on short-term funding and grants to pilot services. A participant with an allied health clinician background highlighted complexities in healthcare funding and incentives, pointing out “General practice won’t make money unless the patient sees the GP. They would need to look at some sort of MBS (Medicare Benefits Schedule) item number so that the practice or hospital and health service can generate money from those expanded roles.” (P10, Allied Health Clinician)

Suggestions were made to review Medicare and activity-based funding structures to provide support for professional role substitution models ensuring their viability. A participant who has supported implementation of a professional role substitution model noted, “That’s also based on the fact that with Activity-Based Funding framework, we have to demonstrate that the model can generate enough activity to be viable and valuable.” (P15, Implementation Support).

Additionally, participants emphasised the importance of funding models that prioritise outcomes rather than specific care delivery mechanisms. A healthcare executive highlighted, “W e don’t purchase models of care. I would like to think that we purchase outcomes, and we are quite agnostic in how health services go about achieving those outcomes. We’ve wanted to make sure that the funding model is enabled and that it’s not a barrier to people trying alternative ways using new and different models to achieve those outcomes that we’re interested in.” (P32, Hospital and Health Services/ State-wide Leadership).

Performance management pressure

Participants acknowledged the challenge of meeting patient waiting time targets set by federal and state governments. This was an enabling factor, with professional role substitution models of care implemented as strategies to reduce specialist outpatient waitlists and improve access to services, aligning with performance targets. “There was a wait list issue for the specialty area. There was a big project to see who else could help see patients and try and reduce the waitlists. They highlighted that the [allied health specialist area clinician] might be something that could help with that.” (P8, Allied Health Clinician).

Inner setting

Impact of internal structural, political, and cultural contexts on the implementation and performance evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models in healthcare, work infrastructure.

Implementing role substitution models had workforce implications, including assessing skills availability and workload management. Sustainability relied on individual commitment, posing threats to the longevity of these models of care. An allied health leader, (P22) noted, “Often the first people you get in are personally passionate about it. It’s hard to find those people all the time, but a succession plan is important for sustainability of extended scope roles.“ These sentiments were echoed by a physician who mentioned, “Workforce and sourcing the right resources and clinicians is something that is a bit of a challenge for the health services moving forward.” (P17, Medical specialist)

Relational connections

Participants identified strong relationships and networks as vital for implementing and sustaining professional role substitution models. Trust between medical doctors and allied health clinicians was essential. As one participant noted: “Most of the time when these models fall down, it’s because the relationships between the allied health and the multidisciplinary team, including the doctors, have broken down. The doctor’s left or there’s been an issue that they couldn’t resolve and then everything falls to pieces.” (P23, Allied Health Leadership) Key roles of advocates and clinical leads were emphasised, but overreliance on individuals was a concern. Building resilience in these models across all levels of leadership was an important consideration as are clear governance structures which include supervision and escalation pathways.

Communications

Effective communication was necessary for high-quality care, patient safety, and collaborative relationships in both implementing and sustaining professional role substitution models. Iterative modifications and a willingness to learn were recognised as important. Collaboration involved shared decision-making, regular communication, and joint management of complex cases. Specialist doctors provided guidance and medical expertise, while allied health professionals contributed their specialised skills including ability to provide holistic care. “We still needed to iron out all of the kinks, so each side still needs to continue to learn from each other. So, I would say it probably took a good 12 to 18 months before we felt like we had a system that was working well for both sides and streamlining the process.” (P11, Allied Health Clinician). Additionally, some participants emphasised transitioning from “substitution-focused to team-based approaches” (P27, General Practitioner and Healthcare Executive), promoting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary care.

For some participants, professional role substitution raised concerns about autonomy with potential for conflicts among healthcare professionals. Cultivating a collaborative culture, renegotiating traditional hierarchies, and addressing professional dynamics were identified as strategies to enable interprofessional collaboration, promoting innovation and excellence in patient care. However, despite the progress made, some participants expressed reservations about barriers that still exist, even in allied health practitioners performing tasks that were within their scope of practice. One executive leader expressed frustration at the slow pace of change stating, “ It’s an imperative at the moment that we actively promote full scope of practice and give more support for our allied health staff to do extended scope of practice qualifications. So, we have a role to ensure that we have a culture that encourages the new models of care, because just to have the old models of care, it’s not simply sustainable, it’s not sustainable, at all. “ (P36, Hospital and Health Services/ State-wide Leadership)

Another participant, an allied health leader (P22), highlighted the positive impact of professional role substitution on organisational culture and the morale of younger professionals, stating, “It’s good for our culture and gives some sort of energy to the younger professionals. It also flows through to junior doctors particularly working alongside a consultant that already holds these clinicians and models of care in high standard.”

Mission alignment and tension for change

In many organisations, clinical demand drove professional role substitution adoption, facilitated by change management teams and frameworks. Professional role substitution models aligned with healthcare organisational goals and objectives, promoting innovation, equity, and sustainable use of resources. As articulated by a Medical Specialist (P19) “We have a limited number of specialists, and training for medical students and junior doctors hasn't significantly increased to meet demand. With advanced technology and reduced working hours, we need to expand services. Having other clinicians who can treat patients without surgery is invaluable.”

Additionally, participants acknowledged their role in healthcare delivery to underserved communities and advancing health equity in First Nations, rural, and regional areas, “ improving access and preventing, fragmented care ,” (P33, Nursing Health Professional). Furthermore, participants discussed the impact of population growth on surgical waitlists, revealing the pressing need for effective solutions to address increasing demand. An allied health clinician (P11) highlighted the challenges posed by population growth, stating, “ There's been a significant increase in people moving to Queensland now for many years and our surgical wait lists were continuing to grow. So, when I started in this role… the waitlist was almost four years long.”

Participants stressed the strategic importance of expanded scope in advancing organisational objectives. An Allied health leadership participant (P25), emphasised the multifaceted benefits of expanded scope, highlighting its alignment with strategic goals and the need to reassess care delivery models: “Expanded scope hits all the strategic goals really. We need to disinvest in some of the low value care because we know that we’re not getting any outcomes. We also need to look at the impact of these models of care.”

Available resources

Funding for professional role substitution models varied, with some implemented without dedicated funding which posed challenges in attracting skilled clinicians. Stakeholders recognised the benefits of co-locating allied health clinicians and medical doctors for interdisciplinary case discussions but sometimes faced challenges due to high demand for limited space. An allied health clinician (P8) highlighted the impact of dedicated funding on the feasibility and efficiency of implementing such models “They had a certain amount of funding for this project to set it all up. And I think that really made it feasible. So, then we got the right equipment, the right time to set it up. It was a very set process with money attached to it that got it off the ground quicker.”

Access to knowledge and information

Clinicians in extended scope roles actively sought professional development opportunities to expand their skills. Local credentialing and on-the-job training were the norm. A workforce development officer highlighted the rigorous process of credentialing for clinicians in such roles. “Our credentialling package is fairly intense. It takes months and months and months to become credentialed in a first point of contact clinic like this and needs [Health Service] approval before a clinician can work in a space like this.” (P29, Workforce and Education). In contrast to nurse practitioner programs offered by universities and specialised training institutions, formal education programs for allied health professionals were scarce. Many participants recommended development of formalised training and credentialing programs to ensure high quality and safe care. “We’re now in the process of developing our own course here in Australia in collaboration with the university in New South Wales so that we can provide that level of education that we need in these advanced scope roles ” (P11, Allied Health Clinician).

Individuals domain

The roles and contributions of individuals in the implementation of allied health professional role substitution models of care.

The implementation of allied health professional role substitution models of care heavily relies on the engagement of various individuals who play pivotal roles in the process. Through our interviews, participants identified nine key roles integral to the implementation and evaluation of these alternative healthcare delivery models. These roles, aligned with those in the individuals’ domain of the CFIR, encompassed high-level leaders, mid-level leaders, opinion leaders, implementation facilitators, implementation leads, implementation team members, other implementation support, innovation deliverers, and innovation recipients. Our analysis revealed representation across these roles within our study population, demonstrating the diverse range of contributions.

Participants described the characteristics of these individuals, which we analysed based on the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) theoretical behaviour change model integrated into the CFIR framework. This system evaluates individuals' influence on the implementation process across four constructs: Need, Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. These constructs assess individuals' deficits addressed by the models of care, their interpersonal competence, availability and power, and commitment and motivation in fulfilling their roles respectively.

Participants emphasised the critical role of medical and executive buy-in for the success of these models. Without their support and commitment, implementation efforts often faced significant hurdles. As one participant stated, " Medical and executive buy-in, if they are not supportive, it doesn’t happen " (P34, Workforce and Education). Furthermore, participants highlighted the importance of strong endorsement from medical professionals and the need for active engagement from allied health clinicians and managers to ensure the sustainability of these models. As articulated by another participant, " Allied health clinicians and even up into the level of our managers, there's certain spheres of influence that we have, but to make something like this come together and to be able to make it sustainable, you really need strong medical endorsement and that real commitment to push it " (P12, Allied Health Clinician).

Moreover, participants identified the Allied Health Office as having a crucial role in facilitating implementation. However, they also expressed the need for greater visibility and recognition of successful implementation efforts. As one participant suggested, " The Allied Health Office has a role to play in that. I think we should certainly see more things up in lights, you know, presentations, success stories et cetera and opportunities for these models to be shared and celebrated more widely across the state " (P15, Implementation Support).

A matrix analysis (Table 2 ) provides detailed insights into the roles and characteristics of individuals within different groups/roles. This elucidates their contributions to the successful implementation of professional role substitution models of care, as perceived by the study participants.

Implementation process

Essential phases and strategies for effective implementation of allied professional role substitution healthcare models.

Participants in our study provided insights into key stages necessary for implementing allied health professional role substitution models of care. We analysed their responses and mapped them to constructs in the implementation process domain of the CFIR, finding alignment with five out of the nine constructs. In the planning phase, participants emphasised the importance of conducting needs assessments and developing comprehensive implementation plans to identify gaps, set objectives, and consider resources and stakeholders' roles. One participant described, "At the start-up of our model of care, we had a series of meetings involving all stakeholders... to develop very clear guidance and pathways for how patients would move through these services " (P13, Allied Health Clinician).

Engaging was highlighted as crucial focused on involving diverse stakeholders, from healthcare providers to patients, forming multi-stakeholder teams to ensure a variety of perspectives and support for long-term sustainability. " There were a broad range of stakeholders involved in the task force across Queensland Health and external to Queensland ." (P34, Workforce and Education) In the doing phase models of care often started as pilot projects, with services developing iteratively.

Reflecting and evaluation Participants stressed the importance of building evaluation into the model of care to ensure sustainability and strategic outcomes. However, challenges such as limited time and funding were acknowledged, as one participant stated, "We don't get the time or the funding in my experienc e" (P1, Allied Health Clinician). Lastly , in adapting , participants recognised the need for continuous learning and tailored strategies to the local context, acknowledging the necessity for flexibility in response to evolving healthcare systems. Moreover, strategies to enhance evaluation included dedicated funding, external evaluation to reduce bias, development of performance frameworks, and tailored technology and digital systems allowing data collection and analysis at the point of care. Collaboration with universities and the use of research frameworks and grants were also seen by participants as facilitators to enhance performance measurement.

Implementation and innovation outcomes

The assessment of outcomes derived from allied health professional role substitution models.

In our study, participants highlighted the importance of evaluating healthcare models' success and failure, focusing on both implementation process and innovation outcomes. They identified eight key domains, including implementation aspects such as adoptability, implementability, and sustainability, as well as innovation delivery outcomes like effectiveness, safety, patient-centeredness, healthcare provider experience, access, activity, and economic evaluation. One participant stressed the need for thoughtful measurement, stating , “You do need to think about what you need to measure to prove the value of your service .” (P35, Allied Health Leader). Figure 2 summarises these outcomes and provides examples of measures discussed by participants.

Recommended outcomes and examples to measure the impact of professional role substitution models of care

Implementation outcomes

Participants shared diverse perspectives on implementation success for allied health professional role substitution models, with factors like regulatory environment, financing, medical acceptance, stakeholder engagement, and individual characteristics playing key roles. Sustainability was particularly highlighted, as expressed by a participant, “ You need to know that a service that has been implemented is still running after several years ” (Participant 1, Allied Health Clinician).

Innovation outcomes

Participants emphasised specific outcomes in evaluating the impact of allied health professional role substitution models of care. One participant stressed the importance of measuring performance and demonstrating improved access and cost saving, saying, " I think it is important to measure performance and to show that there is improved access and economic benefits. You know, to show that the service is doing what it was intended to do" (P5, Allied Health Clinician). They also highlighted the need to track activity data, with another participant mentioning, "We basically keep data on all of the occasions of service, how many patients are seen within the service, and how many patients are discharged." (Participant 8, Allied Health Clinician).

Healthcare provider experience, including clinician and patient satisfaction, emerged as essential, with one participant suggesting : "Surveying the general practitioners would be a good way of doing it as well, asking if they are happy with the service" (P36, Executive Leader). Continuity of care and patient centredness were also emphasised. "It's actually quite heartening hearing what our patients value and to see if our services line up with that " (P29, Allied Health Clinician). Participants in the study also stressed the importance of safety as a crucial outcome measure in evaluating allied health professional role substitution models of care. One general practitioner (P7) highlighted this by stating, "We need to know we are providing great healthcare to patients. You know that we are reducing harm, not causing harm, and hopefully not missing diagnoses”.

Finally, participants perceived effectiveness as paramount for assessing the success and impact of the model on patient care experiences and health outcomes. One executive leader (P36) expressed: "Forgetting about everything else, the patients' view of whether or not they've been treated adequately to me is the most important. If there are no outcomes with the model of care, the patients won't be satisfied, and they will say so."

This study investigated factors influencing the implementation and performance evaluation of allied health professional role substitution models of care using the CFIR framework. We identified six overarching themes aligned with CFIR domains and outcomes. These themes covered dynamics such as innovation catalysts, evidence, advantages, and disadvantages; external factors affecting implementation and evaluation; internal structural, political, and cultural contexts; roles and contributions of individuals; essential implementation phases and strategies; and assessment of model outcomes. Our analysis identified twenty-seven underlying constructs and subconstructs within the CFIR framework that influence professional role substitution implementation. Additionally, we identified ten key constructs across implementation and innovation outcome categories: adoptability, sustainability, implementability, effectiveness, safety, patient-centeredness, accessibility, healthcare provider experiences, service delivery metrics, and economic evaluations. These findings addressed critical questions regarding factors influencing implementation and methods for assessing the impact of care models. Overall, this study provides a robust framework for implementing and evaluating allied health professional role substitution models, effectively addressing gaps in literature and practice.

Priority areas of focus

While prior studies have demonstrated the potential benefits of these models in terms of providing safe, effective, and cost-efficient care, [ 10 , 11 ] the current research goes further by exploring stakeholders' perceptions and experiences in depth. Grounded in the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), [ 36 , 37 , 38 ] it explores the multifaceted factors influencing the adoption and integration of these models within healthcare systems.

Healthcare organisations play a significant role in either facilitating or impeding the implementation of professional role substitution models of care [ 41 ]. Along with previous research , this work underscores the significance of supportive organisational cultures, adequate resources, leadership commitment, and medical endorsement as critical factors for the successful adoption of such models [ 42 ]. Conversely, factors like resistance to change, resource limitations, and insufficient infrastructure can pose significant barriers that must be addressed to ensure successful implementation.

Traditional healthcare structures were once considered conducive to advancing medical sciences [ 43 ]. However, recent reviews have highlighted how entrenched organisational cultures and long-held traditions within healthcare settings may now act as barriers to alternative models of practice and hinder improvements in healthcare access for the community [ 41 ]. Consequently, healthcare organisations must proactively assess their readiness for new models and develop strategies to overcome these barriers. Leveraging the constructs and principles identified in the inner setting domain of this study is essential for cultivating a culture that fosters role substitution and innovation in healthcare delivery.

Stakeholders' perceptions and attitudes play a significant role in shaping the success of professional role substitution models of care, influenced by factors like medical buy-in, leadership support, and engagement strategies [ 41 , 44 , 45 ]. Effective stakeholder engagement strategies, alongside tailored training, communication programs and ongoing support mechanisms, emerge as crucial tools for addressing individual concerns and fostering buy-in from all involved parties. These findings align with similar studies in physiotherapy and nursing, emphasising the universal importance of considering individual perspectives in healthcare implementation efforts [ 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 ].

This research emphasises the importance of incorporating perspectives from patients and innovation recipients to enhance the success of healthcare interactions. Integrating these viewpoints strengthens the potential for sustainable adoption of evidence-based innovations, promoting patient-centred care [ 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Patient involvement in co-designing and evaluating alternative healthcare models improves trust and acceptance, highlighting the significance of collaboration and patient engagement strategies for optimising implementation and evaluation processes [ 27 , 28 , 47 ].

Performance evaluation plays a pivotal role in assessing the implementation of professional role substitution models of care [ 25 ]. Monitoring various factors, including outcomes, patient satisfaction, quality of care, safety, healthcare professionals’ performance, healthcare system efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, can provide valuable insights for ongoing improvement, optimisation, and sustainability of models of care [ 25 , 50 ]. We address gaps highlighted in previous research, particularly concerning the lack of comprehensive evaluations and guidance on outcome measures [ 10 , 22 , 25 ]. Many current frameworks lack specificity in identifying key metrics relevant to professional role substitution models [ 25 , 26 ]. However, this study delineating eight key outcome measures emphasises a data-driven approach to decision-making. This represents an advancement in the field, providing a structured framework for assessing the impact and value of these models.

Implications for policy, practice and future research

In combination with existing literature in various alternative healthcare delivery models, this study highlights the shared challenges and opportunities across healthcare professions and settings [ 41 , 45 , 46 ]. Our analysis of implementation considerations, stakeholder perspectives, and outcome measures, advances theoretical understanding and also provides practical guidance for real-world implementation and evaluation. These insights can be extended beyond Australia's healthcare system, with implications for policy development, collaboration, knowledge exchange, and healthcare delivery practices in other regions.

In practice, maximising the effectiveness and sustainability of professional role substitution models necessitates comprehensive training and education initiatives for health professionals. Collaborating with professional bodies and universities can standardise training, provide continuous professional development opportunities, and address individual factors that impact implementation readiness for alternative healthcare delivery models.

Adapting regulatory frameworks to the evolving healthcare landscape is paramount, necessitating clear guidelines and legal frameworks to delineate practice boundaries and facilitate the seamless implementation of expanded roles. Adequate funding is critical to support various aspects, including staffing, infrastructure development, establishment of incentivising reimbursement models, research, evaluation, and ensuring ongoing sustainability. Prioritising evidence-based policy development, informed by comprehensive evaluation of care models, is essential to ensure alignment with best practices and standards of care. Integrating standard outcome measures into evaluation frameworks is crucial for accurately assessing the impact and effectiveness of care models, thereby enabling informed decision-making based on evidence. The research we have conducted supports these assertions, emphasising the importance of these factors for the successful implementation and sustainability of alternative healthcare delivery models.

Our findings may therefore serve as a catalyst for discussion and debate on allied health professional role substitution and other alternative healthcare delivery models, guiding future research endeavours. Exploring longitudinal studies to gauge sustainability and long-term impact, conducting comparative analyses across diverse settings and patient populations, and conducting qualitative inquiries to identify implementation and evaluation facilitators and barriers are critical. Additionally, research in health economics, health information technology, policy analysis, and interprofessional collaboration can provide valuable insights to optimise implementation practices and enhance the applicability of these models across different healthcare systems and cultural contexts.

Strengths and limitations

The strengths of this study lie in the diverse range of stakeholders involved, including key opinion leaders, decision makers, allied health clinicians, medical professionals, policymakers, healthcare administrators, university partners, professional bodies, advocates, and patients. The inclusion of participants with varied experiences enhances the robustness of the findings. Purposeful sampling with maximum variation further improves the transferability of the results.

The use of the COREQ-checklist and independent co-coding and discussions among the research team enhance the credibility, trustworthiness, and transparency of the study [ 31 ]. Another notable strength is the use of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to guide the analysis, which helped identify and organise themes into multi-level intervention principles that influence implementation effectiveness. It should be noted that the CFIR was not used to guide data collection, as is often practiced, [ 38 ] as this may have limited the exploration of qualitative themes relevant to the research question but not explicitly aligned with CFIR domains and constructs.

As the study was conducted in Australia, the generalisability of the findings to other stakeholders or healthcare contexts in different countries and settings may be limited. Additionally, as with any research involving human subjects, the possibility of self-selection bias influencing the results cannot be excluded, and the findings should be interpreted with this in mind. Insights gained from this study may also have broader implications for other countries facing similar challenges in healthcare delivery. By examining similarities and differences in healthcare systems and regulatory environments, countries can however learn from Queensland’s experiences adopting strategies to support the implementation of role substitution models.

In conclusion, this study provides a systematic examination of the key elements and principles influencing the implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models of care. By understanding the multifaceted nature of these factors and addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with expanded healthcare roles, healthcare systems can navigate complexities and capitalise on opportunities. This holistic approach, involving collaboration among stakeholders and considering patient safety, quality of care, and optimal healthcare outcomes will contribute to the development of more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and patient-centred models of care and healthcare systems.

Availability of data and materials

Data is available from corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research

Physician Assistants

Duckett SJ. Health workforce design for the 21st century. Aust Health Rev. 2005;29(2):201–10.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Segal L, Bolton T. Issues facing the future health care workforce: the importance of demand modelling. Aust New Zealand Health Policy. 2009;6(1):12.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Commission AGP. Productity Commision Research Report https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/health-workforce/report/healthworkforce.pdf2006 [Available from: https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/health-workforce/report/healthworkforce.pdf .

Dower C, Moore J, Langelier M. It is time to restructure health professions scope-of-practice regulations to remove barriers to care. Health Affairs. 2013;32(11):1971–6.

Porter ME, Lee TH. The strategy that will fix health care. Harvard business review. 2013;91(10):1–19.

Google Scholar  

Baker A. Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. Br Med J Publishing Group. 2001;323(7322):1192.

Owens DK, Qaseem A, Chou R, Shekelle P. High-value, cost-conscious health care: concepts for clinicians to evaluate the benefits, harms, and costs of medical interventions. Ann Intern Med. 2011;154(3):174–80.

Roberts N, Carrigan A, Clay-Williams R, Hibbert PD, Mahmoud Z, Pomare C, et al. Innovative models of healthcare delivery: an umbrella review of reviews. BMJ open. 2023;13(2):e066270.

Wang H, English M, Chakma S, Namedre M, Hill E, Nagraj S. The roles of physician associates and advanced nurse practitioners in the National Health Service in the UK: a scoping review and narrative synthesis. Human Resour Health. 2022;20(1):69.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

McPherson K, Kersten P, George S, Lattimer V, Breton A, Ellis B, et al. A systematic review of evidence about extended roles for allied health professionals. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2006;11(4):240–7.

Martin-Misener R, Kilpatrick K, Donald F, Bryant-Lukosius D, Rayner J, Valaitis R, et al. Nurse practitioner caseload in primary health care: scoping review. Int J Nurs Stud. 2016;62:170–82.

Barnett M, Balkissoon C, Sandhu J. The level of quality care nurse practitioners provide compared with their physician colleagues in the primary care setting: A systematic review. J Am Assoc Nurse Pract. 2022;34(3):457–64.

Middleton S, Gardner A, Della PR, Lam L, Allnutt N, Gardner G. How has the profile of Australian nurse practitioners changed over time? Collegian. 2016;23(1):69–77.

Freund T, Everett C, Griffiths P, Hudon C, Naccarella L, Laurant M. Skill mix, roles and remuneration in the primary care workforce: who are the healthcare professionals in the primary care teams across the world? Int J Nurs Stud. 2015;52(3):727–43.

Halter M, Drennan V, Chattopadhyay K, Carneiro W, Yiallouros J, de Lusignan S, et al. The contribution of physician assistants in primary care: a systematic review. BMC Health Serv Res. 2013;13:1–13.

Article   Google Scholar  

Henry LR, Hooker RS, Yates KL. The role of physician assistants in rural health care: a systematic review of the literature. J Rural Health. 2011;27(2):220–9.

Terry B, Bisanzo M, McNamara M, Dreifuss B, Chamberlain S, Nelson SW, et al. Task shifting: meeting the human resources needs for acute and emergency care in Africa. Afr J Emerg Med. 2012;2(4):182–7.

Mijovic H, McKnight J, English M. What does the literature tell us about health workers’ experiences of task-shifting projects in sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic, qualitative review. J Clin Nurs. 2016;25(15–16):2083–100.

Michel JE, D Tediosi F, D Egger MB, T McIntyre DR. Lest we forget, primary health care in Sub-Saharan Africa is nurse led. Is this reflected in the current health systems strengthening undertakings and initiatives? J Global Health Rep. 2018;2:e2018009.

Kengne AP, Sobngwi E, Fezeu LL, Awah PK, Dongmo S, Mbanya JC, et al. Nurse-led care for asthma at primary level in rural sub-Saharan Africa: the experience of Bafut in Cameroon. J Asthma. 2008;45(6):437–43.

Eberly LA, Rusingiza E, Park PH, Ngoga G, Dusabeyezu S, Mutabazi F, et al. 10-year heart failure outcomes from nurse-driven clinics in rural sub-Saharan Africa. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2019;73(8):977–80.

Saxon RL, Gray MA, Oprescu FI. Extended roles for allied health professionals: an updated systematic review of the evidence. J Multidisciplinary Healthcare. 2014;7:479–88.

Welfare AIoHa. Australia's health performance framework 2017 [Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/indicators/australias-health-performance-framework .

Queensland Health Clinical Excellence Division. Allied Health Expanded Scope Strategy 2016–2021. 2016. Available from https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/449520/expanded-strategy.pdf . Accessed 09 July 2024.

Mutsekwa RN, Wright C, Byrnes JM, Canavan R, Angus RL, Spencer A, et al. Measuring performance of professional role substitution models of care against traditional medical care in healthcare—A systematic review. J Eval Clin Pract. 2022;28(2):208–17.

Levesque J-F, Sutherland K. Combining patient, clinical and system perspectives in assessing performance in healthcare: an integrated measurement framework. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020;20(1):1–14.

Mutsekwa RN, Byrnes JM, Larkins V, Canavan R, Angus RL, Campbell KL. Role substitution of specialist medical doctors with allied-health professionals: A qualitative exploration of patients’ experiences and perceptions of healthcare quality. J Eval Clin Pract. 2022;28(6):1096–105.

Mutsekwa RN, Campbell KL, Canavan R, Mulhern B, Angus RL, Byrnes JM. Patient preferences for attributes that characterise alternative models of care in gastroenterology: a discrete choice experiment. Patient. 2023;16(2):165–77.

Mutsekwa RN, Campbell KL, Canavan R, Angus RL, McBride L-J, Byrnes JM. Measuring performance in allied health professional role substitution models of care: a clinician survey. BMC Health Serv Res. 2024;24(1):79.

Galletta A. Mastering the semi-structured interview and beyond: From research design to analysis and publication, vol. 18. NYU press; 2013.

Tong A, Sainsbury P, Craig J. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. Int J Qual Health Care. 2007;19(6):349–57.

Government Q. Fact Sheet: Allied Health and Oral Health 2019 [Available from: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/1067571/Allied-Health-and-Oral-Health-2019.pdf .

Queensland Health Allied Health Professions’ Office of Queensland. Ministerial Taskforce on health practitioner expanded scope of practice: final report. 2014. Available from: Ministerial taskforce final report ( health.qld.gov.au ). Accessed 09 July 2024.

Queensland Government. Hospital care, surgical procedures and waiting lists 2015 [Available from: https://www.qld.gov.au/health/services/hospital-care/waiting-lists .

Saunders B, Sim J, Kingstone T, Baker S, Waterfield J, Bartlam B, et al. Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization. Qual Quant. 2018;52:1893–907.

Damschroder LJ, Reardon CM, Widerquist MAO, Lowery J. The updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research based on user feedback. Implement Sci. 2022;17(1):1–16.

Damschroder LJ, Aron DC, Keith RE, Kirsh SR, Alexander JA, Lowery JC. Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: a consolidated framework for advancing implementation science. Implement Sci. 2009;4(1):1–15.

Damschroder LJ, Reardon CM, Opra Widerquist MA, Lowery J. Conceptualizing outcomes for use with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR): the CFIR Outcomes Addendum. Implement Sci. 2022;17(1):1–10.

Braun V, Clarke V. Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitat Res Sport Exerc Health. 2019;11(4):589–97.

Carter N. The use of triangulation in qualitative research. Number 5/September 2014. 1969;41(5):545–7.

Wiggins D, Downie A, Engel RM, Brown BT. Factors that influence scope of practice of the five largest health care professions in Australia: a scoping review. Human Resour Health. 2022;20(1):1–13.

Morris J, Grimmer K, Gilmore L, Perera C, Waddington G, Kyle G, et al. Principles to guide sustainable implementation of extended-scope-of-practice physiotherapy workforce redesign initiatives in Australia: stakeholder perspectives, barriers, supports, and incentives. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2014;7:249–58.

Fiorio CV, Gorli M, Verzillo S. Evaluating organizational change in health care: the patient-centered hospital model. BMC Health Serv Res. 2018;18:1–15.

Wiles L, Milanese S. Stakeholder perspectives of the Extended Scope Physiotherapy Practitioner (ESPP) role in Australia–a qualitative study. Physical Therapy Rev. 2016;21(3–6):228–35.

Parker RM, Desborough JL, Forrest LE. Stakeholder perceptions of a nurse led walk-in centre. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012;12:1–7.

Bryant-Lukosius D, DiCenso A. A framework for the introduction and evaluation of advanced practice nursing roles. J Adv Nurs. 2004;48(5):530–40.

Harding P, Prescott J, Block L, O’Flynn AM, Burge AT. Patient experience of expanded-scope-of-practice musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the emergency department: a qualitative study. Australian Health Rev. 2015;39(3):283–9.

Browne K, Roseman D, Shaller D, Edgman-Levitan S. Measuring patient experience as a strategy for improving primary care. Health Affairs. 2010;29(5):921–5.

Reeve S, May S. Exploration of patients’ perspectives of quality within an extended scope physiotherapists’ spinal screening service. Physiother Theory Pract. 2009;25(8):533–43.

Moretto N, Stute M, Sam S, Bhagwat M, Raymer M, Buttrum P, et al. A uniform data set for determining outcomes in allied health primary contact services in Australia. Aus J Prim Health. 2020;26(1):58–69.

Download references

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to the participants who gave up their time to share their experiences and perceptions on implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models of care.

This work was supported by the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Collaborative Research Grant [grant number RGS20190041].

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, Nutrition and Food Services, 1 Hospital Boulevard, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia

Rumbidzai N. Mutsekwa & Rebecca L. Angus

Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, Allied Health Research Team, 1 Hospital Boulevard, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia

Rumbidzai N. Mutsekwa

Centre for Applied Health Economics, School of Medicine, Griffith University, Sir Samuel Griffith Centre, 1 Parklands Drive, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia

Rumbidzai N. Mutsekwa, Katrina L. Campbell & Joshua M. Byrnes

Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, 1 Parklands Drive, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia

Katrina L. Campbell & Joshua M. Byrnes

Healthcare Excellence and Innovation, Metro North Hospital and Health Service, 153 Campbell Street, Bowen Hills, Queensland, 4029, Australia

Katrina L. Campbell

Gastroenterology Department, Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, 1 Hospital Boulevard, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia

Russell Canavan

School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, 1 Parklands Drive, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia

Rebecca L. Angus

Department of Health, Clinical Excellence, 15 Butterfield Street, Herston, Queensland, 4006, Australia

Liza-Jane McBride

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

RNM, RC, KC, RLA, LJM, JB contributed to conception and design of the study. RM led the data collection and analysis and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. RNM, KC, RC, RLA, LJM and JB interpreted results, critically revised the manuscript, and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rumbidzai N. Mutsekwa .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service (HREC/2020/QGC/62104) and Griffith University (GU Ref No: 2020/876) Human Research Ethics Committees

Participants provided informant consent and completed participant consent and information statements.

Consent for publication

All authors consented for the manuscript to be submitted for publication.

Competing interests

None declared. Participants provided informant consent and completed participant consent and information statements.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary material 1., supplementary material 2., rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Mutsekwa, R.N., Campbell, K.L., Canavan, R. et al. Unlocking potential: a qualitative exploration guiding the implementation and evaluation of professional role substitution models in healthcare. Implement Sci Commun 5 , 73 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-024-00611-x

Download citation

Received : 22 December 2023

Accepted : 28 June 2024

Published : 12 July 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-024-00611-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Professional role substitution
• Scope of practice
• Implementation
• Measuring performance

Implementation Science Communications

ISSN: 2662-2211

• Submission enquiries: Access here and click Contact Us
• General enquiries: [email protected]

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Advancing pathogen identification: the role of digital pcr in enhancing diagnostic power in different settings.

1. Introduction

2. digital pcr: brief history and concept, 3. commercially available digital platform, 3.1. droplet digital pcr (ddpcr), 3.1.1. bio-rad qx200™ droplet digital pcr system (bio-rad laboratories s.r.l, milan, italy), 3.1.2. bio-rad qx one™ droplet digital pcr system (bio-rad laboratories s.r.l, milan, italy), 3.1.3. bio-rad thunderbolts™ digital pcr system (bio-rad laboratories s.r.l, milan, italy), 3.2. digital pcr (dpcr), 3.2.1. thermo fisher scientific’s quantstudio 3d digital pcr system (thermo fisher scientific inc., waltham, ma, usa), 3.2.2. stilla technologies’ naica™ system (stilla technologies, villejuif, france), 3.2.3. qiacuity digital pcr system by qiagen (quiagen, hilden, germany), 3.2.4. digital lightcycler ® system developed by roche diagnostics (hoffmann-la roche, basilea, switzerland), 3.2.5. lab on an array (loaa) digital real-time pcr analyzer system by optolane (optolane technologies inc., giheung-gu, republic of korea), 3.3. technical features, 3.3.1. bio-rad qx200™ droplet digital pcr (ddpcr) system, 3.3.2. qiacuity digital pcr system by qiagen, 3.3.3. digital lightcycler ® system developed by roche diagnostics, 4. digital pcr in water microbiology, 4.1. dpcr in sars-cov-2 wastewater-based epidemiology, 4.2. dpcr in wastewater monitoring, 4.3. dpcr in surface water monitoring, 4.4. dpcr in drinking water monitoring, 5. clinical diagnostic application, 6. future prospects of dpcr, 7. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

• Kuypers, J.; Jerome, K.R. Applications of Digital PCR for Clinical Microbiology. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2017 , 55 , 1621–1628. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Quan, P.-L.; Sauzade, M.; Brouzes, E. dPCR: A Technology Review. Sensors 2018 , 18 , 1271. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Arya, M.; Shergill, I.S.; Williamson, M.; Gommersall, L.; Arya, N.; Patel, H.R. Basic principles of real-time quantitative PCR. Expert Rev. Mol. Diagn. 2005 , 5 , 209–219. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Mao, X.; Liu, C.; Tong, H.; Chen, Y.; Liu, K. Principles of digital PCR and its applications in current obstetrical and gynecological diseases. Am. J. Transl. Res. 2019 , 11 , 7209–7222. [ Google Scholar ] [ PubMed ]
• Svec, D.; Tichopad, A.; Novosadova, V.; Pfaffl, M.W.; Kubista, M. How good is a PCR efficiency estimate: Recommendations for precise and robust qPCR efficiency assessments. Biomol. Detect. Quantif. 2015 , 3 , 9–16. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Day, E.; Dear, P.H.; McCaughan, F. Digital PCR strategies in the development and analysis of molecular biomarkers for personalized medicine. Methods 2013 , 59 , 101–107. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Vogelstein, B.; Kinzler, K.W. Digital PCR. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1999 , 96 , 9236–9241. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Sykes, P.J.; Neoh, S.H.; Brisco, M.J.; Hughes, E.; Condon, J.; Morley, A.A. Quantitation of targets for PCR by use of limiting dilution. BioTechniques 1992 , 13 , 444–449. [ Google Scholar ] [ PubMed ]
• Baker, M. Digital PCR hits its stride. Nat. Methods 2012 , 9 , 541–544. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Feng, Z.; Shu, Y. An Overview of Digital PCR. Bing Xue Bao Chin. J. Virol. 2017 , 33 , 103–107. [ Google Scholar ]
• Whale, A.S.; Cowen, S.; Foy, C.A.; Huggett, J.F. Methods for applying accurate digital PCR analysis on low copy DNA samples. PLoS ONE 2013 , 8 , e58177. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Dube, S.; Qin, J.; Ramakrishnan, R. Mathematical analysis of copy number variation in a DNA sample using digital PCR on a nanofluidic device. PLoS ONE 2008 , 3 , e2876. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Wainman, L.M.; Sathyanarayana, S.H.; Lefferts, J.A. Applications of Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (dPCR) in Molecular and Clinical Testing. J. Appl. Lab. Med. 2024 , 9 , 124–137. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Tiwari, A.; Ahmed, W.; Oikarinen, S.; Sherchan, S.P.; Heikinheimo, A.; Jiang, G.; Simpson, S.L.; Greaves, J.; Bivins, A. Application of digital PCR for public health-related water quality monitoring. Sci. Total Environ. 2022 , 837 , 155663. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Tong, Y.; Shen, S.; Jiang, H.; Chen, Z. Application of Digital PCR in Detecting Human Diseases Associated Gene Mutation. Cell. Physiol. Biochem. 2017 , 43 , 1718–1730. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Kokkoris, V.; Vukicevich, E.; Richards, A.; Thomsen, C.; Hart, M.M. Challenges Using Droplet Digital PCR for Environmental Samples. Appl. Microbiol. 2021 , 1 , 74–88. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tamura, T.; Imaizumi, T.; Shimojima Yamamoto, K.; Yamamoto, T. Genomic Copy Number Analysis Using Droplet Digital PCR: A Simple Method with EvaGreen Single-Color Fluorescent Design. Methods Mol. Biol. 2024 , 2794 , 293–304. [ Google Scholar ] [ PubMed ]
• Scaini, M.C.; Catoni, C.; Poggiana, C.; Pigozzo, J.; Piccin, L.; Leone, K.; Scarabello, I.; Facchinetti, A.; Menin, C.; Elefanti, L.; et al. A multiparameter liquid biopsy approach allows to track melanoma dynamics and identify early treatment resistance. NPJ Precis. Oncol. 2024 , 8 , 78. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tumpach, C.; Rhodes, A.; Kim, Y.; Ong, J.; Liu, H.; Chibo, D.; Druce, J.; Williamson, D.; Hoh, R.; Deeks, S.G.; et al. Adaptation of Droplet Digital PCR-Based HIV Transcription Profiling to Digital PCR and Association of HIV Transcription and Total or Intact HIV DNA. Viruses 2023 , 15 , 1606. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, D.; Yin, H.; Wang, Y.; Cao, Y.; Yin, J.; Zhang, J.; Yin, H.; Zhao, X. Development of a highly sensitive digital PCR assay to quantify long non-coding RNA MYU in urine samples which exhibited great potential as an alternative diagnostic biomarker for prostate cancer. Transl. Androl. Urol. 2021 , 10 , 3815–3825. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maggi, R.G.; Richardson, T.; Breitschwerdt, E.B.; Miller, J.C. Development and validation of a droplet digital PCR assay for the detection and quantification of Bartonella species within human clinical samples. J. Microbiol. Methods 2020 , 176 , 106022. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Specchiarello, E.; Carletti, F.; Matusali, G.; Abbate, I.; Rozera, G.; Minosse, C.; Petrivelli, E.; Ferraioli, V.; Sciamanna, R.; Maggi, F. Development and validation of a nanoplate-based digital PCR assay for absolute MPXV quantification. J. Virol. Methods 2023 , 321 , 114802. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Hyung, J.-H.; Moon, S.J.; Kim, E.J.; Kim, D.W.; Park, J. Quantification of Alexandrium catenella (Group I) using sxtA4-based digital PCR for screening of paralytic shellfish toxins in Jinhae-Masan Bay, Korea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 2024 , 200 , 116048. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Kanagal-Shamanna, R. Emulsion PCR: Techniques and Applications. Methods Mol. Biol. 2016 , 1392 , 33–42. [ Google Scholar ] [ PubMed ]
• Guo, Q.; Wang, L.; Liang, X.; Zhao, M.; Huang, X.; Xu, W.; Lou, J.; Qiao, L. Comparative analysis of QS3D versus droplet digital PCR for quantitative measures of EGFR T790M mutation from identical plasma. Heliyon 2022 , 8 , e11339. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Dioni, L.; Orlandi, A.; Uceda Renteria, S.; Favero, C.; Solazzo, G.; Oggioni, M.; Bollati, V. Digital RT-PCR Chip method for detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus. J. Immunol. Methods 2022 , 509 , 113339. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Bogožalec Košir, A.; Muller, S.; Žel, J.; Milavec, M.; Mallory, A.C.; Dobnik, D. Fast and Accurate Multiplex Identification and Quantification of Seven Genetically Modified Soybean Lines Using Six-Color Digital PCR. Foods 2023 , 12 , 4156. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Corné, J.; Quillien, V.; Godey, F.; Cherel, M.; Cochet, A.; Le Du, F.; Robert, L.; Bourien, H.; Brunot, A.; Crouzet, L.; et al. Plasma-based analysis of ERBB2 mutational status by multiplex digital PCR in a large series of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Mol. Oncol. 2024 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Romanelli, K.; Wells, J.; Patel, A.; Mendonca Torres, M.; Costello, J.; Jensen, K.; Vasko, V. Clinical and molecular characterization of thyroid cancer when seen as a second malignant neoplasm. Ther. Adv. Endocrinol. Metab. 2021 , 12 , 20420188211058327. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Lee, C.-J.; Shin, W.; Song, M.; Shin, S.-S.; Park, Y.; Srikulnath, K.; Kim, D.H.; Han, K. Comparison of digital PCR platforms using the molecular marker. Genom. Inform. 2023 , 21 , e24. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Boxman, I.L.A.; Molin, R.; Persson, S.; Juréus, A.; Jansen, C.C.C.; Sosef, N.P.; Le Guyader, S.F.; Ollivier, J.; Summa, M.; Hautaniemi, M.; et al. An international inter-laboratory study to compare digital PCR with ISO standardized qPCR assays for the detection of norovirus GI and GII in oyster tissue. Food Microbiol. 2024 , 120 , 104478. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dhar, B.C.; Delgado Santander, R.; Aćimović, S.G. Improved Canker Processing and Viability Droplet Digital PCR Allow Detection of Erwinia amylovora Viable Nonculturable Cells in Apple Bark. Microorganisms 2024 , 12 , 376. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Kløve-Mogensen, K.; Terp, S.K.; Steffensen, R. Comparison of real-time quantitative PCR and two digital PCR platforms to detect copy number variation in FCGR3B. J. Immunol. Methods 2024 , 526 , 113628. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Sánchez-Martín, V.; López-López, E.; Reguero-Paredes, D.; Godoy-Ortiz, A.; Domínguez-Recio, M.E.; Jiménez-Rodríguez, B.; Alba-Bernal, A.; Elena Quirós-Ortega, M.; Roldán-Díaz, M.D.; Velasco-Suelto, J.; et al. Comparative study of droplet-digital PCR and absolute Q digital PCR for ctDNA detection in early-stage breast cancer patients. Clin. Chim. Acta Int. J. Clin. Chem. 2024 , 552 , 117673. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Musso, N.; Bivona, D.; Bonomo, C.; Bonacci, P.; D’Ippolito, M.E.; Boccagni, C.; Rubino, F.; De Tanti, A.; Lucca, L.F.; Pingue, V.; et al. Investigating microRNAs as biomarkers in disorders of consciousness: A longitudinal multicenter study. Sci. Rep. 2023 , 13 , 18415. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Rashid, S.A.; Nazakat, R.; Muhamad Robat, R.; Ismail, R.; Suppiah, J.; Rajendran, K.; Raj Louis Masalamany, A.S.S.; Muhamad Hendri, N.A.; Mohamad, N.; Khairul Hasni, N.A.; et al. Droplet digital PCR application for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in air sample. Front. Public Health 2023 , 11 , 1208348. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Zaytseva, M.; Usman, N.; Salnikova, E.; Sanakoeva, A.; Valiakhmetova, A.; Chervova, A.; Papusha, L.; Novichkova, G.; Druy, A. Methodological Challenges of Digital PCR Detection of the Histone H3 K27M Somatic Variant in Cerebrospinal Fluid. Pathol. Oncol. Res. POR 2022 , 28 , 1610024. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Murphy, L.A.; Marians, R.C.; Miller, K.; Brenton, M.D.; Mallo, R.L.V.; Kohler, M.E.; Fry, T.J.; Winters, A.C. Digital polymerase chain reaction strategies for accurate and precise detection of vector copy number in CAR T cell products. Cytotherapy 2023 , 25 , 94–102. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Crucitta, S.; Ruglioni, M.; Novi, C.; Manganiello, M.; Arici, R.; Petrini, I.; Pardini, E.; Cucchiara, F.; Marmorino, F.; Cremolini, C.; et al. Comparison of digital PCR systems for the analysis of liquid biopsy samples of patients affected by lung and colorectal cancer. Clin. Chim. Acta 2023 , 541 , 117239. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• United Nations (UN). UN-Water, 2021: Summary Progress Update 2021–SDG 6–Water and Sanitation for All. 2021. Available online: https://www.unwater.org/publications/summary-progress-update-2021-sdg-6-water-and-sanitation-all (accessed on 26 March 2024).
• Cabral, J.P.S. Water Microbiology. Bacterial Pathogens and Water. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health 2010 , 7 , 3657–3703. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shayo, G.M.; Elimbinzi, E.; Shao, G.N.; Fabian, C. Severity of waterborne diseases in developing countries and the effectiveness of ceramic filters for improving water quality. Bull. Natl. Res. Cent. 2023 , 47 , 113. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hamza, I.A.; Bibby, K. Critical issues in application of molecular methods to environmental virology. J. Virol. Methods 2019 , 266 , 11–24. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Singh, R.; Singh, A.P.; Kumar, S.; Giri, B.S.; Kim, K.-H. Antibiotic resistance in major rivers in the world: A systematic review on occurrence, emergence, and management strategies. J. Clean. Prod. 2019 , 234 , 1484–1505. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rizzo, L.; Manaia, C.; Merlin, C.; Schwartz, T.; Dagot, C.; Ploy, M.C.; Michael, I.; Fatta-Kassinos, D. Urban wastewater treatment plants as hotspots for antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes spread into the environment: A review. Sci. Total Environ. 2013 , 447 , 345–360. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Cao, Y.; Raith, M.R.; Griffith, J.F. Droplet digital PCR for simultaneous quantification of general and human-associated fecal indicators for water quality assessment. Water Res. 2015 , 70 , 337–349. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Hoshino, T.; Inagaki, F. Molecular quantification of environmental DNA using microfluidics and digital PCR. Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 2012 , 35 , 390–395. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Botes, M.; De Kwaadsteniet, M.; Cloete, T.E. Application of quantitative PCR for the detection of microorganisms in water. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2013 , 405 , 91–108. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Oliver, D.M.; Hanley, N.D.; Van Niekerk, M.; Kay, D.; Heathwaite, A.L.; Rabinovici, S.J.M.; Kinzelman, J.L.; Fleming, L.E.; Porter, J.; Shaikh, S.; et al. Molecular tools for bathing water assessment in Europe: Balancing social science research with a rapidly developing environmental science evidence-base. Ambio 2016 , 45 , 52–62. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Stokdyk, J.P.; Firnstahl, A.D.; Walsh, J.F.; Spencer, S.K.; De Lambert, J.R.; Anderson, A.C.; Rezania, L.-I.W.; Kieke, B.A.; Borchardt, M.A. Viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens and fecal markers in wells supplying groundwater to public water systems in Minnesota, USA. Water Res. 2020 , 178 , 115814. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brooks, Y.M.; Spirito, C.M.; Bae, J.S.; Hong, A.; Mosier, E.M.; Sausele, D.J.; Fernandez-Baca, C.P.; Epstein, J.L.; Shapley, D.J.; Goodman, L.B.; et al. Fecal indicator bacteria, fecal source tracking markers, and pathogens detected in two Hudson River tributaries. Water Res. 2020 , 171 , 115342. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• An, X.-L.; Wang, J.-Y.; Pu, Q.; Li, H.; Pan, T.; Li, H.-Q.; Pan, F.-X.; Su, J.-Q. High-throughput diagnosis of human pathogens and fecal contamination in marine recreational water. Environ. Res. 2020 , 190 , 109982. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Fujioka, R.; Solo-Gabriele, H.; Byappanahalli, M.; Kirs, M.U.S. Recreational Water Quality Criteria: A Vision for the Future. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health 2015 , 12 , 7752–7776. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Wang, D.; Yamahara, K.M.; Cao, Y.; Boehm, A.B. Absolute Quantification of Enterococcal 23S rRNA Gene Using Digital PCR. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016 , 50 , 3399–3408. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Crain, C.; Kezer, K.; Steele, S.; Owiti, J.; Rao, S.; Victorio, M.; Austin, B.; Volner, A.; Draper, W.; Griffith, J.; et al. Application of ddPCR for detection of Enterococcus spp. in coastal water quality monitoring. J. Microbiol. Methods 2021 , 184 , 106206. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jahne, M.A.; Brinkman, N.E.; Keely, S.P.; Zimmerman, B.D.; Wheaton, E.A.; Garland, J.L. Droplet digital PCR quantification of norovirus and adenovirus in decentralized wastewater and graywater collections: Implications for onsite reuse. Water Res. 2020 , 169 , 115213. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Varela, M.F.; Monteiro, S.; Rivadulla, E.; Santos, R.; Romalde, J.L. Development of a novel digital RT-PCR method for detection of human sapovirus in different matrices. J. Virol. Methods 2018 , 254 , 21–24. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Pillay, L.; Amoah, I.D.; Deepnarain, N.; Pillay, K.; Awolusi, O.O.; Kumari, S.; Bux, F. Monitoring changes in COVID-19 infection using wastewater-based epidemiology: A South African perspective. Sci. Total Environ. 2021 , 786 , 147273. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Reynolds, L.J.; Gonzalez, G.; Sala-Comorera, L.; Martin, N.A.; Byrne, A.; Fennema, S.; Holohan, N.; Kuntamukkula, S.R.; Sarwar, N.; Nolan, T.M.; et al. SARS-CoV-2 variant trends in Ireland: Wastewater-based epidemiology and clinical surveillance. Sci. Total Environ. 2022 , 838 , 155828. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Al-Duroobi, H.; Moghadam, S.V.; Phan, D.C.; Jafarzadeh, A.; Matta, A.; Kapoor, V. Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 corroborates heightened community infection during the initial peak of COVID-19 in Bexar County, Texas. FEMS Microbes 2021 , 2 , xtab015. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Róka, E.; Déri, D.; Khayer, B.; Kis, Z.; Schuler, E.; Magyar, N.; Pályi, B.; Pándics, T.; Vargha, M. SARS-CoV-2 variant detection from wastewater: Rapid spread of B.1.1.7 lineage in Hungary. J. Water Health 2022 , 20 , 277–286. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Van Poelvoorde, L.A.E.; Picalausa, C.; Gobbo, A.; Verhaegen, B.; Lesenfants, M.; Herman, P.; Van Hoorde, K.; Roosens, N.H.C. Development of a Droplet Digital PCR to Monitor SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant BA.2 in Wastewater Samples. Microorganisms 2023 , 11 , 729. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Ho, J.; Stange, C.; Suhrborg, R.; Wurzbacher, C.; Drewes, J.E.; Tiehm, A. SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in Germany: Long-term RT-digital droplet PCR monitoring, suitability of primer/probe combinations and biomarker stability. Water Res. 2022 , 210 , 117977. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Chai, X.; Liu, S.; Liu, C.; Bai, J.; Meng, J.; Tian, H.; Han, X.; Han, G.; Xu, X.; Li, Q. Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater by quantitative PCR and digital PCR: A case study in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei province, China. Emerg. Microbes Infect. 2024 , 13 , 2324502. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Toledo, D.M.; Robbins, A.A.; Gallagher, T.L.; Hershberger, K.C.; Barney, R.E.; Salmela, S.M.; Pilcher, D.; Cervinski, M.A.; Nerenz, R.D.; Szczepiorkowski, Z.M.; et al. Wastewater-Based SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance in Northern New England. Microbiol. Spectr. 2022 , 10 , e02207-21. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Ma, D.; Straathof, J.; Liu, Y.; Hull, N.M. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater with RT-qPCR and Chip-Based RT-dPCR: Sewershed-Level Trends and Relationships to COVID-19. ACS EST Water 2022 , 2 , 2084–2093. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Izquierdo-Lara, R.W.; Heijnen, L.; Oude Munnink, B.B.; Schapendonk, C.M.E.; Elsinga, G.; Langeveld, J.; Post, J.; Prasad, D.K.; Carrizosa, C.; Been, F.; et al. Rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Rotterdam: Comparison of wastewater and clinical surveillance. Sci. Total Environ. 2023 , 873 , 162209. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Viveros, M.L.; Azimi, S.; Pichon, E.; Roose-Amsaleg, C.; Bize, A.; Durandet, F.; Rocher, V. Wild type and variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Parisian sewage: Presence in raw water and through processes in wastewater treatment plants. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2022 , 29 , 67442–67449. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Mtetwa, H.N.; Amoah, I.D.; Kumari, S.; Bux, F.; Reddy, P. Wastewater-Based Surveillance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Associated with Tuberculosis Treatment Regimen in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Antibiotics 2021 , 10 , 1362. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Mtetwa, H.N.; Amoah, I.D.; Kumari, S.; Bux, F.; Reddy, P. Molecular surveillance of tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria in wastewater. Heliyon 2022 , 8 , e08910. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maestre-Carballa, L.; Navarro-López, V.; Martinez-Garcia, M. City-scale monitoring of antibiotic resistance genes by digital PCR and metagenomics. Environ. Microbiome 2024 , 19 , 16. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bonanno Ferraro, G.; Bonomo, C.; Brandtner, D.; Mancini, P.; Veneri, C.; Briancesco, R.; Coccia, A.M.; Lucentini, L.; Suffredini, E.; Bongiorno, D.; et al. Characterisation of microbial communities and quantification of antibiotic resistance genes in Italian wastewater treatment plants using 16S rRNA sequencing and digital PCR. Sci. Total Environ. 2024 , 933 , 173217. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Staley, Z.R.; Boyd, R.J.; Shum, P.; Edge, T.A. Microbial Source Tracking Using Quantitative and Digital PCR To Identify Sources of Fecal Contamination in Stormwater, River Water, and Beach Water in a Great Lakes Area of Concern. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2018 , 84 , e01634-18. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Harringer, M.; Alfreider, A. Primer evaluation and development of a droplet digital PCR protocol targeting amoA genes for the quantification of Comammox in lakes. Sci. Rep. 2021 , 11 , 2982. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pendergraph, D.P.; Ranieri, J.; Ermatinger, L.; Baumann, A.; Metcalf, A.L.; DeLuca, T.H.; Church, M.J. Differentiating Sources of Fecal Contamination to Wilderness Waters Using Droplet Digital PCR and Fecal Indicator Bacteria Methods. Wilderness Environ. Med. 2021 , 32 , 332–339. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vezzulli, L.; Oliveri, C.; Borello, A.; Gregory, L.; Kimirei, I.; Brunetta, M.; Stern, R.; Coco, S.; Longo, L.; Taviani, E.; et al. Aquatic reservoir of Vibrio cholerae in an African Great Lake assessed by large scale plankton sampling and ultrasensitive molecular methods. ISME Commun. 2021 , 1 , 20. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Coertze, R.D.; Bezuidenhout, C.C. The prevalence and diversity of AmpC β-lactamase genes in plasmids from aquatic systems. Water Sci. Technol. 2018 , 2017 , 603–611. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Di Cesare, A.; Petrin, S.; Fontaneto, D.; Losasso, C.; Eckert, E.M.; Tassistro, G.; Borello, A.; Ricci, A.; Wilson, W.H.; Pruzzo, C.; et al. ddPCR applied on archived Continuous Plankton Recorder samples reveals long-term occurrence of class 1 integrons and a sulphonamide resistance gene in marine plankton communities. Environ. Microbiol. Rep. 2018 , 10 , 458–464. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Luvhimbi, N.; Tshitangano, T.G.; Mabunda, J.T.; Olaniyi, F.C.; Edokpayi, J.N. Water quality assessment and evaluation of human health risk of drinking water from source to point of use at Thulamela municipality, Limpopo Province. Sci. Rep. 2022 , 12 , 6059. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Spencer-Williams, I.; Meyer, M.; DePas, W.; Elliott, E.; Haig, S.-J. Assessing the Impacts of Lead Corrosion Control on the Microbial Ecology and Abundance of Drinking-Water-Associated Pathogens in a Full-Scale Drinking Water Distribution System. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023 , 57 , 20360–20369. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Logan-Jackson, A.; Rose, J.B. Cooccurrence of Five Pathogenic Legionella spp. and Two Free-Living Amoebae Species in a Complete Drinking Water System and Cooling Towers. Pathogens 2021 , 10 , 1407. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kitajima, M.; Cruz, M.C.; Williams, R.B.H.; Wuertz, S.; Whittle, A.J. Microbial abundance and community composition in biofilms on in-pipe sensors in a drinking water distribution system. Sci. Total Environ. 2021 , 766 , 142314. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bivins, A.; Lowry, S.; Wankhede, S.; Hajare, R.; Murphy, H.M.; Borchardt, M.; Labhasetwar, P.; Brown, J. Microbial water quality improvement associated with transitioning from intermittent to continuous water supply in Nagpur, India. Water Res. 2021 , 201 , 117301. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Singer, M.; Deutschman, C.S.; Seymour, C.W.; Shankar-Hari, M.; Annane, D.; Bauer, M.; Bellomo, R.; Bernard, G.R.; Chiche, J.-D.; Coopersmith, C.M. The third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock (Sepsis-3). Jama 2016 , 315 , 801–810. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rudd, K.E.; Johnson, S.C.; Agesa, K.M.; Shackelford, K.A.; Tsoi, D.; Kievlan, D.R.; Colombara, D.V.; Ikuta, K.S.; Kissoon, N.; Finfer, S.; et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990-2017: Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet 2020 , 395 , 200–211. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Miglietta, L.; Moniri, A.; Pennisi, I.; Malpartida-Cardenas, K.; Abbas, H.; Hill-Cawthorne, K.; Bolt, F.; Jauneikaite, E.; Davies, F.; Holmes, A.; et al. Coupling Machine Learning and High Throughput Multiplex Digital PCR Enables Accurate Detection of Carbapenem-Resistant Genes in Clinical Isolates. Front. Mol. Biosci. 2021 , 8 , 775299. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hennebique, A.; Bidart, M.; Jarraud, S.; Beraud, L.; Schwebel, C.; Maurin, M.; Boisset, S. Digital PCR for Detection and Quantification of Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Legionella pneumophila. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 2017 , 61 , e00628-17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yoshida, R.; Sasaki, T.; Umekage, Y.; Tanno, S.; Ono, Y.; Ogata, M.; Chiba, S.; Mizukami, Y.; Ohsaki, Y. Highly sensitive detection of ALK resistance mutations in plasma using droplet digital PCR. BMC Cancer 2018 , 18 , 1136. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Luo, J.; Li, J.; Yang, H.; Yu, J.; Wei, H. Accurate Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Mixtures by Use of Single-Bacterium Duplex Droplet Digital PCR. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2017 , 55 , 2946–2955. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pholwat, S.; Stroup, S.; Foongladda, S.; Houpt, E. Digital PCR to detect and quantify heteroresistance in drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS ONE 2013 , 8 , e57238. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zheng, Y.; Jin, J.; Shao, Z.; Liu, J.; Zhang, R.; Sun, R.; Hu, B. Development and clinical validation of a droplet digital PCR assay for detecting Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae in patients with suspected bloodstream infections. MicrobiologyOpen 2021 , 10 , e1247. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chen, B.; Xie, Y.; Zhang, N.; Li, W.; Liu, C.; Li, D.; Bian, S.; Jiang, Y.; Yang, Z.; Li, R.; et al. Evaluation of Droplet Digital PCR Assay for the Diagnosis of Candidemia in Blood Samples. Front. Microbiol. 2021 , 12 , 700008. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ferrer, J.; Clari, M.Á.; Giménez, E.; Carbonell, N.; Torres, I.; Blasco, M.L.; Albert, E.; Navarro, D. The Biofire ® Filmarray ® Pneumonia Plus panel for management of lower respiratory tract infection in mechanically-ventilated patients in the COVID-19 era: A diagnostic and cost-benefit evaluation. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 2023 , 105 , 115847. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bian, W.; Xie, Y.; Shang, Y.; Zhao, L.; Yang, Z.; Ma, X.; He, Y.; Yu, W.; Xi, W.; Yang, D.; et al. Relationship between clinical features and droplet digital PCR copy number in non-HIV patients with pneumocystis pneumonia. BMC Infect. Dis. 2023 , 23 , 833. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Falzone, L.; Gattuso, G.; Lombardo, C.; Lupo, G.; Grillo, C.M.; Spandidos, D.A.; Libra, M.; Salmeri, M. Droplet digital PCR for the detection and monitoring of Legionella pneumophila. Int. J. Mol. Med. 2020 , 46 , 1777–1782. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wu, J.; Tang, B.; Qiu, Y.; Tan, R.; Liu, J.; Xia, J.; Zhang, J.; Huang, J.; Qu, J.; Sun, J.; et al. Clinical validation of a multiplex droplet digital PCR for diagnosing suspected bloodstream infections in ICU practice: A promising diagnostic tool. Crit. Care 2022 , 26 , 243. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bălan, A.-M.; Bodolea, C.; Trancă, S.D.; Hagău, N. Trends in Molecular Diagnosis of Nosocomial Pneumonia Classic PCR vs. Point-of-Care PCR: A Narrative Review. Healthcare 2023 , 11 , 1345. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Whale, A.S.; Bushell, C.A.; Grant, P.R.; Cowen, S.; Gutierrez-Aguirre, I.; O’Sullivan, D.M.; Žel, J.; Milavec, M.; Foy, C.A.; Nastouli, E.; et al. Detection of Rare Drug Resistance Mutations by Digital PCR in a Human Influenza A Virus Model System and Clinical Samples. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2016 , 54 , 392–400. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lin, K.; Zhao, Y.; Xu, B.; Yu, S.; Fu, Z.; Zhang, Y.; Wang, H.; Song, J.; Fan, M.; Zhou, Y.; et al. Clinical Diagnostic Performance of Droplet Digital PCR for Suspected Bloodstream Infections. Microbiol. Spectr. 2023 , 11 , e0137822. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Merino, I.; de la Fuente, A.; Domínguez-Gil, M.; Eiros, J.M.; Tedim, A.P.; Bermejo-Martín, J.F. Digital PCR applications for the diagnosis and management of infection in critical care medicine. Crit. Care 2022 , 26 , 63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kalil, A.C.; Johnson, D.W.; Lisco, S.J.; Sun, J. Early Goal-Directed Therapy for Sepsis: A Novel Solution for Discordant Survival Outcomes in Clinical Trials. Crit. Care Med. 2017 , 45 , 607–614. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Seymour, C.W.; Gesten, F.; Prescott, H.C.; Friedrich, M.E.; Iwashyna, T.J.; Phillips, G.S.; Lemeshow, S.; Osborn, T.; Terry, K.M.; Levy, M.M. Time to Treatment and Mortality during Mandated Emergency Care for Sepsis. N. Engl. J. Med. 2017 , 376 , 2235–2244. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gross, P.A. Hypotension and mortality in septic shock: The “golden hour”. Crit. Care Med. 2006 , 34 , 1819–1820. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liang, Q.; Chiu, J.; Chen, Y.; Huang, Y.; Higashimori, A.; Fang, J.; Brim, H.; Ashktorab, H.; Ng, S.C.; Ng, S.S.M.; et al. Fecal Bacteria Act as Novel Biomarkers for Noninvasive Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. Off. J. Am. Assoc. Cancer Res. 2017 , 23 , 2061–2070. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Darbà, J.; Marsà, A. Epidemiology, management and costs of sepsis in Spain (2008–2017): A retrospective multicentre study. Curr. Med. Res. Opin. 2020 , 36 , 1089–1095. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Arefian, H.; Hagel, S.; Heublein, S.; Rissner, F.; Scherag, A.; Brunkhorst, F.M.; Baldessarini, R.J.; Hartmann, M. Extra length of stay and costs because of health care-associated infections at a German university hospital. Am. J. Infect. Control 2016 , 44 , 160–166. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brun-Buisson, C.; Roudot-Thoraval, F.; Girou, E.; Grenier-Sennelier, C.; Durand-Zaleski, I. The costs of septic syndromes in the intensive care unit and influence of hospital-acquired sepsis. Intensive Care Med. 2003 , 29 , 1464–1471. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Paoli, C.J.; Reynolds, M.A.; Coles, C.; Gitlin, M.; Crouser, E. Predicted Economic Benefits of a Novel Biomarker for Earlier Sepsis Identification and Treatment: A Counterfactual Analysis. Crit. Care Explor. 2019 , 1 , e0029. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shen, F.; Sun, B.; Kreutz, J.E.; Davydova, E.K.; Du, W.; Reddy, P.L.; Joseph, L.J.; Ismagilov, R.F. Multiplexed quantification of nucleic acids with large dynamic range using multivolume digital RT-PCR on a rotational SlipChip tested with HIV and hepatitis C viral load. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011 , 133 , 17705–17712. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lehmann, L.E.; Herpichboehm, B.; Kost, G.J.; Kollef, M.H.; Stüber, F. Cost and mortality prediction using polymerase chain reaction pathogen detection in sepsis: Evidence from three observational trials. Crit. Care 2010 , 14 , R186. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Whale, A.S.; Devonshire, A.S.; Karlin-Neumann, G.; Regan, J.; Javier, L.; Cowen, S.; Fernandez-Gonzalez, A.; Jones, G.M.; Redshaw, N.; Beck, J.; et al. International Interlaboratory Digital PCR Study Demonstrating High Reproducibility for the Measurement of a Rare Sequence Variant. Anal. Chem. 2017 , 89 , 1724–1733. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Schlenker, F.; Kipf, E.; Borst, N.; Hutzenlaub, T.; Zengerle, R.; von Stetten, F.; Juelg, P. Virtual Fluorescence Color Channels by Selective Photobleaching in Digital PCR Applied to the Quantification of KRAS Point Mutations. Anal. Chem. 2021 , 93 , 10538–10545. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Yan, Z.; Zhang, H.; Wang, X.; Gaňová, M.; Lednický, T.; Zhu, H.; Liu, X.; Korabečná, M.; Chang, H.; Neužil, P. An image-to-answer algorithm for fully automated digital PCR image processing. Lab Chip 2022 , 22 , 1333–1343. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Lee, Y.S.; Choi, J.W.; Kang, T.; Chung, B.G. Deep Learning-Assisted Droplet Digital PCR for Quantitative Detection of Human Coronavirus. Biochip J. 2023 , 17 , 112–119. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Oon, Y.-L.; Oon, Y.-S.; Ayaz, M.; Deng, M.; Li, L.; Song, K. Waterborne pathogens detection technologies: Advances, challenges, and future perspectives. Front. Microbiol. 2023 , 14 , 1286923. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Deshmukh, R.A.; Joshi, K.; Bhand, S.; Roy, U. Recent developments in detection and enumeration of waterborne bacteria: A retrospective minireview. MicrobiologyOpen 2016 , 5 , 901–922. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Mirabile, A.; Sangiorgio, G.; Bonacci, P.G.; Bivona, D.; Nicitra, E.; Bonomo, C.; Bongiorno, D.; Stefani, S.; Musso, N. Advancing Pathogen Identification: The Role of Digital PCR in Enhancing Diagnostic Power in Different Settings. Diagnostics 2024 , 14 , 1598. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14151598

Mirabile A, Sangiorgio G, Bonacci PG, Bivona D, Nicitra E, Bonomo C, Bongiorno D, Stefani S, Musso N. Advancing Pathogen Identification: The Role of Digital PCR in Enhancing Diagnostic Power in Different Settings. Diagnostics . 2024; 14(15):1598. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14151598

Mirabile, Alessia, Giuseppe Sangiorgio, Paolo Giuseppe Bonacci, Dalida Bivona, Emanuele Nicitra, Carmelo Bonomo, Dafne Bongiorno, Stefania Stefani, and Nicolò Musso. 2024. "Advancing Pathogen Identification: The Role of Digital PCR in Enhancing Diagnostic Power in Different Settings" Diagnostics 14, no. 15: 1598. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14151598

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Int J Prev Med

Qualitative Methods in Health Care Research

Vishnu renjith.

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland - Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain), Al Sayh Muharraq Governorate, Bahrain

Renjulal Yesodharan

1 Department of Mental Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

Judith A. Noronha

2 Department of OBG Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

Elissa Ladd

3 School of Nursing, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, USA

Anice George

4 Department of Child Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

Healthcare research is a systematic inquiry intended to generate robust evidence about important issues in the fields of medicine and healthcare. Qualitative research has ample possibilities within the arena of healthcare research. This article aims to inform healthcare professionals regarding qualitative research, its significance, and applicability in the field of healthcare. A wide variety of phenomena that cannot be explained using the quantitative approach can be explored and conveyed using a qualitative method. The major types of qualitative research designs are narrative research, phenomenological research, grounded theory research, ethnographic research, historical research, and case study research. The greatest strength of the qualitative research approach lies in the richness and depth of the healthcare exploration and description it makes. In health research, these methods are considered as the most humanistic and person-centered way of discovering and uncovering thoughts and actions of human beings.

Introduction

Healthcare research is a systematic inquiry intended to generate trustworthy evidence about issues in the field of medicine and healthcare. The three principal approaches to health research are the quantitative, the qualitative, and the mixed methods approach. The quantitative research method uses data, which are measures of values and counts and are often described using statistical methods which in turn aids the researcher to draw inferences. Qualitative research incorporates the recording, interpreting, and analyzing of non-numeric data with an attempt to uncover the deeper meanings of human experiences and behaviors. Mixed methods research, the third methodological approach, involves collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative information with an objective to solve different but related questions, or at times the same questions.[ 1 , 2 ]

In healthcare, qualitative research is widely used to understand patterns of health behaviors, describe lived experiences, develop behavioral theories, explore healthcare needs, and design interventions.[ 1 , 2 , 3 ] Because of its ample applications in healthcare, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of health research studies undertaken using qualitative methodology.[ 4 , 5 ] This article discusses qualitative research methods, their significance, and applicability in the arena of healthcare.

Qualitative Research

Diverse academic and non-academic disciplines utilize qualitative research as a method of inquiry to understand human behavior and experiences.[ 6 , 7 ] According to Munhall, “Qualitative research involves broadly stated questions about human experiences and realities, studied through sustained contact with the individual in their natural environments and producing rich, descriptive data that will help us to understand those individual's experiences.”[ 8 ]

Significance of Qualitative Research

The qualitative method of inquiry examines the 'how' and 'why' of decision making, rather than the 'when,' 'what,' and 'where.'[ 7 ] Unlike quantitative methods, the objective of qualitative inquiry is to explore, narrate, and explain the phenomena and make sense of the complex reality. Health interventions, explanatory health models, and medical-social theories could be developed as an outcome of qualitative research.[ 9 ] Understanding the richness and complexity of human behavior is the crux of qualitative research.

Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research

The quantitative and qualitative forms of inquiry vary based on their underlying objectives. They are in no way opposed to each other; instead, these two methods are like two sides of a coin. The critical differences between quantitative and qualitative research are summarized in Table 1 .[ 1 , 10 , 11 ]

Differences between quantitative and qualitative research

Qualitative Research Questions and Purpose Statements

Qualitative questions are exploratory and are open-ended. A well-formulated study question forms the basis for developing a protocol, guides the selection of design, and data collection methods. Qualitative research questions generally involve two parts, a central question and related subquestions. The central question is directed towards the primary phenomenon under study, whereas the subquestions explore the subareas of focus. It is advised not to have more than five to seven subquestions. A commonly used framework for designing a qualitative research question is the 'PCO framework' wherein, P stands for the population under study, C stands for the context of exploration, and O stands for the outcome/s of interest.[ 12 ] The PCO framework guides researchers in crafting a focused study question.

Example: In the question, “What are the experiences of mothers on parenting children with Thalassemia?”, the population is “mothers of children with Thalassemia,” the context is “parenting children with Thalassemia,” and the outcome of interest is “experiences.”

The purpose statement specifies the broad focus of the study, identifies the approach, and provides direction for the overall goal of the study. The major components of a purpose statement include the central phenomenon under investigation, the study design and the population of interest. Qualitative research does not require a-priori hypothesis.[ 13 , 14 , 15 ]

Example: Borimnejad et al . undertook a qualitative research on the lived experiences of women suffering from vitiligo. The purpose of this study was, “to explore lived experiences of women suffering from vitiligo using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach.” [ 16 ]

Review of the Literature

In quantitative research, the researchers do an extensive review of scientific literature prior to the commencement of the study. However, in qualitative research, only a minimal literature search is conducted at the beginning of the study. This is to ensure that the researcher is not influenced by the existing understanding of the phenomenon under the study. The minimal literature review will help the researchers to avoid the conceptual pollution of the phenomenon being studied. Nonetheless, an extensive review of the literature is conducted after data collection and analysis.[ 15 ]

Reflexivity

Reflexivity refers to critical self-appraisal about one's own biases, values, preferences, and preconceptions about the phenomenon under investigation. Maintaining a reflexive diary/journal is a widely recognized way to foster reflexivity. According to Creswell, “Reflexivity increases the credibility of the study by enhancing more neutral interpretations.”[ 7 ]

Types of Qualitative Research Designs

The qualitative research approach encompasses a wide array of research designs. The words such as types, traditions, designs, strategies of inquiry, varieties, and methods are used interchangeably. The major types of qualitative research designs are narrative research, phenomenological research, grounded theory research, ethnographic research, historical research, and case study research.[ 1 , 7 , 10 ]

Narrative research

Narrative research focuses on exploring the life of an individual and is ideally suited to tell the stories of individual experiences.[ 17 ] The purpose of narrative research is to utilize 'story telling' as a method in communicating an individual's experience to a larger audience.[ 18 ] The roots of narrative inquiry extend to humanities including anthropology, literature, psychology, education, history, and sociology. Narrative research encompasses the study of individual experiences and learning the significance of those experiences. The data collection procedures include mainly interviews, field notes, letters, photographs, diaries, and documents collected from one or more individuals. Data analysis involves the analysis of the stories or experiences through “re-storying of stories” and developing themes usually in chronological order of events. Rolls and Payne argued that narrative research is a valuable approach in health care research, to gain deeper insight into patient's experiences.[ 19 ]

Example: Karlsson et al . undertook a narrative inquiry to “explore how people with Alzheimer's disease present their life story.” Data were collected from nine participants. They were asked to describe about their life experiences from childhood to adulthood, then to current life and their views about the future life. [ 20 ]

Phenomenological research

Phenomenology is a philosophical tradition developed by German philosopher Edmond Husserl. His student Martin Heidegger did further developments in this methodology. It defines the 'essence' of individual's experiences regarding a certain phenomenon.[ 1 ] The methodology has its origin from philosophy, psychology, and education. The purpose of qualitative research is to understand the people's everyday life experiences and reduce it into the central meaning or the 'essence of the experience'.[ 21 , 22 ] The unit of analysis of phenomenology is the individuals who have had similar experiences of the phenomenon. Interviews with individuals are mainly considered for the data collection, though, documents and observations are also useful. Data analysis includes identification of significant meaning elements, textural description (what was experienced), structural description (how was it experienced), and description of 'essence' of experience.[ 1 , 7 , 21 ] The phenomenological approach is further divided into descriptive and interpretive phenomenology. Descriptive phenomenology focuses on the understanding of the essence of experiences and is best suited in situations that need to describe the lived phenomenon. Hermeneutic phenomenology or Interpretive phenomenology moves beyond the description to uncover the meanings that are not explicitly evident. The researcher tries to interpret the phenomenon, based on their judgment rather than just describing it.[ 7 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]

Example: A phenomenological study conducted by Cornelio et al . aimed at describing the lived experiences of mothers in parenting children with leukemia. Data from ten mothers were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using Husserl's method of phenomenology. Themes such as “pivotal moment in life”, “the experience of being with a seriously ill child”, “having to keep distance with the relatives”, “overcoming the financial and social commitments”, “responding to challenges”, “experience of faith as being key to survival”, “health concerns of the present and future”, and “optimism” were derived. The researchers reported the essence of the study as “chronic illness such as leukemia in children results in a negative impact on the child and on the mother.” [ 25 ]

Grounded Theory Research

Grounded theory has its base in sociology and propagated by two sociologists, Barney Glaser, and Anselm Strauss.[ 26 ] The primary purpose of grounded theory is to discover or generate theory in the context of the social process being studied. The major difference between grounded theory and other approaches lies in its emphasis on theory generation and development. The name grounded theory comes from its ability to induce a theory grounded in the reality of study participants.[ 7 , 27 ] Data collection in grounded theory research involves recording interviews from many individuals until data saturation. Constant comparative analysis, theoretical sampling, theoretical coding, and theoretical saturation are unique features of grounded theory research.[ 26 , 27 , 28 ] Data analysis includes analyzing data through 'open coding,' 'axial coding,' and 'selective coding.'[ 1 , 7 ] Open coding is the first level of abstraction, and it refers to the creation of a broad initial range of categories, axial coding is the procedure of understanding connections between the open codes, whereas selective coding relates to the process of connecting the axial codes to formulate a theory.[ 1 , 7 ] Results of the grounded theory analysis are supplemented with a visual representation of major constructs usually in the form of flow charts or framework diagrams. Quotations from the participants are used in a supportive capacity to substantiate the findings. Strauss and Corbin highlights that “the value of the grounded theory lies not only in its ability to generate a theory but also to ground that theory in the data.”[ 27 ]

Example: Williams et al . conducted a grounded theory research to explore the nature of relationship between the sense of self and the eating disorders. Data were collected form 11 women with a lifetime history of Anorexia Nervosa and were analyzed using the grounded theory methodology. Analysis led to the development of a theoretical framework on the nature of the relationship between the self and Anorexia Nervosa. [ 29 ]

Ethnographic research

Ethnography has its base in anthropology, where the anthropologists used it for understanding the culture-specific knowledge and behaviors. In health sciences research, ethnography focuses on narrating and interpreting the health behaviors of a culture-sharing group. 'Culture-sharing group' in an ethnography represents any 'group of people who share common meanings, customs or experiences.' In health research, it could be a group of physicians working in rural care, a group of medical students, or it could be a group of patients who receive home-based rehabilitation. To understand the cultural patterns, researchers primarily observe the individuals or group of individuals for a prolonged period of time.[ 1 , 7 , 30 ] The scope of ethnography can be broad or narrow depending on the aim. The study of more general cultural groups is termed as macro-ethnography, whereas micro-ethnography focuses on more narrowly defined cultures. Ethnography is usually conducted in a single setting. Ethnographers collect data using a variety of methods such as observation, interviews, audio-video records, and document reviews. A written report includes a detailed description of the culture sharing group with emic and etic perspectives. When the researcher reports the views of the participants it is called emic perspectives and when the researcher reports his or her views about the culture, the term is called etic.[ 7 ]

Example: The aim of the ethnographic study by LeBaron et al . was to explore the barriers to opioid availability and cancer pain management in India. The researchers collected data from fifty-nine participants using in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document review. The researchers identified significant barriers by open coding and thematic analysis of the formal interview. [ 31 ]

Historical research

Historical research is the “systematic collection, critical evaluation, and interpretation of historical evidence”.[ 1 ] The purpose of historical research is to gain insights from the past and involves interpreting past events in the light of the present. The data for historical research are usually collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary source mainly includes diaries, first hand information, and writings. The secondary sources are textbooks, newspapers, second or third-hand accounts of historical events and medical/legal documents. The data gathered from these various sources are synthesized and reported as biographical narratives or developmental perspectives in chronological order. The ideas are interpreted in terms of the historical context and significance. The written report describes 'what happened', 'how it happened', 'why it happened', and its significance and implications to current clinical practice.[ 1 , 10 ]

Example: Lubold (2019) analyzed the breastfeeding trends in three countries (Sweden, Ireland, and the United States) using a historical qualitative method. Through analysis of historical data, the researcher found that strong family policies, adherence to international recommendations and adoption of baby-friendly hospital initiative could greatly enhance the breastfeeding rates. [ 32 ]

Case study research

Case study research focuses on the description and in-depth analysis of the case(s) or issues illustrated by the case(s). The design has its origin from psychology, law, and medicine. Case studies are best suited for the understanding of case(s), thus reducing the unit of analysis into studying an event, a program, an activity or an illness. Observations, one to one interviews, artifacts, and documents are used for collecting the data, and the analysis is done through the description of the case. From this, themes and cross-case themes are derived. A written case study report includes a detailed description of one or more cases.[ 7 , 10 ]

Example: Perceptions of poststroke sexuality in a woman of childbearing age was explored using a qualitative case study approach by Beal and Millenbrunch. Semi structured interview was conducted with a 36- year mother of two children with a history of Acute ischemic stroke. The data were analyzed using an inductive approach. The authors concluded that “stroke during childbearing years may affect a woman's perception of herself as a sexual being and her ability to carry out gender roles”. [ 33 ]

Sampling in Qualitative Research

Qualitative researchers widely use non-probability sampling techniques such as purposive sampling, convenience sampling, quota sampling, snowball sampling, homogeneous sampling, maximum variation sampling, extreme (deviant) case sampling, typical case sampling, and intensity sampling. The selection of a sampling technique depends on the nature and needs of the study.[ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ] The four widely used sampling techniques are convenience sampling, purposive sampling, snowball sampling, and intensity sampling.

Convenience sampling

It is otherwise called accidental sampling, where the researchers collect data from the subjects who are selected based on accessibility, geographical proximity, ease, speed, and or low cost.[ 34 ] Convenience sampling offers a significant benefit of convenience but often accompanies the issues of sample representation.

Purposive sampling

Purposive or purposeful sampling is a widely used sampling technique.[ 35 ] It involves identifying a population based on already established sampling criteria and then selecting subjects who fulfill that criteria to increase the credibility. However, choosing information-rich cases is the key to determine the power and logic of purposive sampling in a qualitative study.[ 1 ]

Snowball sampling

The method is also known as 'chain referral sampling' or 'network sampling.' The sampling starts by having a few initial participants, and the researcher relies on these early participants to identify additional study participants. It is best adopted when the researcher wishes to study the stigmatized group, or in cases, where findings of participants are likely to be difficult by ordinary means. Respondent ridden sampling is an improvised version of snowball sampling used to find out the participant from a hard-to-find or hard-to-study population.[ 37 , 38 ]

Intensity sampling

The process of identifying information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon of interest is referred to as intensity sampling. It requires prior information, and considerable judgment about the phenomenon of interest and the researcher should do some preliminary investigations to determine the nature of the variation. Intensity sampling will be done once the researcher identifies the variation across the cases (extreme, average and intense) and picks the intense cases from them.[ 40 ]

Deciding the Sample Size

A-priori sample size calculation is not undertaken in the case of qualitative research. Researchers collect the data from as many participants as possible until they reach the point of data saturation. Data saturation or the point of redundancy is the stage where the researcher no longer sees or hears any new information. Data saturation gives the idea that the researcher has captured all possible information about the phenomenon of interest. Since no further information is being uncovered as redundancy is achieved, at this point the data collection can be stopped. The objective here is to get an overall picture of the chronicle of the phenomenon under the study rather than generalization.[ 1 , 7 , 41 ]

Data Collection in Qualitative Research

The various strategies used for data collection in qualitative research includes in-depth interviews (individual or group), focus group discussions (FGDs), participant observation, narrative life history, document analysis, audio materials, videos or video footage, text analysis, and simple observation. Among all these, the three popular methods are the FGDs, one to one in-depth interviews and the participant observation.

FGDs are useful in eliciting data from a group of individuals. They are normally built around a specific topic and are considered as the best approach to gather data on an entire range of responses to a topic.[ 42 Group size in an FGD ranges from 6 to 12. Depending upon the nature of participants, FGDs could be homogeneous or heterogeneous.[ 1 , 14 ] One to one in-depth interviews are best suited to obtain individuals' life histories, lived experiences, perceptions, and views, particularly while exporting topics of sensitive nature. In-depth interviews can be structured, unstructured, or semi-structured. However, semi-structured interviews are widely used in qualitative research. Participant observations are suitable for gathering data regarding naturally occurring behaviors.[ 1 ]

Data Analysis in Qualitative Research

Various strategies are employed by researchers to analyze data in qualitative research. Data analytic strategies differ according to the type of inquiry. A general content analysis approach is described herewith. Data analysis begins by transcription of the interview data. The researcher carefully reads data and gets a sense of the whole. Once the researcher is familiarized with the data, the researcher strives to identify small meaning units called the 'codes.' The codes are then grouped based on their shared concepts to form the primary categories. Based on the relationship between the primary categories, they are then clustered into secondary categories. The next step involves the identification of themes and interpretation to make meaning out of data. In the results section of the manuscript, the researcher describes the key findings/themes that emerged. The themes can be supported by participants' quotes. The analytical framework used should be explained in sufficient detail, and the analytic framework must be well referenced. The study findings are usually represented in a schematic form for better conceptualization.[ 1 , 7 ] Even though the overall analytical process remains the same across different qualitative designs, each design such as phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory has design specific analytical procedures, the details of which are out of the scope of this article.

Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)

Until recently, qualitative analysis was done either manually or with the help of a spreadsheet application. Currently, there are various software programs available which aid researchers to manage qualitative data. CAQDAS is basically data management tools and cannot analyze the qualitative data as it lacks the ability to think, reflect, and conceptualize. Nonetheless, CAQDAS helps researchers to manage, shape, and make sense of unstructured information. Open Code, MAXQDA, NVivo, Atlas.ti, and Hyper Research are some of the widely used qualitative data analysis software.[ 14 , 43 ]

Reporting Guidelines

Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) is the widely used reporting guideline for qualitative research. This 32-item checklist assists researchers in reporting all the major aspects related to the study. The three major domains of COREQ are the 'research team and reflexivity', 'study design', and 'analysis and findings'.[ 44 , 45 ]

Critical Appraisal of Qualitative Research

Various scales are available to critical appraisal of qualitative research. The widely used one is the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) Qualitative Checklist developed by CASP network, UK. This 10-item checklist evaluates the quality of the study under areas such as aims, methodology, research design, ethical considerations, data collection, data analysis, and findings.[ 46 ]

Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research

A qualitative study must be undertaken by grounding it in the principles of bioethics such as beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. Protecting the participants is of utmost importance, and the greatest care has to be taken while collecting data from a vulnerable research population. The researcher must respect individuals, families, and communities and must make sure that the participants are not identifiable by their quotations that the researchers include when publishing the data. Consent for audio/video recordings must be obtained. Approval to be in FGDs must be obtained from the participants. Researchers must ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the transcripts/audio-video records/photographs/other data collected as a part of the study. The researchers must confirm their role as advocates and proceed in the best interest of all participants.[ 42 , 47 , 48 ]

Rigor in Qualitative Research

The demonstration of rigor or quality in the conduct of the study is essential for every research method. However, the criteria used to evaluate the rigor of quantitative studies are not be appropriate for qualitative methods. Lincoln and Guba (1985) first outlined the criteria for evaluating the qualitative research often referred to as “standards of trustworthiness of qualitative research”.[ 49 ] The four components of the criteria are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

Credibility refers to confidence in the 'truth value' of the data and its interpretation. It is used to establish that the findings are true, credible and believable. Credibility is similar to the internal validity in quantitative research.[ 1 , 50 , 51 ] The second criterion to establish the trustworthiness of the qualitative research is transferability, Transferability refers to the degree to which the qualitative results are applicability to other settings, population or contexts. This is analogous to the external validity in quantitative research.[ 1 , 50 , 51 ] Lincoln and Guba recommend authors provide enough details so that the users will be able to evaluate the applicability of data in other contexts.[ 49 ] The criterion of dependability refers to the assumption of repeatability or replicability of the study findings and is similar to that of reliability in quantitative research. The dependability question is 'Whether the study findings be repeated of the study is replicated with the same (similar) cohort of participants, data coders, and context?'[ 1 , 50 , 51 ] Confirmability, the fourth criteria is analogous to the objectivity of the study and refers the degree to which the study findings could be confirmed or corroborated by others. To ensure confirmability the data should directly reflect the participants' experiences and not the bias, motivations, or imaginations of the inquirer.[ 1 , 50 , 51 ] Qualitative researchers should ensure that the study is conducted with enough rigor and should report the measures undertaken to enhance the trustworthiness of the study.

Conclusions

Qualitative research studies are being widely acknowledged and recognized in health care practice. This overview illustrates various qualitative methods and shows how these methods can be used to generate evidence that informs clinical practice. Qualitative research helps to understand the patterns of health behaviors, describe illness experiences, design health interventions, and develop healthcare theories. The ultimate strength of the qualitative research approach lies in the richness of the data and the descriptions and depth of exploration it makes. Hence, qualitative methods are considered as the most humanistic and person-centered way of discovering and uncovering thoughts and actions of human beings.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Research Highlight
• Published: 23 July 2024

Rejuvenating immunity through a balancing stem cell act

• Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1362-3659 1 , 2  

Cell Research ( 2024 ) Cite this article

35 Accesses

Metrics details

• Haematopoietic stem cells

You have full access to this article via your institution.

An alteration in the lineage bias of aged hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) has been implicated in the reduced immunity observed upon aging. Ross and colleagues now provide direct support for this hypothesis, demonstrating that a selective depletion of myeloid-biased HSCs in aged mice is accompanied by improvement in several parameters of immunity, uncovering a possible novel therapeutic avenue for counteracting age-related decline in immunity .

Rare hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) residing in the bone marrow safeguard the replenishment of all types of blood cells throughout life. 1 However, previous studies have demonstrated that HSCs are not all the same. While HSCs seem to uniformly possess the potential to produce all blood cell lineages as well as to self-renew, fate mapping of single HSCs transplanted into myeloablated recipient mice has established the existence of distinct HSC subsets with regard to which blood cell lineages they replenish in vivo, including myeloid-biased or even myeloid-restricted HSCs (myeloid-HSCs) alongside the prototypical HSCs producing all major blood cell lineages in a balanced fashion (balanced-HSCs). 2 , 3 These distinct patterns of lineage propensity seem, at least in part, to be intrinsically programmed as they are stable also upon transplantation into secondary recipients. 2 , 3 While both balanced-HSCs and myeloid-HSCs are present already in the bone marrow of young mice, the fraction of myeloid-biased HSCs is markedly increased with age so that myeloid-biased HSCs dominate in old mice, 4 which is accompanied by suppressed lymphopoiesis. 5 Since the adaptive immune system, encompassing B and T lymphocytes, is also gradually weakened upon aging, 5 , 6 it has been proposed that the parallel expansion of myeloid-biased HSCs might account for, or at least contribute to, the immune-deficient aging phenotype. However, it has been challenging to provide direct evidence for a causative relationship between these two aging phenotypes, and the deterioration of the immune system upon aging might alternatively or additionally be caused by senescence and defects in more committed lymphoid progenitors, mature lymphocytes, the innate immune system or cells and factors extrinsically regulating adaptive and innate immunity.

In a recent publication in Nature , Ross et al. 7 provide experimental evidence in support of the aging-induced increase in myeloid-biased HSCs playing a direct role in suppression of adaptive immunity in old mice. The authors identified several cell surface antigens selectively expressed on myeloid-HSCs rather than balanced-HSCs which were also not expressed on relevant lymphoid progenitors or mature lymphocytes. A few of these were assessed for antibody-mediated depletion of myeloid-biased HSCs in aged mice. Following depletion of myeloid-HSCs, the impact on several parameters of lymphopoiesis and adaptive immunity was investigated in aged mice. Old mice with reduced levels of myeloid-HSCs showed enhancement in phenotypically defined lymphoid progenitor cells, relevant mature B and T lymphocyte subsets, as well as enhanced immune responses to vaccination and subsequent viral challenge. Mice depleted for myeloid-HSCs also showed reduced levels of some proinflammatory mediators implicated in the chronic inflammation linked to dysregulated immunity observed upon aging (inflammageing).

In addition to providing several lines of evidence for expansion of myeloid-HSCs playing a direct role in the suppression of lymphopoiesis and adaptive immunity observed upon aging, the experimental approach used also carries an obvious potential for clinical translation. There is already support for a similar expansion of myeloid-HSCs occurring in parallel with the immune decline observed upon aging in humans, 8 and Ross et al. provide preliminary data in support of some of the antigens targeted in their mouse studies also being selectively expressed on human myeloid-HSCs.

While providing a first proof of principle for depletion of myeloid-biased HSCs improving immunity in aged mice, the studies of Ross et al. leave a number of questions to be further addressed in follow-up studies. Some of these questions are highlighted through the detailed peer-review file accompanying this publication. Several journals now routinely include the detailed correspondence between authors and expert reviewers as an appendix to published articles, which is of considerable added value to the readers when trying to assess the novelty, validity and impact of published findings. The article by Ross et al. is a good and illustrating example of the significance of expert peer-review and the value of sharing it with the scientific community. While the reviewers accept that Ross et al. show improvement in some aspects of immune function, they simultaneously highlight the need for more extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of parameters of adaptive as well as innate immunity, including protection against infectious challenges in non-vaccinated mice. In that regard it will be important in future studies to more consistently include comparisons with young mice with a well-functioning immune system, to better understand the level of correction obtained upon depletion of myeloid-HSCs in aged mice. Since there is considerable heterogeneity also among myeloid-HSCs, 1 , 2 , 3 it will be of considerable interest to investigate the molecular and functional characteristics of the myeloid-HSCs depleted versus those unaffected, as best assessed through single-cell technologies. 2 In light of the correction in adaptive immune parameters obtained by Ross et al. following a rather modest reduction in myeloid-HSCs, it seems obvious to also explore more efficient methods of depletion. A more efficient depletion of myeloid-biased HSCs should also facilitate further assessment of the proposed connection between myeloid-HSC expansion and enhanced development of myeloid malignancies observed upon aging. 9 To what degree aged balanced-HSCs can match their young counterparts with regard to restoring full immunity is also something to be explored in new studies. Through such follow-up studies we should be able to better understand and translate the full potential of myeloid-HSC depletion towards reinvigoration of the aged immune system.

Laurenti, E. & Gottgens, B. Nature 553 , 418–426 (2018).

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Jacobsen, S. E. W. & Nerlov, C. Nat. Cell Biol. 21 , 2–8 (2019).

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Yamamoto, R., Wilkinson, A. C. & Nakauchi, H. Science 362 , 895–896 (2018).

Yamamoto, R. & Nakauchi, H. Mech. Ageing Dev. 192 , 111378 (2020).

Montecino-Rodriguez, E., Berent-Maoz, B. & Dorshkind, K. J. Clin. Invest. 123 , 958–965 (2013).

Nikolich-Žugich, J. Nat. Immunol. 19 , 10–19 (2018).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ross, J. B. et al. Nature 628 , 162–170 (2024).

Pang, W. W. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108 , 20012–20017 (2011).

Jaiswal, S. & Ebert, B. L. Science 366 , eaan4673 (2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Department of Medicine Huddinge, Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden

Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen

Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology Laboratory and MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Jacobsen, S.E.W. Rejuvenating immunity through a balancing stem cell act. Cell Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-024-01005-3

Download citation

Published : 23 July 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-024-01005-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies