reliability and validity in qualitative research pdf

All the while during these processes, the qualitative inquirer must be concerned with rigor. Data collection is carried out using multiple techniques, and whatever the source maybe, it is the researcher who is the sole instrument of the study and the primary mode of collecting the information. There is continuous reassessment and reiteration. As the design unfolds, the elements of this design are put into place, and the inquirer has minimal control and should be flexible. The steps of a qualitative inquiry are also repeated multiple times during the process. Preliminary steps must be accomplished before the design is fully implemented from making initial contact and gaining entry to site, negotiating consent, building and maintaining trust, and identifying participants. In naturalistic inquiries, planning and implementation are simultaneous, and the research design can change or is emergent. Quantitative research follows a structured, rigid, preset design with the methods all prescribed. Qualitative studies are more complex in many ways than a traditional investigation. The insights garnered here will move novice researchers and doctoral students to a better conceptual grasp of the complexity of reliability and validity and its ramifications for qualitative inquiry.Ĭonducting a naturalistic inquiry in general is not an easy task. Recommendations are made for use of the term rigor instead of trustworthiness and the reconceptualization and renewed use of the concept of reliability and validity in qualitative research, that strategies for ensuring rigor must be built into the qualitative research process rather than evaluated only after the inquiry, and that qualitative researchers and students alike must be proactive and take responsibility in ensuring the rigor of a research study.

A synthesis of the historical development of validity criteria evident in the literature during the years is explored. Elaborating on epistemological and theoretical conceptualizations by Lincoln and Guba, strategies congruent with qualitative perspective for ensuring validity to establish the credibility of the study are described.

This article presents the concept of rigor in qualitative research using a phenomenological study as an exemplar to further illustrate the process. There is also a continuing debate about the analogous terms reliability and validity in naturalistic inquiries as opposed to quantitative investigations. Issues are still raised even now in the 21st century by the persistent concern with achieving rigor in qualitative research.

Reliability and validity in qualitative research pdf