Enhancement of Quality in Qualitative Research

Abstract

This paper first seeks to characterize qualitative research on human experience and behaviour and then reviews an emerging canon of good practice and ways of assessing the validity of interpretations based on qualitative data. It takes the perspective of the consumer the readers and reviewers of qualitative research and assumes that research should be believable and useful to parties beyond those who participated in doing it. It focuses on criteria by which the quality and rigor of reported qualitative investigations may be evaluated. The topics and methods of qualitative research are at least as varied as those of traditional non-qualitative research.