The Standards Used To Evaluate Qualitative Research

Evaluation of Qualitative Research
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Evaluation of Qualitative Research
Evaluation of qualitative research refers to exposing qualitative research work to appraisal with the intention of finding out the reliability and credibility of the study. Since qualitative research is derived from activities and interactions with participants, it is important to put the study under scrutiny to validate and confirm that the information is true and robust. In the academic work, several techniques have been used to evaluate research studies. In most cases, qualitative research is conducted with the goal of establishing lasting conclusions that can be used to justify findings. Evaluation of qualitative research seeks to emphasize the fact that the researcher did not apply a bias to the study and that the future scholars studying the topic do not find it difficult or contradicting when dealing with the research work. This paper discusses the standards used to evaluate qualitative research. The paper uses three peer-reviewed sources to explain how scholars go about scrutinizing qualitative studies.
Evaluation of qualitative research has become easier today because of free data analytic tools. An example of the data analytic tool used in the evaluation of qualitative studies is the R computer software. According to Estrada (2017), R is an open source free statistical software that can be used for analysis and evaluation of both quantitative and qualitative data. Evaluators often use R software to perform thematic analysis of qualitative data. Thematic analysis is a data analysis technique where evaluators use the software or any other approach to find and critique keywords or ideas in the qualitative data.
In most cases, thematic analysis is first applied by the researcher in the field while gathering the data. During the interview process, the researcher can evaluate the kind of data he is collecting through thematic analysis. The researcher can try to evaluate and see if the kind of data he is collecting is establishing or communicating a particular pattern. If the interviewees are leaning towards a certain topic, there is a higher chance for the researcher to find a common theme in the topic. A similar approach is used by the data evaluators to determine whether the research work has a common theme and whether the researcher’s work communicates that theme.
RQDA software plays a crucial role in the thematic analysis and evaluation of qualitative data. In Estrada (2017), the researcher uploaded four samples of interviewee responses as “codes” to determine the themes in the research work. The program enables the researcher to identify common themes in the study and simplifies the process of data analysis. If the researcher has communicated the type of data analysis technique used in the study, it becomes easy for data evaluators to key in some codes from the qualitative data and verifies reliability and credibility of the source of qualitative study. The use of qualitative data analysis software provides a reliable approach in the evaluation of qualitative data analysis approach used. Since computer software is not prone to errors and mistakes, the researcher and evaluators are in a bett...