Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and publishing
Open accessAbstract
In the course of our supervisory work over the years we have noticed that qualitative research tends to evoke a lot of questions and worries, so-called frequently asked questions (FAQs). This series of four articles intends to provide novice researchers with practical guidance for conducting high-quality qualitative research in primary care. By 'novice' we mean Master's students and junior researchers, as well as experienced quantitative researchers who are engaging in qualitative research for the first time. This series addresses their questions and provides researchers, readers, reviewers and editors with references to criteria and tools for judging the quality of qualitative research papers. The first article provides an introduction to this series. The second article focused on context, research questions and designs. The third article focused on sampling, data collection and analysis. This fourth article addresses FAQs about trustworthiness and publishing. Quality criteria for all qualitative research are credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Reflexivity is an integral part of ensuring the transparency and quality of qualitative research. Writing a qualitative research article reflects the iterative nature of the qualitative research process: data analysis continues while writing. A qualitative research article is mostly narrative and tends to be longer than a quantitative paper, and sometimes requires a different structure. Editors essentially use the criteria: is it new, is it true, is it relevant? An effective cover letter enhances confidence in the newness, trueness and relevance, and explains why your study required a qualitative design. It provides information about the way you applied quality criteria or a checklist, and you can attach the checklist to the manuscript.
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The study enhanced research methodology by strengthening credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability.
“Trustworthiness in the evaluation process and the findings themselves were of the utmost importance; thus, we enhanced the research methodology by strengthening credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability (Korstjens & Moser, 2018; Sikolia et al., 2013).”
From Toward AI Governance: Identifying Best Practices and Potential Barriers and Outcomes (2023) · cites this paper as Korstjens & Moser, 2018
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Cites
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“Based on Lincoln and Guba [4]; Sim and Sharp [5].”
MethodSeries: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection and analysis
Moser, A., & Korstjens, I. (2018) · European Journal of General Practice · doi:10.1080/13814788.2017.1375091 · Cited by 2,509 · see citing works
Self-citationReflexive Accounts and Accounts of Reflexivity in Qualitative Data Analysis
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Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 2: Context, research questions and designs
Korstjens, I., & Moser, A. (2017) · European Journal of General Practice · doi:10.1080/13814788.2017.1375090 · Cited by 420 · see citing works
Self-citationSeries: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 1: Introduction
Moser, A., & Korstjens, I. (2017) · European Journal of General Practice · doi:10.1080/13814788.2017.1375093 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Self-citationA critical appraisal of the role of triangulation in nursing research
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Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection and analysis
Moser, A., & Korstjens, I. (2018) · European Journal of General Practice · doi:10.1080/13814788.2017.1375091 · Cited by 2,509 · see citing works
Self-citationVerhoeven, V., Tsakitzidis, G., Philips, H., & Van Royen, P. (2020) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039674 · Cited by 332 · see citing works
Circularity Brokers: Digital Platform Organizations and Waste Recovery in Food Supply Chains
Ciulli, F., Kolk, A., & Boe-Lillegraven, S. (2020) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-019-04160-5 · Cited by 310 · see citing works
Enworo, O. C. (2023) · Qualitative Research Journal · doi:10.1108/qrj-08-2022-0116 · Cited by 271 · see citing works
How to … be reflexive when conducting qualitative research
Barrett, A., Kajamaa, A., & Johnston, J. (2020) · The Clinical Teacher · doi:10.1111/tct.13133 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Toward AI Governance: Identifying Best Practices and Potential Barriers and Outcomes
Papagiannidis, E., Enholm, I. M., Dremel, C., Mikalef, P., & Krogstie, J. (2023) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-022-10251-y · Cited by 191 · see citing works
Thedinga, H. K., Zehl, R., & Thiel, A. (2021) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-021-10565-7 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
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How do language education researchers attend to quality in qualitative studies?
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Medication self-management among older adults with cognitive frailty
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Qualitative research: Defining features and guiding principles
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- Authors
- Korstjens, I., & Moser, A.
- Affiliations
- Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Korstjens, Irene
- Venue
- European Journal of General Practice
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-12-05
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 120-124
- ISSN
- 1381-4788 (ISSN-L)
- 1751-1402
- PMC
- PMC8816392
- OpenAlex
- W2771402750
- Cited by
- 3,217
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 535 · 2025: 448 · 2024: 527 · 2023: 480 · 2022: 479 · 2021: 405 · 2020: 230 · 2019: 82 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 334.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of General Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Universiteit Maastricht
- Zuyd Hogeschool
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Keywords
- qualitative research, trustworthiness, credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability, reflexivity, cover letters, research quality criteria, primary care research, novice researchers
- MeSH terms
- Family Practice, Publishing, Research Design, Guidelines as Topic, Qualitative Research
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