The DOI matches its Crossref record; 25 of the 25 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The problem of appraising qualitative research
Open accessAbstract
Qualitative research can make a valuable contribution to the study of quality and safety in health care. Sound ways of appraising qualitative research are needed, but currently there are many different proposals with few signs of an emerging consensus. One problem has been the tendency to treat qualitative research as a unified field. We distinguish universal features of quality from those specific to methodology and offer a set of minimally prescriptive prompts to assist with the assessment of generic features of qualitative research. In using these, account will need to be taken of the particular method of data collection and methodological approach being used. There may be a need for appraisal criteria suited to the different methods of qualitative data collection and to different methodological approaches. These more specific criteria would help to distinguish fatal flaws from more minor errors in the design, conduct, and reporting of qualitative research. There will be difficulties in doing this because some aspects of qualitative research, particularly those relating to quality of insight and interpretation, will remain difficult to appraise and will rely largely on subjective judgement.
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“How or whether to appraise papers for inclusion in an interpretive reviews has received a great deal of attention, but there is little sign of an emergent consensus [22].”
From Conducting a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature on access to healthcare by vulnerable groups (2006) · cites this paper as [22]
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“Some authors have raised concerns about the use of such checklists and adherence to strict, universal criteria because they do not afford sufficient flexibility to accommodate the diverse approaches and multiple interpretive practices often represented in qualitative studies.[7][8][9][10][11]”
From A Review of the Quality Indicators of Rigor in Qualitative Research (2020) · cites this paper as [7]
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“Qualitative studies will be appraised using Dixon-Woods and colleague’s tool for appraising qualitative research [69].”
From The psychological processes of classic psychedelics in the treatment of depression: a systematic review protocol (2022) · cites this paper as [69]
In the citing paper
“Given the plurality of methodologies used in the identified studies, seven criteria for quality appraisal were adopted from different published tools (29–31)1 with the aim of appraising transparency, description of key terms, and coherence.”
From Recovery from Severe Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review of Service User and Informal Caregiver Perspectives (2021) · cites this paper as [31]
In the citing paper
“There is no consistent approach or theoretical framework, however, in this broad-based research that one might use as a guideline to apply qualitative inquiry to the development of PROs [30–33].”
From PRO development: rigorous qualitative research as the crucial foundation (2010) · cites this paper as [31]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Dixon-Woods, M.
- Venue
- Quality and Safety in Health Care
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2004-06-01
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 223-225
- ISSN
- 1475-3898 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-3901
- PMC
- PMC1743851
- OpenAlex
- W2161835779
- Semantic Scholar
- 00ade148e11ef4211840b7d6ec91341177623888
- Cited by
- 653
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 46 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 75.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMJ Quality & Safety (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Aston Publications Explorer (Aston University) (acceptedVersion)
- Aston Publications Explorer (Aston University) (submittedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Leicester Research Archive (University of Leicester) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (RES-333-34-3002)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Keywords
- appraisal criteria, research quality, healthcare quality and safety, methodological approaches, interpreting quality
- MeSH terms
- United Kingdom, Health Services Research, Humans, Quality of Health Care, Research Design, Safety Management, Consensus, Qualitative Research
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