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Cited by 470

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Distinguishing Features and Similarities Between Descriptive Phenomenological and Qualitative Description Research

Willis, Danny G., Sullivan-Bolyai, Susan, Knafl, Kathleen, Cohen, Marlene Z.·2016·Western Journal of Nursing Research

Abstract

Scholars who research phenomena of concern to the discipline of nursing are challenged with making wise choices about different qualitative research approaches. Ultimately, they want to choose an approach that is best suited to answer their research questions. Such choices are predicated on having made distinctions between qualitative methodology, methods, and analytic frames. In this article, we distinguish two qualitative research approaches widely used for descriptive studies: descriptive phenomenological and qualitative description. Providing a clear basis that highlights the distinguishing features and similarities between descriptive phenomenological and qualitative description research will help students and researchers make more informed choices in deciding upon the most appropriate methodology in qualitative research. We orient the reader to distinguishing features and similarities associated with each approach and the kinds of research questions descriptive phenomenological and qualitative description research address.

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. 10.4135/9781452225753.n13 · doi:10.4135/9781452225753.n13
  2. Colaizzi P., 1978, Existential-phenomenological alternatives for psychology, 48
  3. Gadamer H. G., 1976, The philosophical foundations of the twentieth century
  4. Heidegger M., 1962, Being and time
  5. Richards L., 2007, User’s guide to qualitative methods
  6. Schutz A., 1973, The structures of the life-world

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Metadata

Authors
Willis, D. G., Sullivan-Bolyai, S., Knafl, K., & Cohen, M. Z.
Venue
Western Journal of Nursing Research
Published
2016-07-09
Volume
38
Issue
9
Pages
1185-1204
ISSN
  • 0193-9459 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-8456
OpenAlex
W2340280627
Cited by
470
References
38
FWCI
87.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Distinguishing Features and Similarities Between Descriptive Phenomenological and Qualitative Description Research. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1177/0193945916645499
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Willis, D. G., Sullivan-Bolyai, S., Knafl, K., & Cohen, M. Z. (2016). Distinguishing Features and Similarities Between Descriptive Phenomenological and Qualitative Description Research. Western Journal of Nursing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945916645499

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.