Achieving Saturation in Thematic Analysis: Development and Refinement of a Codebook
Open accessAbstract
Reaching a saturation point in thematic analysis is important to validity in qualitative studies, yet the process of achieving saturation is often left ambiguous. The lack of information about the process creates uncertainty in the timing of recruitment closure. This exploratory study was conducted to demonstrate a rigorous approach to reaching saturation through two-stage establishment of a codebook used for thematic analysis. The codebook development involved inductive analysis with six interviews, followed by a refinement of the coding system by applying them to an additional 33 interviews. These findings are discussed in relation to plausible pattern in code occurrence rate and suggested sample sizes for thematic analysis.
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The sample size of 88 in this study is sufficient to generate codes for thematic analysis.
“Moreover, the sample size of 88 in this study is sufficient to generate codes for thematic analysis (Ando et al., 2014).”
From The impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on practices, policies and research direction in education: a case of ChatGPT and Midjourney (2024) · cites this paper as Ando et al., 2014
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“While there were more posts than this available for analysis across Reddit and Avvo , saturation was reached after coding of the first set of 100 was completed (Ando et al. 2014).”
- Authors
- Ando, H., Cousins, R., & Young, C.
- Affiliations
- Liverpool Hope University (GB)
- Venue
- Comprehensive Psychology
- Publisher
- Ammons Scientific
- Published
- 2014-01
- Volume
- 3
- Pages
- 03.CP.3.4
- ISSN
- 2165-2228 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2172937406
- Cited by
- 577
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 71 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 46 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 49.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Comprehensive Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Keywords
- saturation, thematic analysis, codebook generation, sample size determination, inductive coding, qualitative research validity
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