BMJ 2001;322:1115-1117 ( 5 May )

Education and debate

Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research: a case of the tail wagging the dog?

Rosaline S Barbour, senior lecturer in primary care R&D. 

Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 0RR

rsb2g@clinmed.gla.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Qualitative research methods are enjoying unprecedented popularity. Although checklists have undoubtedly contributed to the wider acceptance of such methods, these can be counterproductive if used prescriptively. The uncritical adoption of a range of "technical fixes" (such as purposive sampling, grounded theory, multiple coding, triangulation, and respondent validation) does not, in itself, confer rigour.

In this article I discuss the limitations of these procedures and argue that there is no substitute for systematic and thorough application of the principles of qualitative research. Technical fixes will achieve little unless they are embedded in a broader understanding of the rationale and assumptions behind qualitative research.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

	Checklists in quantitative research

In medical research the question is no longer whether qualitative methods are valuable but how rigour can be ensured or enhanced. Checklists have played an important role in conferring respectability on qualitative research and in convincing potential sceptics of its thoroughness.^1-3 They have equipped those unfamiliar with this . . . [Full text of this article]

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Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research

Robert Power and Brian Williams
BMJ 2001 323: 514. [Extract] [Full Text]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Longer Checklists or Reflexivity?

Brian Williams
bmj.com, 4 May 2001 [Full text]

Never mind the tail, check out the dog

Robert Power
bmj.com, 8 May 2001 [Full text]

Call to action

Woody Caan
bmj.com, 10 May 2001 [Full text]

The need for checklists

Edwin R van Teijlingen
bmj.com, 22 May 2001 [Full text]

pot calling the kettle black

Jane Meyrick
bmj.com, 24 May 2001 [Full text]