Qualitative Research Designs

After you have defined your research questions, aims, or goals, the next step is to identify your research design. Your research questions or goals inform the type of research design that you will use. There are some research designs that are informed by a particular field of study and expanded to other settings and disciplines. Other research designs are informed by theory.

Generic Qualitative Approach

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What is it? A generic qualitative approach uses a variety of approaches from traditional qualitative research designs. There are a number of traditional qualitative research designs that have specific aims to describe, interpret or critically explore a group, people, or situations. These traditional qualitative research designs require specific methods of data collection and analysis. However, the generic qualitative approach does not fall into a specific qualitative design. 

In a generic qualitative approach, there is no commitment to maintain a strict adherence to an existing design. This may be because a theoretical framework supersedes the qualitative method or the nature of the research project addresses goals that are outside of an established qualitative research design.

A generic qualitative approach may be appropriate when:

  • There is no clear allegiance to a traditional qualitative research design
  • Qualitative project is embedded in a mixed method or a clinical trial
  • Type of data collected supersedes the research methodology

Even with the lack of allegiance to a traditional qualitative research design, elements of rigor, such as transparency, reflexivity, data triangulation, member-checking, etc., should be considered when conducting research with a generic qualitative approach to establish trustworthiness of your study.

There are many well-developed qualitative research designs from which to choose. However, it may be difficult to identify a design that aligns with your research questions, goals and/or aims. This may occur when your project consists of elements taken from two or more qualitative research designs that are theoretically grounded in specific disciplines and widely used. Our consultants can provide you with guidance and support in determining the most suitable methodological approach for your particular study, including when a generic approach might be appropriate, as well as ensuring that proper elements of rigor are established.

How can we help you?
  • Identify if a generic qualitative approach is appropriate for your study
  • Identify the elements of other qualitative designs to include in your generic study
  • Assist in clearly explaining the rationale for your generic qualitative research approach

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Articles and White Papers About Generic Qualitative Approach

5 Best Practices for Ethical Considerations in Qualitative Research Design

Introduction There are 5 best considerations when designing a qualitative research study. These include obtaining informed consent, protecting confidentiality and privacy, respecting and compensating participants, conducting appropriate data collection and analysis, and use/report findings responsibly.[1] 5 Best Practices for Ethical Qualitative Research Design Obtaining Informed Consent – When conducting qualitative...

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How to Ensure Validity and Reliability in Qualitative Research Design

Introduction The nature of qualitative research is such that the data collected from human subjects can be deemed subjective. In order for the data collected, analyzed, and reported to be considered trustworthy, valid and comprehensive, the researcher must ensure that there are measures of validity and reliability throughout the research...

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Five Best Practices for Qualitative Research Design in Medical Health

Introduction Qualitative research has a distinct place in medical health settings. It provides the ability to gain in-depth insights about patient experiences, provider experiences, patient-doctor interactions and relationships, systemic issues, and much more. There are a variety of phenomenon that can be explored using qualitative methods. The strength of using...

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FAQ About Generic Qualitative Approach

Every qualitative research project is unique. There are several issues that inform the length of arts-based and arts-informed research, e.g. recruitment of participants, type of data collected. Both types of research in Qual Research Design: Arts-Based/Arts-Informed have similar length of time. Some can be as long as 8 years and other projects could be as short as 3 months.

Delphi study requires three or more rounds of collecting data from experts on a topic. A project can take 3 or more months.

Availability and access to participant-experts will inform the number of participants. Some Delphi studies recruit as much as 1000, while some have a panel of 7 experts.

A generic design does not directly align with a specific qualitative research design. If your research contains methods from more than two designs. It could be defined as generic. For example, you want to focus on shared experiences (Grounded Theory) of experts in higher education (Delphi) as a participant-observer in an institution for an academic year (ethnography); this will be considered a generical qualitative design.

Each generic qualitative research design is unique due to the diverse elements from a variety of qualitative research designs. The number of participants may be one or more than 25.

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