Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Research Quality
This paper examines the criteria used to evaluate the quality of qualitative research designs, contrasting them with the reliability and validity standards applied in quantitative research. Drawing on Lincoln and Guba's (1985) framework, the paper argues that credibility and transferability serve as appropriate evaluative criteria for qualitative work, given the subjective and exploratory nature of its data. The discussion also addresses the epistemological and ontological assumptions underlying these criteria, their relevance to Public Policy and Administration, the ethical challenge of participant anonymity, and what it means for a research topic to be amenable to qualitative scientific inquiry.
- Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: Contrasting exploratory and hypothesis-testing research paradigms
- Credibility and Transferability as Evaluative Criteria: Defining appropriate quality standards for qualitative studies
- Epistemological and Ontological Assumptions: Philosophical foundations underlying qualitative evaluative criteria
- Ethical Considerations in Qualitative Research: Balancing participant anonymity with depth of data
- Amenability of Topics to Qualitative Study: When a topic suits qualitative exploration over testing
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What makes this paper effective
- Clearly grounds the discussion in established frameworks, citing Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Golafshani (2003) to anchor claims about redefining reliability and validity for qualitative contexts.
- Moves logically from conceptual distinctions between qualitative and quantitative research to specific evaluative criteria, then to broader philosophical assumptions and practical ethical concerns.
- Connects abstract criteria to a concrete disciplinary context (Public Policy and Administration), demonstrating applied relevance rather than purely theoretical discussion.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of definitional framing: it begins by establishing what makes qualitative research distinct, then redefines standard evaluative terms (reliability, validity) within that new frame. This technique — adapting existing concepts rather than discarding them — reflects sophisticated engagement with methodology literature and is a hallmark of graduate-level research writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into five thematic sections: (1) a contrast between qualitative and quantitative research paradigms; (2) an explanation of credibility and transferability as evaluative criteria; (3) a discussion of the epistemological and ontological assumptions underlying those criteria; (4) an ethical issue related to participant anonymity; and (5) a brief closing statement on what makes a topic amenable to qualitative study. The reference list follows APA format.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research
Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in that the data analyzed and the methods by which the data are analyzed are fundamentally unique. Qualitative research tends to be exploratory — the data obtained is used to describe the phenomenon under scrutiny, usually in thematic terms — while quantitative research tends to test a hypothesis, with data that can typically be statistically analyzed and understood in numeric terms.
When evaluating the quality of research designs, reliability and validity are two key considerations: Does the study measure what it purports to measure, and can the study's findings be reproduced among the same population using the same method? For qualitative research, the criteria are somewhat different than for quantitative research, primarily because in the former the nature of the data is more subjective, more intuitive, and more personal. It is therefore difficult to assess the extent to which a qualitative study can be deemed strictly valid or reliable. However, it is possible to define the criteria in meaningful ways. As Golafshani (2003) notes, the concepts of reliability and validity simply need to be redefined for qualitative studies in order for them to make sense.
Credibility and Transferability as Evaluative Criteria
Two criteria for evaluating the quality of qualitative research designs are credibility and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Seale, 1999). Credibility acknowledges that whenever one examines human experiences and subjective data — typically intuited using methods such as eidetic reduction or imaginative variation (Lin, 2013) — there is bound to be more than one "correct" perspective and more than one "correct" answer. The goal of credibility is to arrive at data that would be seen as accurately reflecting reality as experienced by the participants in the study — that is, the data would seem plausible to them (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
For transferability, the findings must be comparable to findings in similar contexts — that is, they should be applicable in similar settings. Together, these two criteria provide a meaningful framework for assessing whether a qualitative study has been conducted rigorously and whether its results carry broader relevance.
References
Golafshani, N. (2003). Understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 8(4), 597–606.
Lin, C. (2013). Revealing the "essence" of things: Using phenomenology in LIS research. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 4, 469–478.
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
Seale, C. (1999). The quality of qualitative research. Sage.
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