Main description:

Establishing criteria for rigor in qualitative studies has been a long-standing dilemma with a series of alternatives to traditional quantitative reliability and validity measures developed, argued, and modified. In this thoughtful volume, Janice Morse, the leading figure in qualitative health research, contends we need to return to traditional social science methods of assessing rigor that can validate qualitative research to the broader academic community. She then establishes a new approach that obligates the researcher to establish rigor in a stepwise fashion throughout the course of a study. Her book* critiques the various alternative methods of assessing rigor developed by qualitative researchers;* establishes a transparent set of methods for attaining rigor that vary depending on the nature of the study, including prolonged engagement; persistent observation and thick description; inter-rater reliability; negative case analysis; peer review or debriefing; clarifying researcher bias; member checking, external audits, concordance and coherence; * links the development of rigor with theory, generalizability, and methodological appropriateness of research design.