The table below identifies some of the more common problems associated with doing qualitative research. 

Method for identifying common problems in doing qualitative research

Common pitfalls were identified by reviewing manuscripts that were submitted to a primary care research journal.  Manuscripts and reviewers' and editors' comments were read and notes were recorded identifying the major reasons for rejecting the manuscript. 

Articles were purposefully selected for variation in methods used.  The process of reviewing articles continued until no new reasons for a rejection were identified. 

Approximately 40 rejected manuscripts were evaluated in this manner until saturation was reached.  Our notes regarding the reasons for rejection were reviewed and synthesized into a list of common pitfalls. 

At this stage, reviewers' comments were examined again, this time with the aim of identifying excerpts that described the pitfall identified.  These were used to create the table below.

Format of the table

The first column of the table identifies the common problem.  The second column contains links to excerpts from Reviewers' comments about the identified problem.  The third column of the table provides links to information on this website that contains information relevant to the common problem (and avoiding it!)

Common Pitfall	Examples from Reviewers' Comments	Link to relevant topic on qualres
Lacks focus	Unclear focus	Guidelines for Conducting, Analyzing and Reporting Qualitative Data
Too jargony	Use of unfamiliar terminology without providing adequate definition	Guidelines for Conducting, Analyzing and Reporting Qualitative Data
Sample insufficient	Lack of iterative sampling process/saturation Inadequate description of the sample	Sampling Issues Iterative Sampling Common Research Methods
Analysis lacks depth	Superficial Analysis Data don't support the results Analytical Categories are unclear Coding decisions are not clear	Common Analytic Approaches See also Miles and Huberman Qualitative Data Analysis
Methods lack adequate description	Each step of the sampling, data collection, and analysis is not described in sufficient detail	Evaluative Criteria Audit Trail Malterud's article in The Lancet is very useful
Data Quality Concerns	Imposes categories or ways of seeing on participants that may be irrelevant for them Evidence that wrong method was used Evidence that method was implemented suboptimally	Common Methods Constant Comparative Method Coding Data