Writing up Rigour: Representing and Evaluating Good Scholarship in Qualitative Research

Abstract

Qualitative research is a mode of inquiry with which many occupational therapists engage and which some claim is particularly suited to researching the complexity and richness of occupational therapy practice.

This paper, written as part of a research series in this journal, has a dual purpose: first, to encourage qualitative researchers to identify their own ontology and use recognised strategies for ensuring high quality work which are consistent with their own world-view of research and, secondly, to consider how best to represent those strategies within their written accounts of their research.

Three researcher positions ranged along a continuum are proposed – realist, subtle realist and relativist – and alternative criteria for each of these positions are suggested. Occupational therapy and health examples are used to illuminate each of these traditions.

It is hoped that the paper will assist qualitative researchers both to clarify their own position along the research continuum and remain coherent within it and to identify the key features relating to quality and rigour that they should consider including in papers submitted for publication.