Researchers who advocate the use of multiple methods often write interchangeably
about ‘integrating’, ‘combining’ and
‘mixing’ methods, sometimes eliding these descriptors with
‘triangulation’, which itself encompasses several meanings. In
this article we argue that such an elision is problematic since it obscures the
difference between (a) the processes by which methods (or data) are brought into
relationship with each other (combined, integrated, mixed) and (b) the claims made
for the epistemological status of the resulting knowledge. Drawing on the literature
for examples, we set out different rationales for using more than one method, then
we develop a definition of integration of methods as a specific kind of
relationship among methods. We also discuss different places in the research process
where integration can occur: for instance, data from different sources can be
integrated in the analysis stage, or findings from different sources at the point of theorizing.
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