Honoring the Legacy of Pierre Pluye

The mixed methods research community mourns the loss of another pillar: Pierre Pluye, full professor at the McGill University Department of Family Medicine, in Canada, and elected member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences since 2017. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research and the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches. Pierre passed away surrounded by his family on August 1^st, 2023, at his home in Montreal, at the age of 60. Despite his illness over the past three years, he never stopped helping students, colleagues, and stakeholders, and giving constructive advice that he referred to as his “his 5 cents.”

Pierre was born on November 17^th, 1962, in Le Puy and grew up in Pau, France. He started his career as a general practitioner with Doctors of the World. He embodied the values of compassion, integrity, and community throughout his life. He worked in multiple regions—France, the former Yugoslavia, Haiti, Romania, and Somalia—where he coordinated public health programs, including an international epidemiological study on maternal health. Through these experiences he became passionate about public health programs and research, prompting him to pursue a Master’s degree in Community Health and a Ph.D. in Public Health and Health Promotion at the Université de Montréal.

Pierre embarked on his journey in mixed methods research in 2002 when he joined McGill University. He began as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine and later assumed the role of professor at the Department of Family Medicine. Throughout his career, Pierre consistently integrated mixed methods into his research in primary care, contributing to numerous methodological and empirical papers. He produced over 200 peer-reviewed articles, reports and books spanning the fields of information use, participatory research, and mixed methods.

Among Pierre’s most noteworthy mixed methods contributions was an invited article on the state-of-knowledge in the field, published in the Annual Review of Public Health in 2014 (Pluye & Hong, 2014). In 2006, he created and validated the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), one of the first critical appraisal tools to assess the quality of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies (Pluye, Gagnon, et al., 2009). This tool addresses the challenge of appraising the methodological quality of studies when conducting mixed studies reviews, that is, systematic reviews combining different types of studies. Additionally, he developed a toolkit to help researchers design, conduct, and report systematic mixed studies reviews (Pluye, Hong, et al., 2018). In 2008, in his continued pursuit to understand mixed methods, he studied how to deal with divergences of qualitative and quantitative results in mixed methods. As a result of this work, he proposed four strategies: reconciliation, initiation, bracketing, and exclusion (Pluye, Grad, et al., 2009). In 2016, Pierre conceptualized a framework of the combination of integration strategies, organized according to three categories of integration: connection of phases, comparison of results, and assimilation of data (Pluye, Garcia Bengoechea, et al., 2018). More recently, his profound interest in the philosophy of science led him to study the disruptive tensions related to worldviews during mixed methods research meetings and to develop an aid for combining worldviews (Pluye et al., 2022). Pierre’s legacy also includes being one of the founders of Méthodes Mixtes Francophonie (MMF), a thriving international research community established in 2016 for French-speaking researchers and trainees. As of 2023, MMF includes over 300 members, all driven by a common goal: to promote interdisciplinary research through the innovative application of mixed methods.

Beyond mixed methods, Pierre had an expertise in primary care. He was one of the founders of the graduate research programs in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University. His research projects aimed to better define the use of information technologies in primary care and to assess their effects. Among his main contributions was the development of the Information Assessment Method (IAM) to evaluate health information outcomes (Pluye et al., 2013). Also, Pierre was a passionate advocate of using science to help improve society. For example, he worked with the Lucie & André Chagnon Foundation to help improve online health information for parents of young children in Quebec and was part of the scientific council of the National Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS). In recognition of his contributions to the field of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Pierre received the “Researcher of the Year Award” of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2017. Moreover, in 2021, the “Pierre Pluye International Mixed Methods Thesis & Dissertation Awards in Family Medicine Education” were established to honor Pierre’s original and influential contribution to the field of mixed methods studies and mixed studies reviews and to the field of family medicine education.

As Team Pluye, some of his former graduate students, we can attest to the fact that Pierre is fondly remembered as “someone to look up to.” His students greatly appreciated him for his dedication to helping, his approachability, and his ability to engage them in thoughtful and insightful discussions. He was a great storyteller and taught complex methodologies and worldviews, with passion and enthusiasm, often referencing his favorite philosophers such as Ian Hacking, Bruno Latour, and Jürgen Habermas. From 2005 to 2023, he supervised and co-supervised nearly 30 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and was a valued mentor to countless researchers, junior, and senior, alike. He also offered graduate courses, a summer institute, and workshops in mixed methods to over 1800 trainees in several countries such as Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Moreover, in 2018, he created two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for the Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA) focused on integration strategies and on quality appraisal. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to doctoral education, the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) honored Pierre in 2021 with the “NAGS Doctoral Teaching Award.” This distinguished award serves as a testament to Pierre’s commitment to nurturing excellence, fostering creativity, and driving innovation in higher education throughout North America.

Pierre embodied the spirit of “joie de vivre,” enjoying hiking in the Pyrenees and other mountains, bike riding, cross-country skiing, and champagne with family and friends. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing Pierre will remember him for his generosity, benevolence, bonhomie, sense of humor, wisdom, and humility. His legacy will continue to inspire the mixed methods community and future generations of researchers.