A simple method to assess and report thematic saturation in qualitative research

Data saturation is the most commonly employed concept for estimating sample sizes in qualitative research. Over the past 20 years, scholars using both empirical research and mathematical/statistical models have made significant contributions to the question: How many qualitative interviews are enoug...

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Vydané v:PloS one Ročník 15; číslo 5; s. e0232076
Hlavní autori: Guest, Greg, Namey, Emily, Chen, Mario
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: United States Public Library of Science 05.05.2020
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Predmet:
Adequacy
Analysis
Data collection
Datasets
Design
Empirical analysis
Grounded theory
Identification methods
Interviews
Mathematical models
Methods
Physical Sciences
Population
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative research
Research and Analysis Methods
Research design
Researchers
Saturation
Size estimation
Social Sciences
Statistical analysis
Statistical models
Studies
Theory
California
North Carolina
United States > US
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Popis
Shrnutí:Data saturation is the most commonly employed concept for estimating sample sizes in qualitative research. Over the past 20 years, scholars using both empirical research and mathematical/statistical models have made significant contributions to the question: How many qualitative interviews are enough? This body of work has advanced the evidence base for sample size estimation in qualitative inquiry during the design phase of a study, prior to data collection, but it does not provide qualitative researchers with a simple and reliable way to determine the adequacy of sample sizes during and/or after data collection. Using the principle of saturation as a foundation, we describe and validate a simple-to-apply method for assessing and reporting on saturation in the context of inductive thematic analyses. Following a review of the empirical research on data saturation and sample size estimation in qualitative research, we propose an alternative way to evaluate saturation that overcomes the shortcomings and challenges associated with existing methods identified in our review. Our approach includes three primary elements in its calculation and assessment: Base Size, Run Length, and New Information Threshold. We additionally propose a more flexible approach to reporting saturation. To validate our method, we use a bootstrapping technique on three existing thematically coded qualitative datasets generated from in-depth interviews. Results from this analysis indicate the method we propose to assess and report on saturation is feasible and congruent with findings from earlier studies.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0232076