Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research

BACKGROUND: Overviews of methods are potentially useful means to increase clarity and enhance collective understanding of specific methods topics that may be characterized by ambiguity, inconsistency, or a lack of comprehensiveness. This type of review represents a distinct literature synthesis meth...

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Autores principales: Gentles, Stephen J., Charles, Cathy, Nicholas, David B., Ploeg, Jenny, McKibbon, K. Ann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27729071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13643-016-0343-0
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author Gentles, Stephen J.
Charles, Cathy
Nicholas, David B.
Ploeg, Jenny
McKibbon, K. Ann
author_facet Gentles, Stephen J.
Charles, Cathy
Nicholas, David B.
Ploeg, Jenny
McKibbon, K. Ann
author_sort Gentles, Stephen J.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Overviews of methods are potentially useful means to increase clarity and enhance collective understanding of specific methods topics that may be characterized by ambiguity, inconsistency, or a lack of comprehensiveness. This type of review represents a distinct literature synthesis method, although to date, its methodology remains relatively undeveloped despite several aspects that demand unique review procedures. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion about what a rigorous systematic approach to reviews of methods, referred to here as systematic methods overviews, might look like by providing tentative suggestions for approaching specific challenges likely to be encountered. The guidance offered here was derived from experience conducting a systematic methods overview on the topic of sampling in qualitative research. RESULTS: The guidance is organized into several principles that highlight specific objectives for this type of review given the common challenges that must be overcome to achieve them. Optional strategies for achieving each principle are also proposed, along with discussion of how they were successfully implemented in the overview on sampling. We describe seven paired principles and strategies that address the following aspects: delimiting the initial set of publications to consider, searching beyond standard bibliographic databases, searching without the availability of relevant metadata, selecting publications on purposeful conceptual grounds, defining concepts and other information to abstract iteratively, accounting for inconsistent terminology used to describe specific methods topics, and generating rigorous verifiable analytic interpretations. Since a broad aim in systematic methods overviews is to describe and interpret the relevant literature in qualitative terms, we suggest that iterative decision making at various stages of the review process, and a rigorous qualitative approach to analysis are necessary features of this review type. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that the principles and strategies provided here will be useful to anyone choosing to undertake a systematic methods overview. This paper represents an initial effort to promote high quality critical evaluations of the literature regarding problematic methods topics, which have the potential to promote clearer, shared understandings, and accelerate advances in research methods. Further work is warranted to develop more definitive guidance. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13643-016-0343-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-50599172016-10-24 Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research Gentles, Stephen J. Charles, Cathy Nicholas, David B. Ploeg, Jenny McKibbon, K. Ann Syst Rev Methodology BACKGROUND: Overviews of methods are potentially useful means to increase clarity and enhance collective understanding of specific methods topics that may be characterized by ambiguity, inconsistency, or a lack of comprehensiveness. This type of review represents a distinct literature synthesis method, although to date, its methodology remains relatively undeveloped despite several aspects that demand unique review procedures. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion about what a rigorous systematic approach to reviews of methods, referred to here as systematic methods overviews, might look like by providing tentative suggestions for approaching specific challenges likely to be encountered. The guidance offered here was derived from experience conducting a systematic methods overview on the topic of sampling in qualitative research. RESULTS: The guidance is organized into several principles that highlight specific objectives for this type of review given the common challenges that must be overcome to achieve them. Optional strategies for achieving each principle are also proposed, along with discussion of how they were successfully implemented in the overview on sampling. We describe seven paired principles and strategies that address the following aspects: delimiting the initial set of publications to consider, searching beyond standard bibliographic databases, searching without the availability of relevant metadata, selecting publications on purposeful conceptual grounds, defining concepts and other information to abstract iteratively, accounting for inconsistent terminology used to describe specific methods topics, and generating rigorous verifiable analytic interpretations. Since a broad aim in systematic methods overviews is to describe and interpret the relevant literature in qualitative terms, we suggest that iterative decision making at various stages of the review process, and a rigorous qualitative approach to analysis are necessary features of this review type. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that the principles and strategies provided here will be useful to anyone choosing to undertake a systematic methods overview. This paper represents an initial effort to promote high quality critical evaluations of the literature regarding problematic methods topics, which have the potential to promote clearer, shared understandings, and accelerate advances in research methods. Further work is warranted to develop more definitive guidance. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13643-016-0343-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2016-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5059917/ /pubmed/27729071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13643-016-0343-0 Text en © The Author(s). 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Methodology
Gentles, Stephen J.
Charles, Cathy
Nicholas, David B.
Ploeg, Jenny
McKibbon, K. Ann
Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title_full Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title_fullStr Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title_full_unstemmed Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title_short Reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
title_sort reviewing the research methods literature: principles and strategies illustrated by a systematic overview of sampling in qualitative research
topic Methodology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27729071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13643-016-0343-0
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