Discussion Question

A Critique of “Qualitative Research: The Evaluation of its Credibility, Fittingness, and

Auditability” by Beck (2003)

Latrice Jones

Argosy University

11/09/2017

A Critique of “Qualitative Research: The Evaluation of its Credibility, Fittingness, and

Auditability” by Beck (2003)

The article “Qualitative Research: The Evaluation of its Credibility, Fittingness, and Auditability” by Beck (2003) analyses the academic vigor of qualitative research. With a focus on nursing research, the article analyses some of the factors that have been determined to affect the academic rigor of quantitative research and helps to demonstrate that these kinds of studies can be just as valid as the quantitative studies. The author tests the reliability and validity of qualitative nursing research through the evaluation of various research papers and these studies can be credible and helpful in nursing practice.

Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article

The Research Question and Purpose

The purpose of this study can clearly be determined from reading the introduction section of the article. The author has clearly explained the background of the research demonstrating that there has been a lot of controversy over the credibility of qualitative research in nursing research. However, the main limitation is the lack of a clear determination of the research questions. It is important for the reader to see the questions that the research will answer to understand what they should expect in the content of the paper.

The Literature Review

The study has presented a literature review that examines the work done by previous researchers on the same topic examined. The main factor that makes this section contribute to the strengths of the paper is the fact that the author has only utilized relevant academic sources. The research does not include studies whose credibility cannot be trusted. Therefore, there is a higher chance that the study’s conclusions are credible.

Methodology

The methodology section of this paper evaluates various qualitative studies to prove that they are as important as quantitative studies in nursing research. The advantage of this section of the paper is the clear presentation of the process of selecting the articles to be evaluated which helps to determine whether the methodology affected the results collected. The researcher randomly selected the studies to evaluated, which reduces the chances of selection bias.

Results

This study found that qualitative studies can be valid and that they are just as important as the quantitative studies in nursing. The results presented made it easier for the reader to understand the analysis methods that the researcher used to get those findings.

Discussion Implications and Conclusion

This paper has a very short conclusion summarizing mainly the conceptual framework and the findings of the research. The conclusion needs to be a little longer so that a reader can quickly get the main points of the paper by perusing through the conclusion. The conclusion is supposed to include a summary of all the main concepts tackled in the paper and not just summarize the conclusions as this article has shown.

Conclusion

The article has considered all the important techniques of conducting research, which makes it a good research article. The article presents its points into five major sections and the points presented in a manner that is easy to understand. The few weaknesses found in the analysis of the article have little chance of affecting the credibility of the paper. For instance, the paper lacks a clear presentation of the research questions and the conclusion is too short.

References

Beck, C. T. (2003). Qualitative research: The Evaluation of its Credibility, Fittingness, and Auditability. Western journal of nursing research, 15(2), 263-266.