The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is the official document that describes in detail the process of preparing and maintaining Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions.

/pdf/cochrane-handbook-for-systematic-reviews-of-interventions-1xbdy6uvru.pdf

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

자연주의적 탐구조사(Naturalistic Inquiry)

This is the second in a series of three articles 

Contrary to popular perception, qualitative research can produce vast amounts of data. These may include verbatim notes or transcribed recordings of interviews or focus groups, jotted notes and more detailed “fieldnotes” of observational research, a diary or chronological account, and the researcher's reflective notes made during the research. These data are not necessarily small scale: transcribing a typical single interview takes several hours and can generate 20–40 pages of single spaced text. Transcripts and notes are the raw data of the research. They provide a descriptive record of the research, but they cannot provide explanations. The researcher has to make sense of the data by sifting and interpreting them.

#### Summary points

Qualitative research produces large amounts of textual data in the form of transcripts and observational fieldnotes

The systematic and rigorous preparation and analysis of these data is time consuming and labour intensive

Data analysis often takes place alongside data collection to allow questions to be refined and new avenues of inquiry to develop

Textual data are typically explored inductively using content analysis to generate categories and explanations; software packages can help with analysis but should not be viewed as short cuts to rigorous and systematic analysis

High quality analysis of qualitative data depends on the skill, vision, and integrity of the researcher; it should not be left to the novice

In much qualitative research the analytical process begins during data collection as the data already gathered are analysed and shape the ongoing data collection. This sequential analysis1 or interim analysis2 has the advantage of allowing the researcher to go back and refine questions, develop hypotheses, and pursue emerging avenues of inquiry in further depth. Crucially, it also enables the researcher to look for deviant or negative cases; that is, …

https://faculty.washington.edu/jelmore/articles_online/Pope-QualResinHC-Ana.pdf

Analysing qualitative data

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge base. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can be biased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contradictory evidence has become progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has been questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process by synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge base and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.

Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research project. The researcher both maps and assesses the relevant intellectual territory in order to specify a research question which will further develop the knowledge hase. However, traditional 'narrative' reviews frequently lack thoroughness, and in many cases are not undertaken as genuine pieces of investigatory science. Consequently they can lack a means for making sense of what the collection of studies is saying. These reviews can he hiased by the researcher and often lack rigour. Furthermore, the use of reviews of the available evidence to provide insights and guidance for intervention into operational needs of practitioners and policymakers has largely been of secondary importance. For practitioners, making sense of a mass of often-contrad ictory evidence has hecome progressively harder. The quality of evidence underpinning decision-making and action has heen questioned, for inadequate or incomplete evidence seriously impedes policy formulation and implementation. In exploring ways in which evidence-informed management reviews might be achieved, the authors evaluate the process of systematic review used in the medical sciences. Over the last fifteen years, medical science has attempted to improve the review process hy synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducihie manner with the twin aims of enhancing the knowledge hase and informing policymaking and practice. This paper evaluates the extent to which the process of systematic review can be applied to the management field in order to produce a reliable knowledge stock and enhanced practice by developing context-sensitive research. The paper highlights the challenges in developing an appropriate methodology.

ed summaries and general concepts can be formulated, which may, upon further investigation, be found to be germane to a wider variety of settings. Case studies, therefore are not necessarily restricted

/pdf/qualitative-research-methods-in-health-technology-assessment-1ma11mg407.pdf

Qualitative research methods in health technology assessment: a review of the literature.

This paper reviews the contribution of qualitative methods to health services research (HSR) and discusses some of the issues involved in recognizing quality in such work. The place of qualitative work is first defined by reference to Archie Cochrane's agenda for HSR and the limitations of the recent focus on randomized trials as the standard method. Health care practice involves large elements of improvisation which cannot be captured by evidence-based approaches. Qualitative methods offer ways of understanding this improvisation and of identifying more efficient and effective practices, as well as considering the traditional topics of equity and humanity. The methodological procedures of qualitative work reflect a long-established inductive tradition in scientific practice. The logic of grounded theory provides a contemporary specification. In its application, it is quite different from the methodological anarchy of postmodernism. The use of qualitative research and the theoretically stated generalizations which arise from it inform reflective work by health service managers, planners and clinicians.

Catching goldfish: quality in qualitative research.

How can we understand women's typically incremental approach to career, which defies the goal-oriented career-building logic of management culture? A qualitative study of 40 women in banking explored this issue with 20 clerical workers and 20 managers. In the context of banking policies for equal opportunities, career breaks, management trainee schemes, some respondents described career goals and development in traditional terms, but most acknowledged their difference from perceived norms. Organisational hierarchies, traditional male career grooming, and the long hours culture, as well as accommodation to other family members are seen to stand in the way of long-term goal-setting. Incrementalism and credit accumulation are rational approaches to uncertainty about family relationships and needs, a high risk of failure to reach male-dominated positions, and the heavy demands of combining a managerial career with motherhood. What kind of aspiration, norm, or ideal gives direction and other specific guidance ...

Women in Banking Careers—a Science of Muddling Through?

Many food choices are not centrally concerned with food and, even where they are, they do not necessarily relate to the nutritional functions of food. In this paper we report on the findings of a longitudinal interview study of infant feeding practices among first‐time mothers. In feeding their babies, mothers are engaged in a number of different projects, some of which conflict with expert guidance on the nutritional benefits of feeding babies in particular ways. We report on the symbolic and practical purposes which feeding babies in particular ways can serve for women, as they seek to combine infant feeding with their other responsibilities not only as mothers but more generally inside and outside the home. We conclude that women’s infant feeding decisions represent their attempts to reconcile these symbolic and practical tasks and that educational and other interventions which ignore these competing agendas are likely to fail.

Competing agendas in infant feeding

Banks have significantly changed their public policies about women’s access to management, to include career breaks and job sharing, with recruitment and promotion policies claiming equal opportunity for men and women. But has there been a revolution on the high street? A qualitative study of 40 women in banking explored questions of change and continuity with 20 clerical workers and 20 managers. From their perspective, men’s power in higher management positions can still be used to obstruct women’s advancement, and often contradicts the public policy that career and motherhood are compatible. New forms of dual labour market and gendered career routes are taking the place of old ones. These sideline women into less powerful and rewarding posts. They also create new divisions between women, privileging graduate entrants, but further obstructing clerical workers’ career development.

Susan Parker

Papers

Qualitative research methods in health technology assessment: a review of the literature.

Catching goldfish: quality in qualitative research.

Women in Banking Careers—a Science of Muddling Through?

Competing agendas in infant feeding

Jobs for the girls? Change and continuity for women in high street banks