Journal ArticleDOI
How Many Interviews Are Enough?: An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability
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TLDR
The authors operationalize saturation and make evidence-based recommendations regarding nonprobabilistic sample sizes for interviews and found that saturation occurred within the first twelve interviews, although basic elements for metathemes were present as early as six interviews.Abstract:
Guidelines for determining nonprobabilistic sample sizes are virtually nonexistent. Purposive samples are the most commonly used form of nonprobabilistic sampling, and their size typically relies on the concept of “saturation,” or the point at which no new information or themes are observed in the data. Although the idea of saturation is helpful at the conceptual level, it provides little practical guidance for estimating sample sizes, prior to data collection, necessary for conducting quality research. Using data from a study involving sixty in-depth interviews with women in two West African countries, the authors systematically document the degree of data saturation and variability over the course of thematic analysis. They operationalize saturation and make evidence-based recommendations regarding nonprobabilistic sample sizes for interviews. Based on the data set, they found that saturation occurred within the first twelve interviews, although basic elements for metathemes were present as early as six...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Purposeful Sampling for Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Mixed Method Implementation Research.
Lawrence A. Palinkas,Sarah M. Horwitz,Carla A. Green,Jennifer P. Wisdom,Naihua Duan,Kimberly Hoagwood +5 more
TL;DR: This paper reviews the principles and practice of purposeful sampling in implementation research, summarizes types and categories of purposefully sampling strategies and provides a set of recommendations for use of single strategy or multistage strategy designs, particularly for state implementation research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization
Benjamin Saunders,Julius Sim,Tom Kingstone,Shula Baker,Jackie Waterfield,Bernadette Bartlam,Heather Burroughs,Clare Jinks +7 more
TL;DR: It is concluded that saturation should be operationalized in a way that is consistent with the research question(s), and the theoretical position and analytic framework adopted, but also that there should be some limit to its scope, so as to risk saturation losing its coherence and potency if its conceptualization and uses are stretched too widely.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies: Guided by Information Power
TL;DR: It is suggested that the size of a sample with sufficient information power depends on (a) the aim of the study, (b) sample specificity, (c) use of established theory, (d) quality of dialogue, and (e) analysis strategy.
Journal ArticleDOI
Are We There Yet? Data Saturation in Qualitative Research
TL;DR: Data saturation is reached when there is enough information to replicate the study when the ability to obtain additional new information has been attained, and when further coding is no longer feasible as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sample Size and Saturation in PhD Studies Using Qualitative Interviews
TL;DR: In this article, a sample of PhD studies using qualitative approaches, and qualitative interviews as the method of data collection was taken from theses.com and contents analysed for their sample sizes.
References
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Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research
TL;DR: The Discovery of Grounded Theory as mentioned in this paper is a book about the discovery of grounded theories from data, both substantive and formal, which is a major task confronting sociologists and is understandable to both experts and laymen.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.
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TL;DR: Creswell as mentioned in this paper explores the philosophical underpinnings, history and key elements of five qualitative inquiry traditions: biography, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case study.
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Qualitative Data Analysis
TL;DR: In the field of qualitative data analysis, qualitative data is extremely varied in nature. It includes virtually any information that can be captured that is not numerical in nature as mentioned in this paper, which is a generalization of direct observation.