Abstract

BARROS, Valquiria S.  and  VASCONCELOS, Sonia Maria Ramos. An examination of methodological rigor and reliability in qualitative research within theses and dissertations across biomedical and non-biomedical fields from 2008 to 2018. Práxis Educativa [online]. 2024, vol.19, e22593.  Epub May 31, 2024. ISSN 1809-4309.  https://doi.org/10.5212/praxeduc.v.19.22593.014.

This study investigated how concern over scientific rigor have been configured in qualitative research in doctoral dissertations and master’s theses in the context of Brazilian graduate studies. An initial corpus of 425 dissertations and theses for the period 2008 and 2018 was obtained from the directory of the Brazilian Digital Library of Dissertations and Theses (BDTD) of the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT). A sample of 244 documents was then validated from two independent analyses, with emphasis on the sections “Abstract”, “Methodology”, “Final considerations” and/or “Conclusions” and “Limitations of the study” (if any). The results indicate that concerns over rigor for 41% (n=99) of the documents are noticeable in the research report, although not always detailed. However, the discussion of research biases or strategies aimed at the results’ reliability and/or validity were not predominant characteristics in these documents.

Keywords : Qualitative research; Research methodology; Rigor.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )