Validity and reliability in qualitative research: A systematic review

Abstract

Although validity and reliability evaluation has long been the focus of quantitative researchers, these concepts have been a discussion for qualitative researchers. Given that qualitative studies are conducted in the real world, they can have implications for people's lives. Therefore, it is necessary for the results of these studies to be reliable. So, the validity and reliability of these studies should be examined in order to gain the trust of the audience in the results of qualitative research and increase its credibility. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of presenting a set of methods for evaluating validity and reliability in qualitative research. So, the interestting keywords were searched in the Web of Science database and 100 articles were extracted. After refining and reviewing the articles, 48 relevant articles were found on the subject, which formed the basis for data collection.Therefore, in this research, 55 qualitative methods and 4 quantitative methods for evaluating validity in qualitative research, as well as 13 qualitative methods and 6 quantitative methods for evaluating reliability in qualitative studies, were extracted from the articles. The results of this study can be used by qualitative researchers, qualitative article reviewers, and qualitative study audiences to judge the credibility of the results.

Keywords

• qualitative research
• validity
• reliability
• systematic review