Qualitative Research

Last update: 4 November 2009,
by Maureen Bell

I've divided this page into two sections. The first provides you with some tips on searching for material on Medline, and the second provides links to other web resources, including some full text report and journal literature.

Searching Medline

Remember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts.

You will find material on qualitative research in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) term used to search for it. You can see this listed in the MeSH database.

MeSH - Qualitative Research

It was introduced into Medline's Thesaurus only in 2003. It sits in the MeSH tree for Empirical Research, another term which was introduced only in 2003.

When you are confronted with a situation where a term is very new you will also have to use your own language to look for articles for the period when this term was not in the thesaurus. With Qualitative Research this is relatively straightforward, as there seem to be few variations used in the literature. Qualitative method*, qualitative study, or qualitative studies (which are not MeSH terms), could be searched in titles of articles or abstracts. Grounded theory could also be searched as a phrase, as there is currently no MeSH heading for this concept. In some circumstances you might also wish to consider other options such as narrative, or descriptive.

Sample Search Strategy

Try the following search strategy to find articles on qualitative research on health planning

(qualitative research[majr] OR "qualitative research"[tiab] OR "qualitative method*"[tiab] OR "qualitative studies"[tiab] OR "qualitative study"[tiab]) AND health planning[majr] AND english[lang]

You can copy and paste the search into PubMed to see how it works.

This search strategy uses MeSH the heading Qualitative research as well as "qualitative research", "qualitative method*", "qualitative studies", or "qualitative study" as phrases - all phrases will be searched in both titles of articles and abstracts. These are then combined with Health planning, another MeSH term. The section in the square brackets includes majr for both of the MeSH terms - which focuses the search on articles where the subject is a major issue in the article. The search is then restricted to English language.

PubMed's default setting is to "explode" all terms, and so this search will include the subcategories of health planning listed below.

Health Planning (MeSH term)
Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities. Year introduced: 1979

Health Care Rationing
Health Care Reform
Health Plan Implementation
Health Planning Guidelines
Health Planning Technical Assistance
Health Priorities
Health Resources
Health Services Research
Health Care Surveys
Health Services Needs and Demand
Needs Assessment
Organizational Case Studies
National Health Programs
National Health Insurance, United States
Single-Payer System
Regional Health Planning
Catchment Area (Health)
Certificate of Need
Community Health Planning
Health Facility Planning +
Health Systems Plans
Medically Underserved Area
Regional Medical Programs
State Health Plans

There are many other databases where you will find material on qualitative research. SCOPUS is our largest database, and you'll find it very useful. Consider Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Academic OneFile, Health Source: Nursing, PsycINFO, and Sociofile as well. These and other databases of interest are listed on my databases page.

Other Web Resources

Cochrane Qualitative Research Methods Group: Tools to Assist Qualitative Reviewers
The central concerns of the group relate to increasing an awareness of the role of qualitative evidence in guiding health care practices; the development of approaches suitable for systematically reviewing qualitative evidence; and the training of reviewers in qualitative meta-synthesis.

Free qualitative research journal articles
A selection from PubMed Central

How to read a paper: Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research)
By Trisha Greenhalgh and Rod Taylor R
BMJ Sept 1997, 315 (7110): 740-3

Integrative Approaches to Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence
By Mary Dixon-Woods, Shona Agarwal, Bridget Young, David Jones, and Alex Sutton. Health Development Agency, UK, 2004. This report is an informal review of the literature on integrating qualitative and quantitative forms of evidence.

Intute: Social Sciences - browse Qualitative Methods
Intute is a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.

Narrative based medicine: Why study narrative?
BMJ. 1999 January 2; 318(7175): 48–50.

Narrative based medicine: A narrative approach to mental health in general practice
BMJ. 1999 January 9; 318(7176): 117–119.

Narrative based medicine: Stories we hear and stories we tell: analysing talk in clinical practice
BMJ. 1999 January 16; 318(7177): 186–188.

Narrative based medicine: Narrative in medical ethics
BMJ. 1999 January 23; 318(7178): 253–256.

Narrative based medicine: Narrative based medicine in an evidence based world
BMJ. 1999 January 30; 318(7179): 323–325.

The Qualitative Report: An online journal dedicated to qualitative research

Qualitative research — BMJ resources

Quality in Qualitative Evaluation: A Framework for Assessing Research Evidence
By Liz Spencer, Jane Ritchie, Jane Lewis, and Lucy Dillon, National Centre for Social Research. Government Chief Social Researcher's Office, Cabinet Office, August 2003.

A User's Guide to Qualitative Research in Health Care
Mita Giacomini, Deborah J. Cook, for the Evidence Based Medicine Working Group. Based on the Users' Guides to Evidence-based Medicine and reproduced with permission from JAMA. (2000 Jul 26;284(4):478-82)

Using Qualitative Research in Systematic Reviews: Older people's views of hospital discharge
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), February 2006. In this report SCIE uses the example of older people’s views on discharge from hospital to provide a worked example of combining findings from qualitative studies and draws out key messages for systematic reviewing.
How Knowledge Works in Social Care, No. 9.