The process of knowledge acquisition which has the strongest truth claim is the research process of natural science, based on testing hypotheses to destruction. But the application of this process to phenomena beyond those for which it was developed, namely, the natural regularities of the physical universe, is problematical. For research into social phenomena there is increasing interest in "a...

That mixed methods studies have become “trendy” again after a period of disrepute does not mean the issues such methods raise have gone away. Definitional, paradigmatic and methodological issues continue to be raised when researchers write about mixed methods, while design issues, issues in sampling, analysis and reporting and wide-ranging demands on researcher skills, finances and time are fac...

System dynamics requires the intense use of qualitative data and human judgment in all stages of model development. Most approaches to the formal inclusion of qualitative data have been developed with the purposes of knowledge elicitation during the conceptualization or formulation stages of model development. Although the importance of using expert judgment to assess the validity of system dyn...

For the OLS estimators in a classical linear model to have average partial effects interpretation, one usually imposes the so-called “strict exogeneity”condition. In practice, testing strict exogeneity condition can be done by omnibus nonparametric test. However, there are cases where strict exogeneity condition fails but the average partial effects interpretation of OLS estimator still survive...

Much of the large and growing body of literature on interruption and multitasking is motivated, in part, by a desire to reduce their negative effects in occupational settings, particularly those that are safety critical. Much of the existing knowledge has come from experimental studies, however, these do not necessarily generalize to non-experimental contexts. By virtue of being in situ, the re...

Linda Shields PhD, FRCNA, Professor of Nursing, University of Limerick, Ireland This is one of a series of short papers on aspects of research by Alison Twycross and Linda Shields Just because a research study has been published in a journal does not mean that it is good research or that the results are applicable to your area of clinical practice. When reading a paper, it is necessary to consi...

BACKGROUND Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a prospective risk assessment tool that has been widely used within the aerospace and automotive industries and has been utilised within healthcare since the early 1990s. The aim of this study was to explore the validity of FMEA outputs within a hospital setting in the United Kingdom. METHODS Two multidisciplinary teams each conducted an ...

This article examines concepts of the trustworthiness, or credibility, of qualitative research. Following a “researcher-as-instrument,” or self-reflective, statement, the paradigmatic underpinnings of various criteria for judging the quality of qualitative research are explored, setting the stage for a discussion of more transcendent standards (those not associated with specific paradigms) for ...