Research Design - Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods

Thematic analysis is a powerful way to identify meaningful patterns in qualitative research—but without a rigorous, thoughtful process, it’s easy to get lost in unstructured data.

“The Essential Guide to Thematic Analysis” is your go-to resource for learning how to code, refine, and present qualitative insights that stay true to your data—and your participants’ voices.

Whether you’re just getting into qualitative research or refining your analytical process, this guide will help you turn rich, unstructured data into focused, meaningful insights.

Your practical handbook to building stronger, more complete insights from your research questions.

Mixed methods research gives you a fuller view – combining the precision of quantitative data with the depth of qualitative insights. Numbers tell you how often something happens. Interviews and observations help explain why. Together, they create a more complete understanding of complex questions.

This guide ofers practical, straightforward overviews of key mixed methods designs, ethical considerations, and strategies for collecting, analyzing, and reporting integrated data – so you can approach your research with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

The Delphi technique is a quantitative option to generate group consensus through an iterative process of answering questions. The Delphi technique originated in the forecast of future trends. Its unique contribution is the ‘boiling down’ of differing expert opinions or other stakeholders into consensus for decision making – without creating confrontation or allowing strong individuals to dominate the process (as often happens in face-to-face discussions).

The Delphi technique is a systematic process of forecasting using the collective opinion of panel members. The structured method of developing consensus among panel members using Delphi methodology has gained acceptance in diverse fields of medicine. The Delphi methods assumed a pivotal role in the last few decades to develop best practice guidance using collective intelligence where research is limited, ethically/logistically difficult or evidence is conflicting. This article considers a range of topics: Delphi studies, Quality tools for methodology, Research methods, Delphi technique, Consensus, Expert panel.

Delphi is a research survey technique used as a way of collecting data from respondents within their domain of expertise. Its aim is to deal with divergent opinions or controversial issues to achieve consensus concerning real-world knowledge on a certain topic.

This article provides health professional educators and practitioners an overview of the Delphi method focusing on how it is conducted and issues that need consideration when employing this method in practice.

This Teaching Materials Repository was initiated by the UK Health Economics education (HEe) initiative, and has grown due to the generosity and commitment of those willing to share their teaching material.

The objectives of the repository are to:

• Create a global community of health economics teachers willing to share resources with others; and
• Promote quality health economics training through the sharing and use of these resources.

The Traditional review family includes

• Critical Review
• Integrative Review
• Narrative Review
• State of the Art Review
• Narrative Summary

This library guide from the University of Melbourne Library provides a review comparison chart, a decision tool, and information about the range of reviews you may wish to consider when conducting your research.

Implementation Science at a Glance details how greater use of implementation science methods, models, and approaches can improve cancer control practice. While many effective interventions can reduce cancer risk, incidence, and death, as well as enhance quality of life, they are of no benefit if they cannot be delivered to those in need. Implementation strategies are essential to improve public health. In the face of increasingly dynamic and resource-constrained conditions, implementation science plays a critical role in delivering cancer control practices. Implementation Science at a Glance provides a single, concise summary of key theories, methods, and considerations that support the adoption of evidence-based cancer control interventions.

Implementation science is the study and practice of how to implement things. It’s about understanding how to apply implementation strategies, processes, and approaches to support people to change and achieve outcomes. More simply, it helps us know how to implement more effectively. Implementation science is often used to capture both implementation practice and implementation research (although the field is unfortunately not always consistent in how we use any of these terms).

This resource explores the what, why and how of Implementation Science.

In research, we often need to find, evaluate and use primary and secondary sources. This guide explains key differences between primary and secondary sources. It also gives you tips for how to find and critically evaluate these sources.

In simple terms, primary sources provide original evidence or first-hand accounts. Secondary sources summarise, interpret or analyse primary sources. There are many different types of primary and secondary sources. This guide explores how to find and evaluate common sources.

Health research requires an understanding of study designs. Explore these guides to discover information on the principles of study design, qualitative studies, and quantitative studies.

Over the past 15 years, the evaluation field has actively debated RCTs and the “gold standard.” Since method choices depend heavily on context—such as programme type, maturity, and data availability—these debates offer only partial guidance. A more practical approach is to focus on the evidentiary criteria needed to assess causal impact. This session offers a brief overview of causal analysis principles and links them to common evaluation models. Participants will explore a framework built around four core evidentiary criteria, with real-world examples. In this session, participants will: discover a fresh perspective on impact evaluation; learn the key evidentiary requirements for causal inference and strengthen their ability to plan or assess impact evaluations effectively.

Scott Bayley is a Fellow of the Australian Evaluation Society with over 30 years’ experience in evaluation. He has held senior roles with Oxford Policy Management, DFAT, the Asian Development Bank, and the Victorian Department of Human Services. He has also advised the UN Secretariat, UNICEF, and the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation. Scott has authored 70+ evaluation reports across sectors including international development, health, education, Indigenous affairs, and governance. His expertise includes theories of change, results frameworks, impact evaluation, capacity building, and leveraging performance feedback for continuous improvement and stakeholder engagement.

Is there even a clear answer? We say yes! And there are pitfalls for commissioners and those conducting evaluations if the differences are misunderstood!

In this session, Natalie Martino and Rae Fry from ARTD Consultants tease apart research and evaluation and cover the differences in purpose, processes and the end result, risks of doing one when you think you’re doing the other, and take home messages for commissioners and evaluators.

In this seminar a range of speakers share insights and explore the various pathways to taking a clinical question and turning it into a research project with translational potential.

This series of 6 modules aims to enhance our capacity to conceptulise, design and conduct qualitative research in the health sciences.

The modules are:

• What is qualitative research?
• Developing a qualitative research question
• Major qualitative study design: interviews
• Major qualitative sutdy design: focus goups
• Overview of qualitative data analysis
• Scientific rigor in qualitative research

The purpose of this training is to promote an understanding of basic research concepts for new research staff. The curriculum is intended for research support staff/volunteers who have a role in the conduct of research, but who have received little to no formal training in this area.

The primary goal is for learners to develop an understanding of basic research concepts and appreciate the importance of conducting research in keeping with an approved plan.

The training offers an introduction to the basic research concepts of research and is completed according to personal abilities (e.g., self-paced).  The material serves as a foundation for responsible and proper conduct of research. The topics presented include how to design and conduct research as well as how actions conducted throughout research can affect the integrity of the research project. This training presents ethical issues associated with conducting research and encourages beginning research team members to make decisions consistent with responsible and ethical research practices.

Focuses on the scientific method of research.

At the end of the modules, trainees will be able to define and/or describe:

1. Key research terminology,
2. Research practices with the potential to impair or enhance research integrity,
3. Important concepts related to research data and management of the data.

These slides provide an overview of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles, describe testing strategies for implementation, and demonstrate a PDSA cycle.

Authored by the Heart Healthy Ohio Initiative, this presentation aligns with AHRQ’s aim to implement a data-driven quality improvement process to integrate evidence into practice procedures.

This self paced learning series consists of 8 modules, each providing a video presentation by a range of healthcare clinician/researchers involved with the National Cancer Institute of USA.

Modules are:

• Introduction to Dissemination & Implementation
• Theories, Models, and Frameworks
• Implementation Science Measures
• Research Study Designs
• Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Dissemination & Implementation Research
• Implementation Strategies
• Adaptation and Fidelity of Interventions
• Costs in Implementation Science

The field of implementation science is growing and becoming more complex. When teaching new learners, providing a clear definition of implementation science and a description of “its place” among related fields can be difficult. The author developed a teaching tool using very simple language to help learners grasp key concepts in implementation science.

This journal article describes the process of development and includes the tool for use.

This resource guide has been developed to support researchers with key monitoring, evaluation and learning processes (MEL) such as Theory of Change, and logframes for proposal and project design.

The guide provides an introduction to:

• the different elements of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), exploring the overlaps and gaps between the three processes
• the role of a theory of change and logframe in designing and operationalising an effective MEL system
• a selection of evaluation approaches to understand how project activities (the interventions) are contributing to change (outcomes and impact)
• the importance of learning and reflection in project cycles and how a process oriented and reflexive use of theory of change can provide a framework to support project adjustments and adaptive management.

Rapid evaluation methods have been used in multiple settings including public health, emergency management, international development and agriculture as a way to deliver program evaluation findings quickly to inform decision making.

Many terms are used to describe these approaches, including real time evaluations, rapid feedback evaluation, rapid evaluation methods, rapid-cycle evaluation and rapid appraisal. The common feature of these different models is the expedited implementation timeframes which generally range from 10 days to 6 months.

As part of your research, you will need to identify “who” you need to recruit or work with to answer your research question/s. Often this population will be quite large (such as nurses or doctors across Victoria), or they may be difficult to access (such as people with mental health conditions). Sampling is a way that you can choose a smaller group of your population to research and then generalize the results of this across the larger population.

This guide looks at the importance of sampling, considers non-probability sampling approaches, probability (randomised) sampling approaches, and provides further reading resources.

Methods are the tools used to conduct research.

This guide considers the methods: focus groups, observation, documents, surveys and questionnaires, and interviews.

Each section provides a definition, a description, discusses the strengths and limitations of the methods, and offers example questions and studies as well as references.

A methodology is the system of methods used in a discipline area and the justification for using a particular method in research.

Methodologies in this guide: Phenomenology, Grounded theory, Ethnography, Historical, Narrative inquiry, Action research, Case studies, Field research.

Each section considers the purpose, definition, methods used, strengths, and limitations of the methodology, and includes example questions and studies, as well as references.

This resource is for all people involved in developing health services, policies and programs that aim to support and benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It gives guidance about using best practice co-design approaches that enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to take the lead in determining priorities and shaping the course of action.

Co-design is a way of working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as equals. This way of working upholds self-determination, leverages the strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is essential to achieving better outcomes.

This Guide gives practical support to:

• Understand community-defined principles of co-design and how to put them into practice.
• Identify appropriate partners and establish effective partnerships.
• Facilitate shared decision making and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership.
• Use respectful, culturally grounded processes throughout the design, implementation and evaluation of a project.

Bias is often used as a term in social research to cover any form of influence that’s felt to provide some form of distortion of research data and findings. Yet, students often misuse or overuse the terms bias, value-free and objective when they’re talking about qualitative research. In this resource, I will explain why qualitative research isn’t biased. I will focus on these two messages:

• Qualitative research isn’t biased just because data collection and analysis is not standardised.

• Qualitative research isn’t biased just because it can’t be generalised in the quantitative sense.

In qualitative research, the researcher is an integral part of the process and the final product. Separating the research out from this is not possible, and also not desirable.

This MOOC is about demystifying research and research methods. The course will appeal to those of you who require an understanding of research approaches and skills, and importantly an ability to deploy them in your studies or in your professional lives. In particular, this course will aid those of you who have to conduct research as part of your postgraduate studies but do not perhaps have access to research methods courses, or for those of you who feel you would like additional support for self-improvement. No prior knowledge or experience in research is required to take this course and as such, the course is for everyone.

Explore this series tailored specifically to assist early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in research design and governance in order to generate research findings that lead to improved health care and informed health service reform.

Webinars are conducted by experts from the University of Melbourne’s Methods and Implementation Support for Clinical and Health research Hub (MISCH) team with additional guest presenters.

This course, available on the edX platform, is designed as a basic introduction to the complex world of research methods and provides both theoretical and practical information for students to give them a foundation for carrying out research in a wide range of disciplines using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.

edX is the online learning platform from world-leading digital education company 2U, Inc. edX was founded by Harvard and MIT as an experiment to make the world’s best education available to everyone.

Links to topics: Concept and Planning, Searching and Literature Review, Data Collection and Analysis, Writing and Publishing, Promotion and Impact.

Step by step instructions and templates for research designs: Descriptive
Correlational
Experimental
Quasi-experimental
Cross-sectional
Longitudinal
Case study
Ethnographic
Exploratory
Explanatory

The correct choice of methodology in research allows you to collate required information and accomplish the final goals of the study. This article discusses the available research methodologies and the basis of selecting the most suitable one.

Qualitative and Quantitative research methods are often considered to represent different philosophies and views. Their approach and the methods used to collect and analyse data also vary considerably. This infographic shares snippet of differences between these two research methodologies.

This reading contrasts qualitative and quantitative methods, and how both are applied in health care research.

Explores what qualitative research is; how it is used in health care; a range of methods; and provides further reading and references.

The use of qualitative research methods is becoming more popular in health either as the primary research method or as part of a mixed methods approach to investigating a health issue. This seminar covers the benefits of using qualitative research; some of the myths associated with the use of qualitative research; the types of qualitative methods; how data is collected and analysed; and, how the research prepares to use qualitative research to improve health outcomes for individuals, families and communities.

The Qualitative Research Interest Group at MCRI hold monthly meetings as an opportunity to network with others interested in qualitative and mixed methods research. The QRIG also aims to build capacity by exploring topics that increase knowledge about different methodologies, analysis techniques and issues relevant to qualitative research. These meetings are recorded and openly accessible on YouTube.

This webinar discusses the importance and reasoning for conducting qualitative evidence synthesis; the process of how to do so; and how qualitative synthesis can be formed into meaningful and actionable recommendations for policy and practice change.

This brief video introduces what a systematic review is and how it works.

Systematic reviews play an important role in health research. They provide a high level summary of studies and can inform policy and practice relevant to a particular area of inquiry. Understanding review methodologies is useful for those who wish to undertake a systematic review, or just read one. This seminar provides an overview of several types of reviews, along with simple strategies to focus a review and support review methodology.

An extensive collection of videos, ranging from 1 to 60 minutes, relating to systematic reviews, including methodology, approaches and tips.

Assoc Prof Edoardo Aromataris presents an overview of the current suite of JBI methodologies and methods for evidence synthesis. The presentation addresses concepts that underpin the evolution of the current program with a focus on methods and points of difference across diverse review types.

A comprehensive guide to conducting systematic reviews using JBI’s world-leading methodologies for 10 difference types of review.

This JBI LIVE webinar provides an overview of the JBI approach to mixed methods systematic reviews (MMSR) and gives practical considerations for people conducting their own mixed methods systematic reviews, or those who use them. Guidance is provided on how to select between a convergent integrated or convergent segregated approach.

Registration in PROSPERO involves the prospective submission and publication of key information about the design and conduct of a systematic review.

Registration on PROSPERO is free of charge. In return, registrants are accountable for the accuracy and updating of information submitted.

This online guide demonstrates how to register a systematic review with PROSPERO

The Systematic Review Toolbox developed by University of York is an online catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. Extensive tools available for wide range of Review Families, including systematic, rapid, qualitative, scoping, mapping, mixed methods, review of reviews and others. Option available to search stages of review.

Introduces a range of different research methods in 20/30 minute videos, providing enough information to enable researchers to decide if it is a method for future use. New webinars uploaded regularly.

The why, what, when and how of Implementation Science methods in health services research.

In this video, Dr Ian Graham highlights the importance of bringing together diverse perspectives to bridge the gap between health services research and the needs of knowledge end-users.

This Implementation Science webinar series covers a range of content including:
• Introduction to the definitions, principles and methodologies of Implementation Science
• Considerations when applying implementation science approaches in various contexts, including health services research, quality improvement and policy making
• Case studies and tips for successful implementation science in practice

A collection of short informational videos, case studies, and longer lectures on implementation science, the science of research translation.

Ensuring that research findings are translated into practice involves a systematic approach from the beginning when you are designing your research. Implementation science bridges the gap between developing and evaluating effective interventions and implementation and de-implementation in routine practice. This seminar covers key elements of implementation research; theoretical approaches, research designs, involvement of stakeholders, behaviour change interventions.

Although designed for a specific health service, this framework is a practical resource for anyone involved in co-design, including staff, consumers, community members, researchers, designers. It covers defining co-design; check list before beginning; the co-design team; co-design with Aboriginal and Torrest Strait Islander People and Communities; the co-design process; co-design case studies; additional resources.

Experience based co-design offers a methodology that brings health workers and consumers together in an authentic and equal partnership to co-design care to deliver an improved experience. This toolkit brings together existing resources from the UK and New Zealand and with Australian case studies provides a context that will support Australian health services to utilise the approach.

This guide will help you work with patients to understand their experiences and make improvements to healthcare services.
It provides a range of flexible tools for working effectively with patients in service improvement work. While the focus is on patients themselves, the tools can be equally applied to other groups such as frontline staff, family, and carers.

Click on the link, then click on “See this item online”

Take the lead in applying Health Economics to your research with this interactive online course. Gain a comprehensive understanding of health economics and its context, and master the skills to calculate cost-effectiveness and effectively translate economic evaluations in your research proposals. With the flexibility to exit and resume the course at any point, you can learn at your own pace and advance your career in health research.

Click on ‘Learn more’, then on the RET Program website, click on ‘log in’, sign up as a new member with your details. When you come to ‘Institution’ in the drop-down box, click on ‘@research’, you will then be asked to click on your health service in the drop-down box. In the next box where it asks for the @Research Access Code, enter ‘atResearch’. Registering this way will provide free access to the RET Program courses, courtesy of @research.

A frequent conundrum faced by nurses when implementing research findings and developing new interventions is that their patients, staff, and sociocultural environment may be quite different from those in the original studies. This paper givesan overview of RE and how this methodology can be used to support nurses when evaluating the implementation of evidence-based care.

This is a brief introduction to some of the key concepts and processes in Realist Evaluation for people who have a working knowledge of research methodology. It is one of several Theory-Based methods that can be used for process or outcome evaluation It will hopefully stimulate interest and further reading in the subject.

This training package has been developed to provide practical guidance to reviewers who want to undertake a realist synthesis (or realist review – the terms are synonymous). Development of the training materials was funded as part of the RAMESES project (http://www.ramesesproject.org). The package comprises eight sections. Section 1 is this introduction to the training materials. Section 2 provides a brief overview of realism, a glossary of realist terminology, and some information about further references and resources. Sections 3 to 7 focus on five areas that have been a frequent source of difficulties and misconceptions for realist reviewers. The topics are:
• Section 3: Focussing reviews
• Section 4: Program theory
• Section 5: Developing a search strategy
• Section 6: Selection and appraisal of documents
• Section 7: Applying realist principles in analysis
• Section 8: Further reading and resources

This self-paced module introduces you to evidence based practice (EBP) in the health sciences.

There are varying levels of evidence in research. Learn about these and how they impact on choice of study design.

Western Alliance introduces quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, with descriptions, methodology, methods. Includes drop down boxes for common designs of 3 approaches, plus how do you choose the right approach.

Comprehensive instruction and step by step guidelines, with examples and templates.

Efficient and effective project management techniques are essential to move your research project from initiation to execution, through to success. This seminar provides insights to improve internal communications, foster team alignment, facilitate risk management and improve workflows for smooth processes and engaged stakeholders.

This blog is intended for the providers, users, and students of qualitative and/or quantitative research who have an interest in thinking about and discussing research design issues.

This workshop looks at some techniques from project management that are useful for completing a research project. This includes the research process, the research scope, setting schedules, communication, and risk.