Triangulation and integration: processes, claims and implications

By J. Moran-Ellis, V. Alexander, Ann Cronin, M. Dickinson, Jane L. Fielding, J. Sleney, Hilary Thomas. 2006

828 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Researchers who advocate the use of multiple methods often write interchangeably about ‘integrating’, ‘combining’ and ‘mixing’ methods, sometimes eliding these descriptors with ‘triangulation’, which itself encompasses several meanings. In this article we argue that such an elision is problematic since it obscures the difference between (a) the processes by which methods (or data) are brought into relationship with each other (combined, integrated, mixed) and (b) the claims made for the epistemological status of the resulting knowledge. Drawing on the literature for examples, we set out different rationales for using more than one method, then we develop a definition of integration of methods as a specific kind of relationship among methods. We also discuss different places in the research process where integration can occur: for instance, data from different sources can be integrated in the analysis stage, or findings from different sources at the point of theorizing.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Management Science and Operations Research, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f294a428b028c015eb10961d68326248d717567f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

In Management Science and Operations Research

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Pluralism in qualitative research: the impact of different researchers and qualitative approaches on the analysis of qualitative data (2010, methodology): “Qualitative research encompasses a wide range of approaches and also encompasses the mixing of those approaches (e.g. Dicks et al., 2006; Moran-Ellis et al., 2006).”
Current Mixed Methods Practices in Qualitative Research: A Content Analysis of Leading Journals (2015, background): “For instance, Moran-Ellis et al. (2006) make a number of arguments and recommendations pertaining to the meaning of integration, terminology, and justifications.”
Factors Affecting Physician Professional Satisfaction and Their Implications for Patient Care, Health Systems, and Health Policy. (2013, methodology): “Overview Our primary approach to integrating qualitative and quantitative data was, first, to identify qualitative findings and, second, to pursue quantitative analyses that followed threads from the qualitative interviews (O’Cathain, Murphy and Nicholl, 2010; Moran-Ellis et al., 2006).”
Pluralisms in Qualitative Research: From Multiple Methods to Integrated Methods (2011, background): “We should be clear that we do not mean this to invoke any notions of triangulation, at least in its traditional sense with implicit claims to “truth” and positivism (Moran-Ellis et al. 2006).”
Three techniques for integrating data in mixed methods studies (2010, methodology): “Moran-Ellis and colleagues describe a different technique for integrating the findings from the qualitative and quantitative components of a study, called following a thread.”
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Social Work Education: Preparing Students for Practice Learning (2010, background): “Data collected from focus groups were analysed inductively to identify thematic categories that linked with findings from the survey and to create new themes emerging from qualitative understandings of practice learning experience (Moran-Ellis et al., 2004).”
Researching Family Relationships: A Qualitative Mixed Methods Approach (2009, methodology): “I draw on the analytical approach developed by Jo Moran-Elis and colleagues, tracing a thread, theme and/or analytical question across multiple methods in the dataset to create a constellation of findings; generating a 'multi-faceted picture of phenomenon' (Moran-Ellis et al., 2006: 54).”
Sectoral use of climate information in Europe: A synoptic overview (2017, result): “Similar lines of questioning were pursued in both methods to provide a foundation for comparison and to enable the triangulation of research findings to corroborate and/or identify conflicting observations (Moran-Ellis et al., 2006; Gray, 2009).”
Managing the Innovation Adoption of Supply Chain Finance-Empirical Evidence From Six European Case Studies (2013, methodology): “In this step, we integrated data obtained from all data sources discussed above (Moran-Ellis et al. 2006).”
On Quantitizing (2009, background): “Although there is still debate concerning what mixing actually entails in mixed methods research (e.g., Moran-Ellis et al., 2006), the conversion of qualitative into quantitative data for the purpose of combining it with a quantitative data set seems to exemplify mixing as it enables the fusion or…”