Research Design Review is a blog first published in November 2009. RDR currently includes over 130 articles concerning quantitative and qualitative research design issues. “Qualitative Research Design: Selected Articles from Research Design Review Published in 2015”  presents the 17 articles that were published in 2015 devoted to qualitative research design. These articles discuss best practices in research design for a range of qualitative methods – in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnography, multiple methods – and emphasize the need for quality standards in qualitative research design that lead to credible, analyzable, transparent, and ultimately useful outcomes. This quality approach to qualitative research is discussed at length in a new book from Guilford Press – Applied Qualitative Research Design: A Total Quality Framework Approach (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015). As we state in the book:

                ““If it is agreed that qualitative research can, in fact, serve worthwhile (‘good’) purposes, then logically it would serve those purposes only to the degree that it is done (‘executed’) well…” (p. 20)

The 17 articles included in this compilation are:

1. Social Constructionism & Quality in Qualitative Research Design

2. The Interviewee’s Role in the Qualitative Interview: Interpreter or Reporter?

3. 25 Ingredients to “Thicken” Description & Enrich Transparency in Ethnography

4. Online Group Discussions: Participants’ Security & Identity Questions

5. Finding Connections & Making Sense of Qualitative Data

6. A Qualitative Approach to Survey Research Design: Shedding Light on Survey Responses

7. Helping Survey Data “Line Up”: Qualitative Lends a Hand

8. Working with Multiple Methods in Qualitative Research: 7 Unique Researcher Skills

9. The Recipe for Quality Outcomes in Qualitative Research Includes a Healthy Dose of Consistency

10. Interview Guide Development: A 4-Stage “Funnel” Approach

11. Lessons in Best Practices from Qualitative Research with Distinct Cultures

12. The Relative Value of Modes

13. Should Qualitative Research Be Taken Seriously?

14. A Best Practices Approach to Guide (Not Stifle) Qualitative Inquiry

15. Using a “Design Display” to Guide Qualitative Research Design

16. Weighing the Value of Qualitative Research Outcomes

17. A Quality Approach to the Qualitative Research Proposal