Dear list members
In response to my query last week about search filters for qualitative research and articles on systematic overviews of qualitative research, the following may be of interest:
1. Several groups are working on search filters, including the McMaster team who plan to put theirs on the PubMed Clinical Queries site. But it's only half-developed, so do don't expect it next week! One that is already on the web for CINAHL (Ovid) is at http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/Miner/Educ/ebnfilt.htm.
2. As someone pointed out, in quantitative research the search filter (e.g. a textword search for 'RCT') is often an intrinsic quality filter and allows you to pick your position in the hierarchy of evidence. In qualitative research, the 'study type' will not itself tell you as much about methodological quality, since the different qualitative methods do not sit in any kind of natural pecking order, and any of the main qualitative methods might be done very rigorously or very badly. (Of course that's true of any research design, but I agree with the point made, that we should be cautious about calling a search string for qualitative research designs a 'quality filter'). Hence as a general rule, with qualitative research we must cast our net much wider and go through more abstracts by hand.
3. There are two more articles in the pipeline for the JAMA guides to the medical literature, on qualitative research. (From my perspective, this is great news from both a scientific and an ideological point of view!).
4. Lots of people sent me useful bibliographies for how to do qualitative research in general, but I don't recall any specific published articles on how to do systematic *overviews* of qualitative research, apart from the book I mentioned in my original posting. If I receive any I'll let you know. The CASP team have published a critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research on http://www.ihs.ox.ac.uk/casp/.
Hope this helps, and thanks everyone for contributions. (I have not mentioned any contributors by name as some confessed to being shy and asked me not to!)
Dr Trish Greenhalgh
Senior lecturer in primary health care
Unit for Evidence-Based Practice and Policy
Royal Free & University College Medical School
Department of Primary Care & Population Sciences
Archway Resource Centre
2nd Floor, Holborn Union Building
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Websites
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http://www.ucl.ac.uk/primcare-popsci/uebpp/uebpp.htm
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