Trustworthiness criteria
Make qualitative claims open to scrutiny
Trustworthiness commonly concerns credibility of interpretations, transferability to other contexts, dependability of the research process and confirmability through an inspectable relationship between claims and evidence. These criteria are influential rather than universal. Their implementation should fit the research tradition, with reflexivity, contextual detail and decision records supporting a reasoned account of quality.
Use when explaining how qualitative interpretations can be assessed and when deciding which documentation, contextual description and critical checks fit your methodology and claims.
Strengths
- Makes qualitative quality more specific than generic claims of rigour
- Connects interpretations with context and documented decisions
Limitations
- Checklist use can obscure philosophical inconsistencies
- Procedures alone cannot guarantee a persuasive interpretation
Know the boundary
Transferability is not statistical representativeness; confirmability does not require pretending the researcher has no interpretive role.