We're doing a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods articles. Since we have decided to analyze the results by themes through Maxqda software, can we use thematic or probably content analysis for all types of papers?
Gretchen - most 'systematic' reviews nowadays report a form of thematic analysis. The extent to which a formal framework might have been used i.e. Braun & Clarke varies. I would personally argue that such frameworks are designed for collected primary narrative data - such as participant interviews. One might argue that the collected data in journal studies is also narrative data - but it is different and behaves differently. Some might also argue that content analysis is well suited for textual narrative - but I would suggests that other approaches are even better suited i.e. concept and discourse analysis. At the end of the day, it's difficult to answer your question exactly - as there is confusion and semantics at play. For many systematic reviews the default is for a team of reviewers to member-check relevent articles - both individually and collectively - and look for 'themes' and report them. I note that you are using software as well. My advice is to just report the process that you used to find the themes - and identify if you want to call it thematic analysis - or not. It's a good idea to look at examples of systematic reviews in your target journal/s - and note the house-style. It can vary. To 'throw in' even more confusion - note if they are actually called systematic reviews - or other - such as integrative reviews, scoping reviews etc. These are different forms of reviews - but the terms are used interchangeably.
I believe it is suitable for a simple systematic review. However, for the quantitative data, you can also perform a meta-analysis which can provide you certain results.
It seems like you are conducting a mixed methods systematic review. As Dean mentioned thematic analysis is used for primary data. For reviews, a qualitative synthesis methods called " Thematic Synthsis" is commonly used. You can look up thematic synthesis process by Thomas and Harden.
If you are using MAXQDA, it also allows for using techniques and methods of mixed methods research like data tranformation, joint displays, matrices, and so forth for the integration of qualitative and quantitative results from the studies included in the review. Depending on the type of your mixed methods review, for quantitative studies you can use vote counting, meta-analysis, and narrative summaries. For qualitative studies you can use thematic synthesis, critical interpretive synthesis, realist synthesis, and meta ethnography.
Thank you everyone for your insightful answers. They're very helpful. Happy new year!
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