Braun and Clarke do not recommend interrater agreement/reliability, but many researchers consider interrater reliability for teams of researchers. Thematic analysis has been adapted frequently. Some seminal articles are included for reference.

There are pros and cons to whatever you choose. Some authors chose consensus, others have meetings to explore differences, and many use statistics. Many--perhaps most--depend on codebook standardization. Possibilities include Cohen's kappa (2 raters), Fleiss kappa (3 or more), absolute differences, and many, many more. At the end are articles specifically dealing with qualitative research. Whatever you choose, being systematic and transparent.

McHugh, M. L. (2012). Interrater reliability: the kappa statistic. Biochemia Medica, 22(3), 276-282. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/132393

Gisev, N., Bell, J. S., & Chen, T. F. (2013). Interrater agreement and interrater reliability: Key concepts, approaches, and applications. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 9(3), 330-338.

------------

Hemmler, V. L., Kenney, A. W., Langley, S. D., Callahan, C. M., Gubbins, E. J., & Holder, S. (2022). Beyond a coefficient: An interactive process for achieving inter-rater consistency in qualitative coding. Qualitative Research, 22(2), 194-219.

Belotto, M. J. (2018). Data analysis methods for qualitative research: Managing the challenges of coding, interrater reliability, and thematic analysis. The Qualitative Report, 23(11), 2622-2633.

O’Connor, C., & Joffe, H. (2020). Intercoder reliability in qualitative research: Debates and practical guidelines. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406919899220.

Hi Naima,

Some qualitative data analysis (QDA) software programs include features for calculating intercoder reliability. I personally use MAXQDA, which offers a convenient function for this if you're conducting a qualitative content analysis.

You can find detailed instructions on the process in the MAXQDA manual here:

https://www.maxqda.com/help-mx22/teamwork/problem-intercoder-agreement-qualitative-research

If you're looking for a relevant literature reference, I highly recommend the following book: Kuckartz, U., & Rädiker, S. (2019). Analyzing Intercoder Agreement. In Analyzing Qualitative Data with MAXQDA (pp. 181–192). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15671-8_19.

I think the important distinction here is between "thematic analysis" and "qualitative content analysis." As David C. Coker points out, Braun and Clarke do not recommend inter-rater reliability calculations on the grounds that the kind of coding you do for thematic analysis is inherently subjective. For qualitative content analysis, however, it is quite common to do inter-rater reliability reliability checks to ensure that coding system is being consistently applied to the data.

Not necessarily just conduct peer debriefing is sufficient