Honesty: perseverance and commitment

Noel - an excellent researcher/s (and an excellent research project) isn't only dependent on paradigm/design alone. An excellent researcher follows due process. Quantitative and qualitative process is equal (and mixed methods runs alongside). Therefore, the question should more come back to 'what makes an excellent researcher?'

I can attach a few chapters here that may partly assist the process. I'm not sure - but hope that they offer some indication.

The above by Dr Dean Whitehead is excellent.

But from a very untechnical perspective, I feel that the researcher should have a genuine interest in the topic, be enjoying his / her work on the project and have a constructive working relationship with others involved, be they researchers or participants.

Please look at this interesting and helpful article:

https://medium.com/@igorz/6-characteristics-of-a-good-qualitative-researcher-and-13-ways-to-ask-effective-interview-2a096e0a45a

Honesty: perseverance and commitment

The innovation is the most and important criteria.

All the best

​- و الله ولي التوفيق Prof Dr Taibi Ben Hadda ====================================== Mohammed First University, Faculty of Sciences Materials Chemistry Laboratory, Oujda-60000. Morocco.

Phone: (+212) (0) 6 66 13 41 78; Fax: (+212) (0) 5 36 50 06 03 E-mail: [email protected]; My Skype: Taibi Ben Hadda ======================================

http://www.mp3quran.net/rashad.html

The most important quality of an excellent qualitative researcher is, at least to me, the researcher's attempt to reduce subjectivity by making his/her findings as objective as possible.

There are 5 dimensions that should be considered to guarantee the quality of qualitative research. I consider an excellent researcher as someone who strives to address these quality criteria:

Credibility

Dependability

Trustworthiness

Transferability

Impacts and ethical considerations

I always tell my students that any social science researcher needs a "high tolerance for ambiguity" because the answers in our field are seldom clear-cut. Then I add that anyone who wants to pursue qualitative researcher needs an especially high tolerance for ambiguity, due to the need for continual interpretation in the analysis and often the collection of qualitative data.

Well said David L Morgan, I will share to my students also

The tools of the trade are very crucial for the success in any venture. But, to a qualitative researcher, not only the knowledge of the tools but also their meticulous execution is extremely important. Any sort of bias from the researcher is unwarranted. Apart from ethics, the researcher should respect the confidentiality of the respondent's data. While critical analysis is the most important ingredient of the researcher, there must be "high tolerance for ambiguity" as pointed out by David L Morgan .

This is an excellent discussion. I agree that it is important to reduce subjectivity as much as possible. However, complete objectivity is impossible. Perhaps this is a dimension of the ambiguity David L Morgan referred to (i.e., that we can never fully leave our subjectivity and be fully objective)? For this reason, I think that one of the marks of "Credibility" (as noted by Maral Babapour) is the researcher's capacity to honestly locate themselves.

What are the qualities of an excellent qualitative researcher?

Some of them include:

In addition (or maybe in contradiction) to Kelvin Mutter, I would emphasise what is called "strong reflexivity". That is, rather then trying to eliminate the researcher's subjectivity, which is, in my opinion, impossible, using one's subjectivity to gain insight in the research subject. However, this requires a good ability of introspection on the side of the researcher, which must be learned. By asking ourselves what our subjective reactions to the research relationship have to do with the structures of the research field and by distinguishing those from idiosyncratic reactions, we can utilize our subjectivity for a better and deeper understanding of our field.

Marie Grasmeier thank you for your contribution. I agree entirely with your comments about the role and value of reflexivity.

Kevin Mutter, I definitely think there is a difficulty in knowing how much your observations and conclusions are "in the data" versus in your own mind, and that is part of the ambiguity that qualitative researchers have to deal with on a routine basis. I also think that there are unknown limits in the extent to which we can recognize our own subjectivity, and we all have to learn to live with that.

The qualitative researcher must be flexible with the research objectives, research techniques etc., with his/ her research plan in general. He/she must always be open to a change of plan.

And he/she must not be arrogant. The participants know better, the researcher' ideas should not come first.

The qualitative researcher must be flexible in his/her questions and willing to digging deeper if an answer is looking rather superficial.

Must be empathic and building up a trustful relationship

To analyse the qualitative data again and again for understanding the data more in-depth.