Researcher as an instrument in qualitative study: How to avoid bias
Paper Details
Researcher as an instrument in qualitative study: How to avoid bias
Abstract
This article aimed to identify possible bias and discuss ways to minimize bias in qualitative research. An integrative relevant research review was done following the PRISMA flow diagram. Using keywords recent and relevant databases was searched. One hundred forty-nine articles were selected primarily from nursing, medical, social science, and educational electronic databases and relevant books. Based on relevance, seventy-two articles were selected initially and seventy-seven were excluded. Finally, based on the relevance of the methodology, twenty-three articles were selected for the integrative review related to the researcher’s bias. Based on the analysis of the findings, this article proposes that the danger of bias in subjective research as an instrument can be limited to various degrees by consolidating the experience of the subjective research by surveying the research design. To minimize bias as a novice researcher of a qualitative study, one should conduct an in-depth interview with the following (1) Read and get direction from the literary works; seek the rule and criteria to assemble the limit, raising capacity and information of leading qualitative research about how to lead in-depth interview, focus group discussion to maintain a strategic distance from bias (2) Try to include herself/himself into the qualitative research extend with expert researcher. In conclusion, this article showed ways to bias and suggested how to deal with researcher bias by combining the practical experience of a qualitative study as a novice researcher.
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