Qualitative research usually contains descriptive judgment words based on observable experiments, behavior, or studies.
Words to add to keyword searches that may help identify the study as qualitative:
• phenomenology (or phenomenological)
• “lived experience”
• “grounded theory”
• “life experience”
• experience
• “focus group”
• interview
• “case study”
• ethnography (or ethnographic)
• narrative
• observation/observing/observe
• ethic/ethical
• credible/credibility/trustworthy/trustworthiness
• “content analysis”
• participant
• discourse analysis
Source:
Qualitative and quantitative keywords for searching. (n.d.) Tennessee Tech University. https://www.tntech.edu/library/pdf/Qualitative-quantitative-search-terms.pdf
Quantitative research usually consists of gathering and statistically analyzing information measured by instruments, not people, and is quantifiable numerically.
Words to add to keyword searches that may help identify the study as quantitative:
• correlation
• empirical research
• experiment
• hypothesis
• reliability
• sample
• validity
• variable/variance/variation
• Chi-Square test
• analysis of variance
• confidence intervals
• statistic/statistically
• distribution
• validation
• mathematical
• ANOVA/ANCOVA
• trial/clinical trial
• randomized
• controlled
• survey
Source
Qualitative and quantitative keywords for searching. (n.d.) Tennessee Tech University. https://www.tntech.edu/library/pdf/Qualitative-quantitative-search-terms.pdf
|
Qualitative |
Quantitative |
|
|
|
|
cannot be counted numerically |
can be counted numerically, quantifiable |
|
focuses on description of qualities over measurement |
focuses on measurement over description |
|
often takes place in a naturalistic environment |
often takes place in a controlled environment |
|
does not employ statistical analysis |
employs statistical analysis |
|
|
|
|
Examples: focus groups, interviews, open-ended surveys (unstructured responses) |
Examples: close-ended surveys, data analysis (structured responses) |
Source:
Quantitative vs Qualitative. (2024). Finding Quantitative and Qualitative Research Libguide. University of Mount Olive. https://moc.libguides.com/quant_qual_res