Journal of Mixed Methods Research | 2019
In This Issue: Quality in Mixed Methods Research, Systematic Mixed Studies Reviews, Mixed Methods Single Case Research, Community-Based Participatory Research, and Data Integration and Consolidation
Abstract
This October 2019 issue of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR) includes one editorial, six articles, and one media review. In the editorial (Fetters & Molina-Azorin, 2019), we introduce a checklist of methodology elements for inclusion in methodological article submissions at JMMR, both empirical methodological mixed methods research articles and methodological/theoretical articles. We provide a review of the article types, the rationale for a checklist, a vision for the benefits of the checklist, a review of the checklist elements, and a recommendation to include the checklist with submissions to the journal. The checklist was developed to help guide the submissions of authors new to writing mixed methods methodological articles. In the lead article of this issue, Fàbregues, Paré, and Meneses (2019), with affiliations in psychology, education, and qualitative methods, compare how researchers in multiple disciplines operationalize and conceptualize the quality of mixed methods research. They interviewed mixed methods researchers from fields of education, nursing, psychology, and sociology. Their findings underscore the criteria participants consider to be most suitable for appraising mixed methods research; two perspectives from which the quality of mixed methods research is perceived (one contingent and flexible and the other universal and fixed); a link between the contingent and universal perspectives and the participants’ disciplines; and an equal prevalence of the most-mentioned criteria across the four disciplines. As for the implications of this work, they identify the need to review existing quality frameworks in light of criticisms evoked by the participants, the need to foster inclusive and respectful dialogue on the quality of mixed methods research across disciplines, and the feasibility of reaching a consensus on core quality criteria. In the second article, Hong and Pluye (2019), both with affiliations in family medicine, provide a framework for critical appraisal in systematic mixed studies reviews. A systematic mixed studies review is a systematic literature review that includes qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods studies and uses qualitative and/or quantitative synthesis methods. The authors