This title provides step-by-step directions for how to conduct a meta-study, as well as recommendations for tools and standards for the application of this approach.

"This book is a superior achievement from a group of masterful scholars. The book shows the theoretical, ethical, and political complexity of qualitative study, and yet offers an illuminating and useful guide to how it can be accomplished with distinction. I highly recommend it." —MARGARETE SANDELOWSKI, PhD, RN, FAAN Professor, School of Nursing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill In this book, Volume 3 of the Methods in Nursing Research series, Barbara Paterson and colleagues provide step-by-step directions for how to proceed in conducting a meta-study, as well as recommendations for tools and standards relating to the application of their approach. Drawing from their experience with meta-study research projects on chronic illness, the authors articulate and theorize the meta-analysis and meta-synthesis of qualitatively derived knowledge.

How can ethnographic studies be generalized, in contrast to concentrating on the individual case? Noblit and Hare propose a new method for synthesizing from qualitative studies: meta-ethnography. After citing the criteria to be used in comparing qualitative research projects, the authors define the ways these can then be aggregated to create more cogent syntheses of research. Using examples from numerous studies ranging from ethnographic work in educational settings to the Mead-Freeman controversy over Samoan youth, Meta-Ethnography offers useful procedural advice from both comparative and cumulative analyses of qualitative data. This provocative volume will be read with interest by researchers and students in qualitative research methods, ethnography, education, sociology, and anthropology. "After defining metaphor and synthesis, these authors provide a step-by-step program that will allow the researcher to show similarity (reciprocal translation), difference (refutation), or similarity at a higher level (lines or argument synthesis) among sample studies....Contain(s) valuable strategies at a seldom-used level of analysis." --Contemporary Sociology "The authors made an important contribution by reframing how we think of ethnography comparison in a way that is compatible with the new developments in interpretive ethnography. Meta-Ethnography is well worth consulting for the problem definition it offers." --The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease "This book had to be written and I am pleased it was. Someone needed to break the ice and offer a strategy for summarizing multiple ethnographic studies. Noblit and Hare have done a commendable job of giving the research community one approach for doing so. Further, no one else can now venture into this area of synthesizing qualitative studies without making references to and positioning themselves vis-a-vis this volume." -Educational Studies

Qualitative Metasynthesis presents a research method developed for upcycling and synthesis of qualitative primary studies, aimed at researchers within medicine and health sciences. This book demonstrates how and why qualitative metasynthesis can be a method for reuse and expansion of medical knowledge. It presents the principles of metasynthesis as a qualitative research method, so that the reader can assess whether this is a research strategy that fits the aim of their study. The author offers practical advice for conducting research using this methodology. The presentation is illustrated by a study carried out by the author and collaborators, reflecting on real-life challenges and solutions as an example of meta-ethnography, one of the most frequently used strategies for qualitative metasynthesis. The author also looks at systematic reviews, a methodology developed within in the tradition of evidence-based medicine, discussing strengths, weaknesses and pitfalls of this methodology. Rooted in the interpretative paradigm, qualitative metasynthesis challenges several of the principles from the evidence-based medicine tradition, offering reflections on challenges when epistemologically very different methodologies intersect. This book should be considered essential reading for anyone carrying out qualitative research within the fields of medicine, health and social care.

'The new edition of Green and Thorogood's Qualitative Methods for Health Research presents a great choice for professors teaching courses across the health care spectrum due to its authors' ability to give students a diverse buffet designed to whet appetites and increase hunger for more qualitative research nourishment' - The Weekly Qualitative Report Suitable for researchers and students in the fields of public health, health services research, nursing and health promotion, Qualitative Methods for Health Research provides a thorough and practical introduction to designing, conducting and appraising qualitative research. Qualitative Methods for Health Research is full of easy-to-follow guidance on how to apply core research skills to health research. Drawing on over twenty years experience of teaching methodology, Green and Thorogood cover the essentials of the theory and principles of applied research in an accessible way. Using examples from a range of settings, this book introduces readers to the key debates in qualitative methodology; issues in designing ethical, feasible and rigorous projects; the main ways of collecting and analysing qualitative data and ways of appraising and writing qualitative research. This new, Second Edition covers developments in systematic reviews of qualitative research and analysis, and includes a chapter focusing on practical issues of qualitative work within applied health research programmes. Key features include: - Case studies - Chapter summaries and key points - Glossary Qualitative Methods for Health Research is an invaluable introduction for both health professionals and students with little prior knowledge of social theory. Judith Green is a Reader in Sociology of Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Nicki Thorogood is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Critical Qualitative Health Research seeks to deepen understandings of the philosophies, politics and practices shaping contemporary qualitative health related research. This accessible, lively, controversial introduction draws on current empirical examples and critical discussion to show how qualitative research undertaken in neoliberal healthcare contexts emerges and the complex issues qualitative researchers confront. This book provides readers with a critical, interrogative discussion of the histories and the legacies of qualitative research, as well as of the more recent calls for renewed criticality in research to respond to global health concerns. Contributions further showcase a range of contemporary work engaging with these issues and the complex encounters with philosophies, politics and practices this involves; from seeking explicit engagements with posthuman ideas or detailed explorations of deeply engaged humanist approaches, to critical discussions of the politics and practices of emerging novel, digital and creative methods. This book offers postgraduate researchers, health researchers and students alike opportunities to engage more deeply with the emergent, complex and messy terrain of qualitative health related research.

Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.