Qualitative Research:Examining the Misconceptions

For many in the academic circle, it is a matter of some contestation as whether a qualitative research is good enough to be qualified as academic research. The paper pursues two most widely leveled allegations against qualitative research—it is devoid of scientific rigor and ‘anything goes’ in qualitative research. The author argues that such allegations are misplaced and exist because of the lack of understanding of paradigmatic differences between qualitative and quantitative research, and due to the dearth of adoption of good qualitative research practices. The goal of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to examine the soundness of such allegations against qualitative research, and secondly, to report qualitative research practices to systematically counter the allegations of lack of rigor and ‘anything goes’.