When the research process is viewed not merely as a set of methods for data collection and analysis but, instead, as an integrated series of arbitrary choices made by the researcher, it quickly becomes apparent that the prevailing conceptualization of rigor is much too narrow; indeed, the way rigor is currently conceptualized may well be responsible for the many errors that are commonly made in the research process. An expanded conceptualization of rigor is presented, and its implications for research into some critical health issues are discussed in some detail.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (Unabridged). G. & C. Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass., 1965.
2.
SelltizC.WrightsmanL. S.CookS. W.Research Methods in Social Relations. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1976.
3.
KuhnT.The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970.
4.
AckoffR.Redesigning the Future: A Systems Approach to Social Problems. Wiley Inter-science, New York, 1970.
5.
BruerJ. T.Methodological rigor and citation frequency in patient compliance literature. Public Health72: 1119–1123, 1982.
6.
MonodJ.Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modem. Biology.Knopf, New York, 1971.
7.
BierstedtR.The Social Order. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1957.
8.
CournandA.The code of the scientist and its relationship to ethics. Science198: 699–705, 1977.
9.
BohmD.Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1980.
10.
ChurchmanC. W.The Systems Approach, Ed. 2. Dell, New York, 1979.
11.
JantschE.The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution. Pergamon, New York, 1980.
12.
PrigogineI.StengersI.Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue With Nature. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1984.
13.
SchwartzP.OgilvyJ.The Emergent Paradigm: Changing Patterns of Thought and Belief. Stanford Research Institute, Stanford, 1979.
14.
ChurchmanC. W.The Design of Inquiry Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organization. Basic Books, New York, 1971.
15.
ReasonP.RowanJ.Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research. John Wiley, New York, 1987.
16.
ReinM.Social Science and Public Policy. Penguin, New York, 1976.
17.
RavetzJ. R.Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems. Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.
18.
BatesonG.The logical categories of learning and communication. In Steps to an Ecology of Mind, edited by BatesonG., Ballantine, New York, 1972.
19.
FeyerabendR.Against Method. Verso, London, 1975.
20.
LakatosI.Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, edited by LakatosI.MusgraveA., Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, U.K., 1970.
21.
PopperK. R.The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Basic Books, New York, 1959.
22.
ToulminS. D.Human Understanding. Vol. 1: The Evolution of Collective Understanding. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1972.
23.
RatcliffeJ. W.Notions of validity in qualitative research methodology. Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization5: 147–167, 1983.
24.
ZukavG.The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. William Morrow, New York, 1979.
25.
StarrP.The Social Transformation of American Medicine. Basic Books, New York, 1982.
26.
BroadW. J.Frauds from 1960 to the present: Bad apples or a bad barrel? In The Dark Side of Science, Vol. 1, Part 2, edited by KilbourneB. K.KilbourneM. T., American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, 1983.
27.
BroadW. J.WadeN.Betrayers of the Truth. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983.
28.
KeyworthG. A.II, Four years of Reagan science policy: Notable shifts in priorities. Science224:9–13, 1984.
29.
KennedyD.Government policies and the cost of doing research. Science227:480–484, 1985.
30.
National Science Foundation. Cooperative Science: A National Study of University and Industry Researchers. NSF, Washington, D.C., 1984.
31.
HamburgD. A.Science and technology in a world transformed. Science224: 943–946, 1984.
32.
RatcliffeJ. W.Reaganomics: Implications for peace and the public health. Int. Q. Commun. Health Educ. 6(1): 3–30, 1985/86.
33.
SivardR. L.World Military and Social Expenditures 1985. World Priorities, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1985.
34.
KahnemanD.SlovicP.TverskyA. (eds.). Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1982.
35.
NelkinD. (ed.). Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions, Ed. 2. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Cal., 1984.
36.
LynnF.The Interplay of Science and Values in Assessing Environmental Risk. Doctoral dissertation, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1983.
37.
LowranceW.Of Acceptable Risk. William Kaufman, Los Altos, Cal., 1976.
38.
The medical/industrial complex (editorial). Lancet2: 1380–1381, 1973.
39.
FreudenbergN.Not in Our Backyards. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1984.
40.
von StackelbergP.Jury charges fraud in pesticide lab tests. New Farm3(6): 12–15, 1971.
41.
RyanW.Blaming the Victim. Vintage, New York, 1976.
42.
MitroffI. I.SagastiF.Epistemology as general systems theory: An approach to the design of complex decision-making experiments. Philos. Soc. Sci.3: 117–134, 1973.
43.
RatcliffeJ. W.The influence of funding agencies on international health policy, research and programs. Mobius5(3): 93–115, 1985.
44.
World Bank. Health Sector Policy Paper. Washington, D.C., 1980.
45.
World Health Organization. Constitution of the World Health Organization, Annex F. In The First Ten Years of the World Health Organization. WHO, Geneva, 1958.
46.
HawleyA. H.Ecology and population. Science179: 1196–1201, 1973.
47.
KolataG.Reducing risk: A change of heart?Science231: 669–670, 1986.
48.
RittelH. W. J.WebberM. M.Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences4: 155–169, 1973.
49.
RyanA.The Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Macmillan, London, 1970.
50.
WunschG. J.Theories, Models, and Knowledge: The Logic of Demographic Discovery. Departement de Demographie Working Paper No. 121. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 1984.
51.
WhyteW. F.Social inventions for solving human problems. Am. Sociol. Rev.47: 1–13, 1982.
52.
MitroffI. I.FeatheringhamT. R.On systemic problem solving and the error of the third kind. Behav. Sci.19: 383–393, 1974.
53.
RatcliffeJ. C.Occupational Stress: A Metatheoretical Analysis. Doctoral dissertation, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
HerekG. M.Beyond ‘homophobia’: A social psychological perspective on attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. J. Homosexuality10(1–2): 1–21, 1984.
56.
KohnM. L.SchoolerC. L.Work and Personality: An Inquiry into the Impact of Social Stratification. Ablex, Norwood, N.J., 1983.
57.
LordE.RossL.LepperM. R.Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 37(11): 2098–2109, 1979.
58.
NisbettR.RossL.Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1980.
59.
OmranA. R.The Health Theme in Family Planning. Monograph No. 16. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1971.
60.
TaylorC. E.The Child Survival Hypothesis in Family Planning in Modern Underdeveloped Countries: Perspectives and Findings. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, February 21, 1976.
61.
PrestonS. H.Suggested areas of future research. In Seminar on Infant Mortality in Relation to the Level of Fertility, Bangkok, May 1975. Committee for International Coordination of National Research in Demography (CICRED), Paris, 1975.
62.
BatesonG.Mind and Nature, pp. 280–308. E. P. Dutton, New York, 1979.
GouldnerA. W.Anti-minotaur: The myth of a value-free sociology. Social Problems9: 119–213, 1962.
65.
DallmayrF. R.McCarthyT. A.Understanding and Social Inquiry. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 1977.
66.
LakatosI.MusgraveA. (eds.). Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1970.
67.
RadnitskyG.Contemporary Schools of Metascience. Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1973.
68.
MarneyM.SchmidtP.Evolution of scientific method. In Evolution and Consciousness: Human Systems in Transition, edited by JantschE.WaddingtonD., pp. 185–197. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1976.
69.
Schrader-FrechetteK. S.Nuclear Power and Public Policy: The Social and Ethical Problems of Fission Technology. Reidel, Boston, 1980.
70.
CeresetoM.WaitzkinH.Economic development, political-economic system, and the physical quality of life index. Am. J. Public Health, June 1986, pp. 661–666.
71.
MitioffI. I.MasonR. O.Structuring ill-structured policy issues: Further explorations in a methodology for messy problems. Strategic Management J. 1: 331–342, 1980.
72.
MitroffI. I.EmshoffJ. R.KilmanR. H.Assumptional analysis: A methodology for strategic problem solving. Management Sci25: 583–593, 1979.
73.
MosleyW. H.Will Primary Health Care Reduce Infant and Child Mortality? A Critique of Some Current Strategies with Specific Reference to Africa and Asia. IUSSP Monograph. Institute National d'Etudes Demographiques, Paris, March 1983.
74.
HernandezD. J.Success or Failure? Family Planning Programs in the Third World. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1984.
75.
CapraF.The Turning Point. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1982.
76.
GranG.Development by People. Praeger Scientific, New York, 1983.
77.
KolataG.The proper display of data. Science226: 156–157, 1984.
78.
KolataG.What does it mean to be random?Science231: 1068–1070, 1986.
79.
BernsteinI.FreemanH. E.Academic and Entrepreneurial Research: Consequences of Diversity in Federal Evaluation Studies. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1974.
80.
CicourelA. V.Method and Measurement in Sociology. The Free Press, New York, 1964.
81.
LewinR.Santa Rosalia was a goat. Science221: 636–639, 1983.
82.
RiceR. A.Quantitative Methods in Politics. Russell and Russell, New York, 1969.
83.
RubensteinD.Marx and Wittgenstein: Social Praxis and Social Explanation. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1981.
84.
AlfordR. R.Health Care Politics: Ideological and Interest Group Barriers to Reform, p. 242. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1975.
85.
BierceA.The Expanded Devil's Dictionary. Doubleday and Co., New York, 1967.
86.
DucheneJ.WunschG.From Theory to Statistical Model, p. 1. Department de Demographie Working Paper No. 124. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 1984.
87.
HeisenbergW.Physics and Beyond. Harper & Row, New York, 1971.
88.
National Research Council. Toxicity Testing: Strategies to Determine Needs and Priorities. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1984.
Office of Technology Assessment. Cancer: Risk Assessing and Reducing the Dangers in Our Society. Westview Press, Boulder, Col., 1982.
91.
ChristoffelJ. D.SwartzmanD.Nuclear weapons testing fall-out: Proving causation for exposure injury. Am. J. Public Health76: 290–292, 1986.
92.
RosenbergM.The Logic of Survey Analysis. Basic Books, New York, 1968.
93.
RatcliffeJ. W.Analyst biases in KAP surveys: A cross-cultural comparison. Studies in Family Planning7: 322–330, 1976.
94.
ChurchmanC. W.The Systems Approach and Its Enemies. Basic Books, New York, 1979.
95.
MaruyamaM.Hierarchists, individualists and mutualists: Three paradigms among planners. Futures6(2):103–113, 1974.
96.
RatcliffeJ. W.Conflicts of interest in scientific research: Theory and practice. Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion and Utilization, in press, 1988.
97.
HeronJ.Philosophical basis for a new paradigm. In Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research, edited by ReasonP.RowanJ., pp. 19–35. John Wiley, New York, 1981.
98.
ShelpE.Justice: A moral test for health and health policy. In Justice and Health Care, edited by ShelpE., pp. 213–229, D. Reifel, New York, 1981.
