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DETERMINING THE SAMPLE SIZE IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DETERMINING THE SAMPLE SIZE IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Author(s): Daniela Rusu Mocănașu
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Communication studies
Published by: Ideas Forum International Academic and Scientific Association
Keywords: sample size; adequate sample; qualitative research; saturation; purposive sampling;

Summary/Abstract: According to most researchers carrying out qualitative researches, adequacy of sample size is a keymarker for the research’s quality. However, there is no consensus with respect to the exact size of aproper sample. For some authors, the count of investigated units is irrelevant when they assess the samplesize’s adequacy, as they emphasize the abundance of data submitted by the units included in the sample.Other researchers deem the sample size all-important in order to reach reliable outputs and to ensure thereliability of qualitative researches. No clear methods and rules are given for qualitative investigation inorder to guide researches in establishing the sample’s proper size. Size determination is a matter ofconsideration, as the researchers follow various guidelines in order to assess whether their own researchsample is proper or not. This paper aims to identify the main external guidelines for a qualitative researchproject allowing researchers to determine the proper sample size in qualitative research..

  • Issue Year: 4/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 181-187
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English