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Protecting the Voices of Our Research

Appropriately Verifying Qualitative Data

University of Louisville, gcross{at}louisville.edu

Although discussion of composition research methods over the last 10 years has culminated in Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) guidelines, these guidelines do not include procedures for verifying qualitative data. Such procedures would entail having a third party check to some degree that the researcher spent the time claimed at the site and that the subjects did what was described and said what was quoted in the published research. This commentary reviews federal policies on research misconduct and government and professional association responses to data faking, noting the additional danger of incompetent investigations of research misconduct. Arguing that the discipline should take appropriate measures to verify qualitative data, I recommend a two-tiered approach.

Key Words: qualitative research • ethnography • human subjects research • data verification • research misconduct

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 18, No. 4, 491-504 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1050651904267119


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