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Qualitative research is a research with a few respondents, objects, organisations or cases.

Many authors find it hard to distinguish qualitative research from quantitative research. In my opinion it is easy. Just look at the number of objects or respondents. If it is only one, the research should be denoted as a case study. If only a few respondents or objects participate in the research, it is a qualitative research. If a lot of respondents, or objects participate in the research - say over 30 - it is a quantitative research. Solely the number of participants makes the difference.

As a result, the analyzes that need to be performed differ. In one or a few cases, the data used for the research contains only text. This should be analyzed very differently from data consisting of numbers in a database with many variables. The data file with numbers is usually analyzed with statistical techniques, while text files must be analyzed with qualitative techniques (see below).

Related topics to Qualitative research

• Observations
• Bias
• Interobserver reliablity
• Interviews
• Interviewer bias
• Quantitative research
• Quantitatvie value
• Case study
• Research question

These manuals will guide you efficiently through your  research:

• How to formulate a good research question
• How tot analyse data from interviews

Every research can be classified on three dimensions:
   1) the research design
   2) the location of data collection and
   3) the number of cases.
Together they form the research cube. With this classification 72 types of research can be distinguished.

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