'Q-Q' - A Two Guitar Band: Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research

Abstract:     
In our attempt to find the quality of a research paper, we are forced, at some point, to choose between qualitative or quantitative methods or to make a magic potion, by mixing the two methods. At the starting point of a great adventure, why not doctoral studies, this article presents a great retrospective in what qualitative and quantitative methods mean and how one can reach their quality. The article doesn’t take only the form of a literature review, but also of a hypothetical application for a future research. The studied literature makes the researchers aware of the fact that there are major differences between the two methods discussed and that searching for reliability and validity is appropriate only for the quantitative method, whereas the qualitative one asks for a more complex group of criteria.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 11

Keywords: qualitative and quantitative research, triangulation, quality of the research

JEL Classification: M31

working papers series