Glossary

Saturation

The end point of some approaches to qualitative analysis, where a decision is made that no additional themes are likely to be found. Of late, this term has fallen out of favour and is often replaced by discussions of informational power or theoretical sufficiency.

Glossary

Summary (bullet points)

An increasingly outdated term, with roots in grounded theory
Refers to the point at which researchers decide they have enough data and may cease data collection
Increasingly understood data can never be fully saturated, instead informational power or theoretical sufficiency are discussed to guide discussions regarding when to stop data collection

Classification (s)

Research Term

Classification (s)

Analysis

Foundational paper (s)

Varpio L, Ajjawi R, Monrouxe LV, O’Brien BC, Rees CE. Shedding the cobra effect: problematising thematic emergence, triangulation, saturation and member checking. Medical education. 2017 Jan;51(1):40-50.