‘Conceptually rich’ | Explanatory but not ‘conceptually rich’ | Descriptive |
---|---|---|
Theoretical concepts are unambiguous and described in sufficient depth to be useful | Consideration of the context in which the research took place | Limited or no consideration of the context in which the research took place |
Relationships between and among concepts are clearly articulated | Some attempt to explain anomalous results and findings with reference to context and data | No attempt to explain anomalous results and findings with reference to context and data |
Concepts sufficiently developed and defined to enable understanding without the reader needing to have first-hand experience of an area of practice | Correlations and relationships explained, with use of inferential statistics (quantitative studies) | Use of descriptive statistics only (quantitative studies) |
Concepts grounded strongly in a cited body of literature | Â | Â |
Concepts are parsimonious (i.e. provide the simplest, but not over-simplified, explanation) | Â | Â |