Developments and Trends in Qualitative Research in Agricultural Science
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Date
2024
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka
Abstract
Agricultural science is a broad, multidisciplinary field combining elements of natural and social sciences and informs the applicability of quantitative and qualitative methods to solve its issues. Despite the application of quantitative methods predominate, there remains an ambiguity in the application of qualitative methods to solve issues in agricultural science due to quality, validity and reliability concerns. Moreover, agricultural science researchers face the challenge of selecting among interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), observations, case studies, and textual analysis, or a combination of these methods to enhance validity and reliability. This study reviews the application of qualitative methods in agricultural science to identify common methods used, their purpose, and their contributions to investigating agricultural phenomena to provide agricultural science researchers with a guideline to enhance research quality and clear misconceptions. The study uses PRISMA reporting guidelines and has developed a protocol with search terms, and inclusion criteria. Scopus is used as the main database and initial search on qualitative data collection methods from 1981 to 2024 resulted in 1,368 articles which were reduced to 628 after applying selection criteria. The research utilized both manual and automatic reviews to ensure unbiased selections. At the final stage, articles were included for bibliometric analysis using R. The results revealed that the production of qualitative studies has increased notably since 2000. As a country, Indonesia ranked first in the application of qualitative data collection methods, followed by the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia in agricultural science research. Among the qualitative data collection methods, interviews are the most used method in agricultural science research, followed by observations, focus group discussions, narratives, and open-ended surveys. The application of qualitative data collection methods has increased significantly in agricultural science research from 2011 to the present. Early application of qualitative methods remained to about a few themes, including environment, forestry and local knowledge. From 2021 to 2024, the thematic areas of qualitative enquiry have expanded significantly, indicating their ability to apply to a broad range of subjects in agricultural science consisting of climate change, livelihood, organic farming, smallholder farming, extension, food security, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, aquaculture, food safety, and sustainability. Broadly speaking, there has been a gradual increase in applying more than one qualitative method since 2009. The increasing use of multiple methods to study phenomena highlights the importance of data triangulation in qualitative research. Additionally, investigator and data source triangulation have increased the quality and validity. Among 60% of the ten topmost cited papers used more than one data collection method, implying that multiple methods enhance the validity and reliability of the studies. Of them, 40% used a single qualitative method and 60% used interviews. The use of multiple methods could be a reason for the higher impact of these studies. The swift increase in the use of qualitative data collection methods and the combination of multiple methods shows their broader relevance for examining the phenomena in agricultural science and their ability to produce quality and valid work.
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Keywords
Agricultural science, Bibliometric analysis, PRISMA, Qualitative data collection methods
Citation
Fernando S.; Lankapura A. I. Y.; Udagedara G.; Jayaneththi H. U.; Kumara S. N. (2024), Developments and Trends in Qualitative Research in Agricultural Science, Proceedings of the International Conference on Applied and Pure Sciences (ICAPS 2024-Kelaniya) Volume 4, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka. Page 210