Links to empirical data
What to write
Provide evidence (e.g., quotes, field notes, text excerpts, photographs) to substantiate the more general and abstract concepts or inferences they present as findings (see note on de-identification).
You could report this evidence in a table or figure, incorporated into a narrative description of findings, as a stand-alone narrative, or in text blocks embedded in the manuscript text. If you are constrained by word limits or media limitations (e.g., video), consider sharing data via an appendix, supplemental material, or web-based repository.
This item can be reported in the Results or Discussion sections (see note).
Why readers need this information
This information helps bring results to life, and adds credibility.
De-identifying evidence
Evidence is typically de-identified to protect the privacy of study participants, settings, and/or institutions. See Item 14 for reporting anonymisation.
Where to report this item
In qualitative research the distinction between results and discussion tends to blur because analysis often involves interpretation, inference, and synthesis. Although most journals require separate sections for Results and Discussion, many elements of Items 16–19 could reasonably be reported in either section. As such, we defer to authors and editors to determine where to report these essential elements.
Examples
See Frankel et al. for an excellent example of how to use photographs (or snapshots from video) to illustrate and provide supporting evidence for patterns of behavior identified in the analysis. http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/21/Suppl_1/i121.
We identified five interruption types: (1) probing for further data, (2) prompting for expected sequence, (3) teaching around the case, (4) thinking out loud, and (5) providing direction (see Table 1). Several interruption types served both goals of the case review discussions—teaching and patient care. For example, when thinking out loud, supervisors reasoned through problems and taught the team: “So that’s the big question, did she have a mechanical fall, or did she have a medicine-related fall?” (Case 2). Supervisors prompted for expected sequence, preventing presenters from skipping over information while simultaneously allowing the supervisor to instruct the team on presentation style: “So now you can tell me what the rest of his test results are because I haven’t heard those” (Case 16).
Training
The UK EQUATOR Centre runs training on how to write using reporting guidelines.
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