Description

Author

David L. Morgan

Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

Abstract

This article provides a systematic review of studies that reported on the prevalence of mixed methods research designs and the degree of integration between the qualitative and quantitative results. A total of 17 studies were located that reported on the prevalence of mixed methods research designs in 50 or more articles, with a total coverage of more than 3,000 articles. Comparing the prevalence of three core research designs showed that convergent designs were by far the most common, and that the two less frequently used formats, exploratory sequential and explanatory sequential designs, appeared in a similar number of articles. Additionally, a review of eight studies reporting on the degree of integration indicated that more than one quarter of articles had very low levels of integration. Overall, these results indicate that mixed methods rely heavily on a limited number of research designs, and low levels of integration remain a problem in this field.