Trustworthiness In Qualitative Research
Credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability – explained simply.
By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | January 2025

If you’re conducting qualitative research, you’ve probably come across the term trustworthiness. It’s a core concept in qualitative studies, and in this post, we’ll break it down step by step so you can easily apply it to your research.
Simply put, trustworthiness ensures that your study – and its findings – are credible, reliable, and can be trusted. Loosely speaking, it’s the qualitative research equivalent of validity and reliability in quantitative research, but with a focus on capturing the nuances of human experiences.
To build trustworthiness into your research, you’ll need to focus on four key pillars: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Don’t worry – we’ll walk you through each one and show you exactly how to apply them to your study.
What Does Trustworthiness Mean?
At its core, trustworthiness is about ensuring your research is believable and reliable. In qualitative studies, this often comes down to how well your findings represent the realities of your participants. Are you capturing their voices, perspectives, and experiences in an authentic way? If so, your research is on the right track.
Trustworthiness involves more than just getting things “right.” It’s also about documenting your research process and making it clear how you reached your conclusions. By doing this, you allow others to evaluate the quality of your study and even apply your findings to other contexts.
This is where the four pillars of trustworthiness come in. Let’s explore them one by one.
Trustworthiness Pillar #1: Credibility
Think of credibility as making sure your findings reflect the actual experiences and perspectives of your participants. It’s all about accuracy – are you capturing what they’re trying to say? This is similar to internal validity in quantitative research.
Here’s how you can boost credibility in your study:
- Spend quality time with participants: The more time you spend with your participants, the better you’ll understand their perspectives. This is called prolonged engagement.
- Check your findings with participants: Once you’ve drawn up your findings, take them back to your participants and ask, “Does this reflect what you meant?” This is called member checking.
- Use multiple data sources: Triangulate your data by using different methods, like interviews, surveys, or observations, to ensure your findings hold up across the board.
Example: Enhancing Credibility
Let’s say you’re studying remote workers’ experiences. To make sure your findings are credible, you could:
- Spend enough time with a variety of remote workers to really understand their day-to-day realities.
- Share your findings with them to confirm you’ve interpreted their experiences correctly.
- Compare your interview findings with survey results or notes from observing remote work environments.
By taking these steps, you can ensure your research accurately reflects your participants’ realities.
Trustworthiness Pillar #2: Transferability
Now let’s talk about transferability. This pillar is all about helping others determine whether your findings are relevant to their situation. In other words, are your results meaningful beyond your specific study?
Unlike quantitative research, where we often aim to generalise results, qualitative research focuses on providing rich, detailed descriptions so others can judge if your findings apply to their context.
Here’s how to enhance transferability in your study:
- Provide thick and rich descriptions: Write detailed accounts of your research context, participants, and setting. The more detail you include, the easier it will be for others to assess whether your findings are relevant.
- Be transparent about your methods and context: Explain your sampling strategy and any factors that might affect the applicability of your results.
Example: Enhancing Transferability
Imagine you’re studying how nurses cope during a hospital health crisis. To ensure transferability, you could:
- Describe the hospital environment, the specific health crisis, and the demographics of the nurses in your study.
- Provide enough context so others can decide if your findings are relevant to their own hospital or crisis.
The key here is to paint a vivid picture of your study so other researchers can see how it might apply to their context.
I didn’t know if I was good enough.
See how Kelsee went from lost and confused to conquering her PhD.Trustworthiness Pillar #3: Dependability
Dependability focuses on the stability and consistency of your research process. Essentially, this pillar asks: “If someone repeated your study under similar circumstances, would they get similar results?”
Here’s how you can ensure dependability:
- Document your process in detail: Keep a record of every step in your research, from your data collection methods to your analysis techniques.
- Invite external reviewers: Have someone outside your study review your methods and findings to ensure everything is clear and consistent.
Example: Enhancing Dependability
Let’s say you’re researching the impact of social media on youth self-esteem. To ensure dependability:
- Keep detailed notes on how you conducted interviews, the questions you asked, and how you analysed the data.
- Ensure that your approach stays consistent if you’re interviewing participants at different times.
- Invite an external reviewer to audit your process and ensure transparency.
By documenting your research thoroughly, you make it easier for others to replicate your study and trust your findings.
Trustworthiness Pillar #4: Confirmability
Finally, let’s look at confirmability, which ensures your findings are shaped by your data – not your personal biases. It’s all about being transparent about your decisions and showing that your conclusions come from your participants, not your preconceptions.
Here’s how to demonstrate confirmability:
- Keep an audit trail: Document everything, from how you collected data to how you made your interpretations.
- Use triangulation: Cross-check your data using multiple sources to reduce bias.
- Invite external reviewers: Have someone neutral examine your audit trail to confirm your findings are rooted in the data.
Example: Enhancing Confirmability
Imagine you’re studying voter behaviour in a particular region. Naturally, you’ll have your own political beliefs, which could influence how you interpret the data. To ensure confirmability:
- Keep a detailed record of every step in your research, including how you arrived at your conclusions.
- Have an external reviewer assess your audit trail to ensure your findings are based on the data, not your biases.
While it’s impossible to remove bias entirely, these steps help you show that your findings are as objective as possible.

Wrapping It Up
To recap, trustworthiness in qualitative research rests on four key pillars:
- Credibility: Reflecting participants’ perspectives accurately.
- Transferability: Providing enough detail for others to assess relevance.
- Dependability: Ensuring consistency and transparency in your process.
- Confirmability: Demonstrating that your findings are shaped by the data, not your personal views.
Building trustworthiness takes careful planning and a commitment to transparency. As you work through your study, keep asking yourself: “How can I make my research more credible, applicable, consistent, and unbiased?” By focusing on these four pillars, you’ll create research that others can trust and build upon.
You Might Also Like:

Qualitative Research Basics: The 20,000-Foot View
New to qualitative? Learn about the four key phases of the qualitative research process: data collection, coding, analysis, and writing.

How To Choose The Right Qualitative Analysis Method
Not sure which qualitative analysis method to use? Learn how to choose the right method for your specific research project.

Reflexivity & Triangulation In Qualitative Research
Learn how reflexivity and triangulation help manage subjectivity in qualitative research by enhancing credibility and minimising bias.

How To Choose A Tutor For Your Dissertation
Hiring the right tutor for your dissertation or thesis can make the difference between passing and failing. Here’s what you need to consider.

Writing A Dissertation While Working: A How-To Guide
Struggling to balance your dissertation with a full-time job and family? Learn practical strategies to achieve success.
0 Comments