Table 1. Individual comparisons of... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1.

Individual comparisons of Robert Yin’s book with other qualitative research books

Aspect	Robert Yin’s book	Sharan B. Merriam’s book	John W. Creswell’s book
Structure/scope	12 chapters in four parts covering qualitative research design, data collection, data analysis and report composition	10 chapters focusing on designing a qualitative study, collecting qualitative data, analyzing data and writing reports	11 chapters covering philosophical assumptions, interpretive frameworks, five qualitative approaches, data collection, data analysis and writing
Pedagogical features	Each chapter starts with an abstract, key terms in italics, preview boxes for sub-topics and ends with key terms and exercises	Key terms in italics, chapter summaries	Introductions, discussion questions, bold terms, summaries, exercises and additional references
Purpose	Practical perspective for understanding qualitative research processes in general, particularly in social sciences	Focus on design and implementation of qualitative research in social sciences	Insight into five different qualitative inquiry approaches (narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, case studies)
Approach	Practical, inductive and adaptive	Process-oriented, specific to qualitative study design and data collection in social sciences	Expressive, applied and practical, detailing five specific qualitative approaches
Target audience	Undergraduate, graduate and continuing education courses	Practitioners and graduate students	Academics and scholars in social, human and health sciences

Aspect	Robert Yin’s book	Sharan B. Merriam’s book	John W. Creswell’s book
Structure/scope	12 chapters in four parts covering qualitative research design, data collection, data analysis and report composition	10 chapters focusing on designing a qualitative study, collecting qualitative data, analyzing data and writing reports	11 chapters covering philosophical assumptions, interpretive frameworks, five qualitative approaches, data collection, data analysis and writing
Pedagogicalfeatures	Each chapter starts with an abstract, key terms in italics, preview boxes for sub-topics and ends with key terms and exercises	Key terms in italics, chapter summaries	Introductions, discussion questions, bold terms, summaries, exercises and additional references
Purpose	Practical perspective for understanding qualitative research processes in general, particularly in social sciences	Focus on design and implementation of qualitative research in social sciences	Insight into five different qualitative inquiry approaches (narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, case studies)
Approach	Practical, inductive and adaptive	Process-oriented, specific to qualitative study design and data collection in social sciences	Expressive, applied and practical, detailing five specific qualitative approaches
Target audience	Undergraduate, graduate and continuing education courses	Practitioners and graduate students	Academics and scholars in social, human and health sciences

Source: Authors’ own compilation