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Coding took place in multiple stages, over time. The initial coding process was an
open coding process. The author closely read and annotated each interview transcript.
During this process, the texts were unitized and concepts were highlighted and labeled.
Based on this initial analysis, Foster identified three stages of information seeking in
interdisciplinary contexts – initial, middle, and final – along with activities involved in
each stage. Subsequent coding took place in the manner of constantly comparing the
current transcript with previous ones to allow the emergence of categories and their
properties. As the coding proceeded, additional themes and activities emerged – not
covered by the initially-identified three-stage model. Further analysis of emergent
concepts and themes and their relationships to each other resulted in a two-dimensional
model of information seeking behaviors in the interdisciplinary context. One dimension
delineates three nonlinear core processes of information seeking activities: opening,
orientation, and consolidation. The other dimension consists of three levels of contextual
interaction: cognitive approach, internal context, and external context.
The ATLAS.ti software was used to support the coding process. It allows the
researcher to code the data, retrieve text based on keywords, rename or merge existing
codes without perturbing the rest of the codes, and generate visualizatios of emergent
codes and their relationships to one another. ATLAS.ti also maintains automatic logs of
coding changes, which makes it possible to keep track of the evolution of the analysis.
As reported by Foster, coding consistency in this study was addressed by
including three iterations of coding conducted over a period of one year. However, the
author did not report on the three rounds of coding in detail. For example, he did not say
how many coders were involved in the coding, how the coders were trained, how the
coding rules were defined, and what strategies were used to ensure transparent coding. If
all three rounds of coding were done by Foster alone, there was no assessment of coding
consistency. While this is a common practice in qualitative research, it weakens the
author’s argument for the dependability of the study.
The issue of trustworthiness of the study was discussed in terms of the criteria
suggested by Lincoln and Guba (1985): credibility, dependability, transferability, and
confirmability. Credibility was established mainly through member checking and peer
debriefing. Member checking was used in four ways at various stages of data collection
and data analysis: (1) at the pilot stage, the interviewer discussed the interview questions
with participants at the end of each interview; (2) during formal interviews, the
interviewer fed ideas back to participants to refine, rephrase, and interpret; (3) in an
informal post-interview session, each participant was given the chance to discuss the
findings; and (4) an additional session was conducted with a sample of five participants
willing to provide feedback on the transcripts of their own interview as well as evaluate
the research findings. Peer debriefing was used in the study to “confirm interpretations
and coding decisions including the development of categories” (Foster, 2004, p.231). No
further details about who conducted the debriefing or how it was conducted were
reported in the paper.
The transferability of the present study was ensured by “rich description and
reporting of the research process” (Foster, 2004, p.230). Future researchers can make
transferability judgments based on the detailed description provided by Foster. The issues
of dependability and confirmability were addressed through the author’s “research notes,
which recorded decisions, queries, working out, and the development results” (Foster,