The question of internal validity often pops up from members of the scientific
community who quantify phenomena by validating instruments such as surveys
and test measurements. The internal validity of qualitative research, in contrast,
comes from keeping meticulous records of all sources of information used, using
detailed transcripts, and taking field notes of all communications and reflective
thinking activities during the research process. This is known as an audit trail. A
concurrent activity qualitative researchers employ is maintaining a chain-ofevidence.
This chain takes the information recorded in the audit trail and records
the decisions made concerning all aspects of the research process as they unfold
and demonstrates how the links and conclusions between the data and analysis
were derived. Finally, qualitative researchers declare any personal bias which may
impact on their role as a researcher and make known the theoretical and
conceptual perspectives on which the study is based.
Finally, the inability of qualitative research findings to be generalized to other
communities has also been argued as a limitation. However, as generalization is
not a fundamental component of this type of research, qualitative researchers are
not bothered by this limitation.