Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come
2004/10/01 by R. Burke Johnson, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie · 11,046 citations
Decision Sciences · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Computer science #Eclecticism #Epistemology #Evaluation and Performance Assessment #Health Policy Implementation Science #Management science #Multimethodology #Pluralism (philosophy) #Pragmatism #Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research #Qualitative research #Research design #Social science #Sociology
paper · doi:10.3102/0013189x033007014
published in Educational Researcher 33(7), 14-26 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2004/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
The purposes of this article are to position mixed methods research ( mixed research is a synonym) as the natural complement to traditional qualitative and quantitative research, to present pragmatism as offering an attractive philosophical partner for mixed methods research, and to provide a framework for designing and conducting mixed methods research. In doing this, we briefly review the paradigm “wars” and incompatibility thesis, we show some commonalities between quantitative and qualitative research, we explain the tenets of pragmatism, we explain the fundamental principle of mixed research and how to apply it, we provide specific sets of designs for the two major types of mixed methods research ( mixed-model designs and mixed-method designs), and, finally, we explain mixed methods research as following (recursively) an eight-step process. A key feature of mixed methods research is its methodological pluralism or eclecticism, which frequently results in superior research (compared to monomethod research). Mixed methods research will be successful as more investigators study and help advance its concepts and as they regularly practice it.
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