Many authors reporting qualitative research employ the method of Thematic Analysis (“TA”). Where they do, they are very likely to cite a paper published in 2006.
Braun, Virginia, and Clarke, Victoria (2006) “Using thematic analysis in psychology.” Qualitative research in psychology 3.2, 77-101.
Although originally grounded in Psychology, the message of this paper has spread widely through social science. In the fifteen years since its publication, it has attracted over 110,000 citations. The framing of TA that described, and the scaffold provided for good practice has made this paper a benchmark publication in qualitative analysis.
The 40-minute conversation below is with one of its authors: Victoria Clarke. This exchange explores some key imperatives of the method and considers how ideas behind the 2006 paper have since evolved – into a form that Braun and Clarke now term ‘Reflexive Thematic Analysis’
A bibliography of suggested further reading (and viewing) is given further down this page. While the present conversation should serve to capture the spirit of the method and methodology.
Download conversation transcript here in Microsoft Word format or in PDF format
Conversation outline
00.00: An introduction to the following conversation (made necessary by loss of the first few minutes in the original recording)
00.40: Those first few lost minutes surmised. The disciplinary spread of TA, including Educational Studies. Its wide applicability – to participant talk but also to documents, publications, social media, images etc.
02.00: Do authors “short cut” their reporting of how TA was adopted and executed?
03.51: How is good practice in reporting TA method best achieved by authors?
06.47: Can/should qualitative researchers make their raw data sets more visible to readers?
09.15: Could/should (reflexive) records of the researcher’s analytic process (diaries, memos etc) be made visible?
11.25: You don’t refer to digital tools for supporting analysis (which might be recruited towards sharing records)
14.22: Do/should researchers adequately declare their own ‘identity baggage’ in their reporting?
17.18: How does TA address researchers’ anxieties about the credibility or trustworthiness of their analysis/findings?
22.04: Is ‘member checking’ (bouncing back findings to participants) a useful strategy for credibility management?
24.50: How do you address the researcher’s insecurity about their authority to ‘tell a participant’s story’?
27.39: Does reflexivity have to be private – rather than socially constructed through collaborative data coding?
32.35: Is TA slavish to ‘texts‘. Should there be more triangulation? More supplementary observations?
35.04: Should analytic processes include more attention to the dynamic of the fieldwork engagement itself?
37.80: The tension between analysing an audio record versus a textually transcribed one
39.35: What have become the key points in your post-2006 development of TA?
References: material mentioned in the conversation
Trainor, L. R., & Bundon, A. (2020). Developing the craft: reflexive accounts of doing reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 1-22.
Ho, K. H., Chiang, V. C., & Leung, D. (2017). Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis: the ‘possibility’beyond ‘actuality’in thematic analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(7), 1757-1766.
Varpio, L., Ajjawi, R., Monrouxe, L. V., O’Brien, B. C., & Rees, C. E. (2017). Shedding the cobra effect: problematising thematic emergence, triangulation, saturation and member checking. Medical education, 51(1), 40-50.
References: material for further study
A good starting point for investigating Reflexive Thematic Analysis (as developed by Braun and Clarke) is their TA website. This answers many questions you may have as well as pointing at other useful resources.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage. (First chapter here)
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (forthcoming shortly) Thematic analysis. Sage
Braun, V., Clarke, V., & Hayfield, N. (2019). ‘A starting point for your journey, not a map’: Nikki Hayfield in conversation with Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke about thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1-22.
If you are searching for examples of particular applications of TA – find the 2006 paper on Google Scholar and click on the citations (Cited by…), this takes you into a different window, click the ‘Search within cited articles’ box, and then you can search within the citations and find examples of particular uses and applications of TA.
Recorded lectures
Victoria Clarke delivers a lecture on ‘What is thematic analysis’ (2017 60 minutes)
Braun and Clarke deliver a joint lecture on ‘Thematic analysis – an introduction’ (2018 60 minutes)
On YouTube you will find other short presentations on Thematic Analysis – many of which make reference to the framework first described in the 2006 Braun and Clarke paper.
Authored by:
Victoria Clarke
Victoria Clarke is Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
Charles Crook is Emeritus Professor of Education and a member of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham
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