The Validity Issue in Mixed Research

In quantitative research, the importance of validity has been long accepted. In qualitative research, discussions of validity have been more contentious and different typologies and terms have been produced. In mixed methods research, wherein quantitative and qualitative approaches are combined, discussions about “validity” issues are in their infancy. We argue that because mixed research involves combining complementary strengths and nonoverlapping weaknesses of quantitative and qualitative research, assessing the validity of findings is particularly complex; we call this the problem of integration. We recommend that validity in mixed research be termed legitimation in order to use a bilingual nomenclature.…