Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/28680
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Improving reporting of meta-ethnography: the eMERGe reporting guidance
Author(s): France, Emma F
Cunningham, Maggie
Ring, Nicola
Uny, Isabelle
Duncan, Edward A S
Jepson, Ruth G
Maxwell, Margaret
Roberts, Rachel J
Turley, Ruth L
Booth, Andrew
Britten, Nicky
Flemming, Kate
Gallagher, Ian
Garside, Ruth
Hannes, Karin
Keywords: Guideline
Meta-ethnography
Nursing
Publication standards
Qualitative evidence synthesis
Qualitative research
Reporting
Research design
Systematic review
Issue Date: 31-Jan-2019
Date Deposited: 4-Feb-2019
Citation: France EF, Cunningham M, Ring N, Uny I, Duncan EAS, Jepson RG, Maxwell M, Roberts RJ, Turley RL, Booth A, Britten N, Flemming K, Gallagher I, Garside R & Hannes K (2019) Improving reporting of meta-ethnography: the eMERGe reporting guidance. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 19, Art. No.: 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0600-0
Abstract: Aims: The aim of this study was to provide guidance to improve the completeness and clarity of meta-ethnography reporting. Background: Evidence-based policy and practice require robust evidence syntheses which can further understanding of people’s experiences and associated social processes. Meta-ethnography is a rigorous seven-phase qualitative evidence synthesis methodology, developed by Noblit and Hare. Meta-ethnography is used widely in health research,but reporting is often poor quality and this discourages trust in and use of its findings. Meta-ethnography reporting guidance is needed to improve reporting quality. Design: The eMERGe study used a rigorous mixed-methods design and evidence-based methods to develop the novel reporting guidance and explanatory notes. Methods: The study, conducted from 2015 to 2017, comprised of: (1) a methodological systematic review of guidance for meta-ethnography conduct and reporting; (2) a review and audit of published meta-ethnographies to identify good practice principles; (3) international, multidisciplinary consensus-building processes to agree guidance content;(4) innovative development of the guidance and explanatory notes. Findings: Recommendations and good practice for all seven phases of meta-ethnography conduct and reporting were newly identified leading to 19 reporting criteria and accompanying detailed guidance. Conclusion: The bespoke eMERGe Reporting Guidance, which incorporates new methodological developments and advances the methodology, can help researchers to report the important aspects of meta-ethnography. Use of the guidance should raise reporting quality. Better reporting could make assessments of confidence in the findings more robust and increase use of meta-ethnography outputs to improve practice, policy, and service user outcomes in health and other fields. This is the first tailored reporting guideline for meta-ethnography. This article is being simultaneously published in the following journals:Journal of Advanced Nursing, Psycho-oncology, Review of Education,and BMC Medical Research Methodology.
DOI Link: 10.1186/s12874-018-0600-0
Rights: © The Author(s). 2019 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Notes: Additional co-authors: Simon Lewin, George W Noblit, Catherine Pope, James Thomas, Meredith Vanstone, Gina M A Higginbottom and Jane Noyes
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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