Translating Qualitative Data into Policy Recommendations: Meta-analyses for Qualitative Researchers

INTRODUCTION Qualitative researchers have found, for several decades, that some subset of conventional researchers treat qualitative researchers as second-class citizens when it comes to their fi ndings or their impact in policy circles. Findings are declared to be “anecdotal” and the claim is made that qualitative research cannot be utilized in policy formulation without extensive testing for causal relationships. Further, it is frequently claimed that qualitative research is neither aggregatable nor cumulative.