ABSTRACT
A genuine mixed methods study culminates in a meta-inference, a conclusion that connects or integrates various claims, some resulting from the analysis of qualitative data, others from the analysis of quantitative data. Paradoxically, however, the integration of claims has received very little attention in the mixed methods literature. When mixed methods scholars discuss integration, they are almost always referring to mixing methods, often called integration of methods. This chapter seeks to fill this gap. Using three real-life examples of mixed methods research, it shows how the meta-inference and its internal structure are developed and emerge in successive steps of separate instances of claim integration. In addition to (a) mixed methods or (b) multi-method, an instance of integration can be (c) mono-method (involving only one method) or involve claims obtained (d) in previous research or (e) through reasoning (without data collection). Furthermore, this chapter shows that claim integration is not unique to mixed methods research but occurs in mono-method research as well. In line with the emergent nature of the meta-inference, furthering claims through contradiction and explanation, rather than robustness of claims, determines the value of a mixed methods or mono-method study.
