Research and scholarly methods: Thematic analysis

Abstract

Thematic analysis (TA) is a commonly used approach in qualitative research. TA has been widely applied in various disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and is now increasingly employed in pharmacy and healthcare research. However, pharmacy researchers may not be familiar with TA. The objectives of this manuscript are to succinctly describe the process for TA explained through the six steps of Braun and Clark as it applies to pharmacy or healthcare-related research, discuss how rigor is achieved in qualitative studies, provide an overview of the qualitative software that is available to assist with TA, and offer comparisons to quantitative analysis where appropriate to demonstrate the contrast with qualitative techniques such as TA.