Despite recent methodological advances in saturation, guidelines for its estimation in more complex research designs--such as ethnographic studies--have been lacking. We present an accessible, step-by-step approach to empirical assessment of data saturation, tested on a moderately sized ethnographic study with 109 combined direct observations and…

There is much debate over the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for themes and metathemes in qualitative research. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for metathemes in multisited and cross-cultural research. The analysis is based on a cross-cultural study on…

Few empirical studies exist to guide researchers in determining the number of focus groups necessary for a research study. The analyses described here provide foundational evidence to help researchers in this regard. We conducted a thematic analysis of 40 focus groups on health-seeking behaviors of African American men in Durham, North Carolina.…