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Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis is a foundational qualitative research method designed to identify, analyze, and report patterns—known as themes—within data, offering researchers a flexible and theoretically versatile tool for interpreting rich, descriptive information such as interviews, focus groups, or textual materials.^[1] It emphasizes depth of meaning over mere frequency of occurrences, enabling the exploration of shared experiences, perceptions, and ideas across a dataset.^[1] At its core, the approach follows a structured yet adaptable six-phase process: familiarizing oneself with the data, generating initial codes, searching for potential themes, reviewing and refining those themes, defining and naming them, and finally producing a comprehensive report.^[1] The method was formalized and popularized by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke in their 2006 publication in Qualitative Research in Psychology, building on broader traditions in qualitative research within psychology and social sciences.^[1] In subsequent works, Braun and Clarke have advanced 'reflexive thematic analysis' as a preferred variant that foregrounds the researcher's active role in interpretation.^[2] Theoretically, it supports inductive (data-driven), deductive (theory-guided), or abductive (inferential) approaches, accommodating diverse epistemological stances from realism to constructionism without being tied to a single paradigm.^[3] Thematic analysis has become a staple across multiple fields due to its practicality and ability to yield actionable insights from complex human-centered data.^[4] In healthcare and anaesthesia research, for instance, it is employed to unpack patient experiences, professional decision-making, and systemic issues like error prevention or teamwork dynamics in high-stakes environments.^[4] Similarly, applications in education, social sciences, and psychology reveal patterns in behaviors, cultural narratives, and policy impacts, often enhancing study trustworthiness through criteria like researcher reflexivity, ethical transparency, and verbatim data representation.^[5] Its enduring appeal lies in balancing accessibility for novice researchers with the depth required for robust, replicable findings.^[1]

Introduction

Definition and Purpose

Thematic analysis is a flexible qualitative research method used for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns, known as themes, within data such as interview transcripts, focus group discussions, or textual materials. This approach allows researchers to systematically examine qualitative data to uncover recurring ideas or meanings that capture the essence of participants' experiences or perspectives. The primary purpose of thematic analysis is to interpret and make sense of shared meanings, experiences, or viewpoints embedded in the data, prioritizing depth of understanding over quantitative measurement. Unlike methods focused on statistical aggregation, it emphasizes the researcher's interpretive role in constructing coherent narratives from the data, enabling insights into complex social phenomena without requiring extensive theoretical frameworks. Thematic analysis differs from grounded theory, which aims to build new theories through iterative data collection and analysis, as it does not involve theory development or constant comparison across large datasets. In contrast to content analysis, which quantifies the frequency of specific words or concepts to identify trends, thematic analysis centers on the qualitative interpretation of themes rather than mere counting.^[4] Key principles of thematic analysis include its inherent flexibility, allowing adaptation to various epistemological positions and research questions without rigid procedural constraints. It is particularly accessible for novice researchers due to its straightforward structure and lack of prerequisite advanced training in qualitative paradigms.^[6] Additionally, it is well-suited for smaller datasets, where in-depth exploration of limited data can yield meaningful thematic insights without the need for extensive sampling.^[4]

Historical Development

Thematic analysis emerged informally in the 1960s and 1970s within psychology and sociology as a flexible approach for identifying patterns in qualitative data, often used without standardized procedures in early qualitative studies influenced by emerging methods like grounded theory.^[7] During this period, it was applied variably to explore themes in social and psychological phenomena, though lacking formal guidelines, which led to inconsistent implementations across disciplines.^[7] By the late 1990s, related qualitative methods such as narrative analysis gained prominence, emphasizing story structures and personal accounts, which indirectly shaped thematic analysis by highlighting the need for systematic pattern recognition in non-numerical data.^[8] A key formalization occurred in 1998 with Richard E. Boyatzis's book Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development, which provided clear guidelines for coding and theme development, establishing thematic analysis as a distinct method applicable across qualitative research.^[9] The approach gained widespread recognition in 2006 through Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke's seminal paper "Using thematic analysis in psychology," which introduced a flexible six-phase model for analyzing qualitative data and addressed common misconceptions, making it accessible for psychological research and beyond.^[10] This publication significantly popularized thematic analysis, with over 100,000 citations by 2025, influencing its adoption in health, education, and social sciences.^[10] In the 2020s, Braun and Clarke evolved the method into reflexive thematic analysis, detailed in their 2020 paper and 2021 book Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide, which foregrounded researcher subjectivity, iteration, and theoretical flexibility to counter rigid applications of the original model.^[11]^[12] Post-2023 developments have integrated thematic analysis with artificial intelligence and mixed methods, enhancing scalability for large datasets; notable contributions include the 2025 RIPES model (Reflexivity, Interpretation, Procedural consistency, Evaluation, and Situatedness) for AI-driven contexts, which adapts phases to incorporate machine-assisted coding while maintaining human oversight.^[13] Similarly, the DeTAILS framework, proposed in 2025, supports iterative large language model (LLM) integration for deep thematic exploration, emphasizing hybrid human-AI workflows in qualitative analysis.^[14] These advancements reflect thematic analysis's adaptability to technological and interdisciplinary demands.^[13]

Core Concepts

Themes

In thematic analysis, a theme is defined as a coherent pattern of meaning identified across the dataset that captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, representing some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set. Themes serve as the central unit of analysis, synthesizing recurring ideas or experiences from the data to provide insight into the phenomenon under study. Themes exhibit specific characteristics that distinguish them from mere descriptions or isolated observations. They can be semantic, focusing on the explicit or surface meanings of the data as stated by participants, or latent, delving into underlying ideas, assumptions, and conceptualizations that go beyond the obvious content. To ensure robustness, themes must demonstrate prevalence—indicating how widespread the pattern is across the dataset—and distinctiveness, showing clear boundaries from other themes to avoid overlap or redundancy. For instance, in analyzing interview data on healthcare experiences, a semantic theme might directly reflect participants' stated frustrations with wait times, while a latent theme could interpret these as indicative of broader systemic inequalities. Themes emerge through the clustering and collation of codes—granular labels applied to data segments—rather than simply listing prominent topics; this process involves grouping related codes to form higher-level patterns that tell a compelling story about the data. Common structures include hierarchical arrangements, where main (or overarching) themes encompass sub-themes that provide more nuanced detail, or parallel structures, where themes stand independently at the same level without subordination. These configurations allow themes to organize complex data effectively, such as a main theme of "identity challenges" in migration studies branching into sub-themes like "cultural adaptation" and "social exclusion." For validity, themes must meet criteria that ensure they authentically represent the dataset and align with the research aims, capturing essential aspects of the data without imposing external biases or fabricating patterns. This involves verifying that each theme is internally coherent, supported by sufficient data extracts, and contributes meaningfully to addressing the study's objectives, thereby enhancing the analysis's credibility and relevance.

Codes

In thematic analysis, codes are essential units that serve as concise labels or tags assigned to specific excerpts of data, such as words, sentences, or paragraphs, to summarize, categorize, or highlight their content in relation to the research question. These codes identify interesting features within the dataset, acting as the foundational segments that allow researchers to begin organizing qualitative material systematically. Codes in thematic analysis can be categorized into two primary types based on their level of interpretation: semantic codes, which capture the explicit or surface-level meanings directly stated in the data, and latent codes, which involve deeper researcher inference to uncover underlying ideas, assumptions, or conceptualizations. Semantic coding focuses on what participants overtly express, such as factual descriptions or direct opinions, while latent coding extends to implied patterns or ideological influences, enabling a more nuanced exploration of the data. The role of codes is to function as building blocks that manage and structure the raw data, facilitating the identification of recurring patterns across the dataset and laying the groundwork for higher-level theme development. In this process, initial coding remains open and iterative, allowing researchers to revisit and refine codes as insights emerge, thereby supporting both inductive approaches driven by the data itself and deductive ones informed by existing theory. Ultimately, these codes cluster to form broader themes that represent patterned responses or meanings within the data. Best practices for applying codes emphasize the use of short, consistent, and actionable labels that remain closely tied to the data excerpts they describe, ensuring clarity and retrievability during analysis. Researchers should code both explicit content and any implied elements relevant to the research focus, applying codes inclusively across the entire dataset while permitting multiple codes per segment to capture complexity. In inductive thematic analysis, it is particularly important to avoid imposing preconceived codes, instead generating them organically from the data to maintain flexibility and fidelity to participants' perspectives.

Types and Approaches

Inductive and Deductive Approaches

In thematic analysis, the inductive approach involves deriving themes directly from the data without relying on preconceived theoretical frameworks, allowing patterns to emerge organically through close immersion in the dataset. This bottom-up process emphasizes the researcher's active engagement with the raw material, such as interview transcripts or field notes, to identify recurring ideas grounded in participants' own expressions. For instance, in studies exploring women's experiences of heterosexual encounters, inductive coding might reveal unanticipated themes like "permissiveness" based solely on the data's content, rather than imposed categories. In contrast, the deductive approach is theory-driven, where themes are guided by existing theoretical constructs, research questions, or hypotheses, using predefined codes to systematically test or apply prior knowledge to the data. This top-down method focuses the analysis on specific aspects of the data relevant to the researcher's analytic interests, often resulting in a more structured interpretation that confirms or refutes established ideas. An example from psychology involves applying codes derived from feminist theory to examine power dynamics in relational data, ensuring the themes align with theoretical expectations while still drawing evidence from the dataset. A hybrid approach combines elements of inductive and deductive strategies, often integrating semantic analysis—which captures explicit, surface-level meanings in the data—with latent analysis, which interprets underlying assumptions, ideologies, or cultural contexts. This blended method allows for both data-driven discovery and theory-informed depth, as seen in psychological research on identity formation where initial inductive codes from participant narratives are refined deductively against constructivist frameworks to uncover implicit biases. Such hybrids enhance flexibility by balancing emergent insights with conceptual rigor. The choice between these approaches depends on the research objectives: inductive methods suit exploratory studies where little prior theory exists, offering high flexibility to uncover novel patterns but risking subjectivity without theoretical anchors; deductive approaches fit confirmatory research aimed at validating hypotheses, providing structure and replicability at the cost of potentially overlooking unexpected findings. Hybrids mitigate these trade-offs by allowing iterative shifts between data immersion and theoretical guidance, though they require careful documentation to maintain transparency. Across all approaches, reflexivity—acknowledging the researcher's influence on theme construction—remains essential to mitigate bias.

Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Reflexive thematic analysis is an iterative, constructionist approach to qualitative data analysis that emphasizes the researcher's active role in interpreting patterns (themes) within the data, where subjectivity inherently shapes the analytic outcomes.^[11] Introduced by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke in 2021 as an evolution of their earlier thematic analysis framework, it positions the researcher as a co-creator of meaning, drawing on a reflexive epistemology that acknowledges how personal experiences, assumptions, and theoretical commitments influence theme development.^[15] This method rejects the notion of themes passively "emerging" from data, instead viewing analysis as a dynamic, interpretive process grounded in social constructionism, where meanings are understood as contextually and relationally produced.^[11] Key features of reflexive thematic analysis include its rejection of rigid coding reliability measures or prescriptive protocols, such as codebooks, which it critiques for promoting a superficial, realist orientation that prioritizes replicability over depth.^[11] Instead, it prioritizes theoretical flexibility, allowing adaptation across diverse epistemological and ontological positions while centering contextual interpretation and the researcher's positionality as integral to the analysis.^[15] This approach fosters a nuanced understanding of data by integrating ongoing reflexivity—through practices like reflexive journaling—to transparently document how the analyst's subjectivity informs coding and theming decisions.^[11] In contrast to Braun and Clarke's 2006 model, which was often interpreted through a more realist lens emphasizing data-driven theme identification, reflexive thematic analysis explicitly shifts to a reflexive epistemology that embeds researcher influence throughout the process, moving away from claims of objectivity toward an embrace of interpretive subjectivity.^[11] This update integrates positionality as a core element, requiring analysts to critically reflect on their impact on findings, thereby enhancing the method's suitability for exploring complex, socially constructed phenomena.^[15] Reflexive thematic analysis has been particularly applied in health psychology to uncover nuanced explorations of identity, such as in studies of postnatal care practices where themes like "Safe Passage" illuminate the relational identities and power dynamics between traditional birth attendants and health workers in supporting maternal well-being.^[16]

Other Variants

Codebook thematic analysis represents a structured, realist variant of thematic analysis that emphasizes the development and use of a predefined codebook to guide coding and enhance reliability, particularly in team-based research environments. This approach treats themes as objective patterns in the data, often aligning with applied settings such as policy evaluation where consistent interpretation across coders is crucial.^[17] Unlike more flexible methods, it involves creating a coding frame or template early in the process, which coders apply systematically to segments of text, followed by iterative refinement to ensure inter-coder agreement.^[18] This variant is particularly valued in multidisciplinary teams for its replicability, as demonstrated in health policy studies where predefined codes facilitate comparison across large datasets.^[19] Thematic analysis can also be integrated into multi-method qualitative text analysis frameworks, where it combines with other techniques such as discourse analysis or narrative inquiry to provide deeper insights into textual data. In multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis (MMQTDA), thematic analysis identifies recurring patterns, while discourse methods examine power dynamics and narrative approaches reconstruct stories, allowing for a layered understanding of complex social phenomena.^[20] This integration is common in social sciences, enhancing the robustness of findings by triangulating qualitative depth with broader analytical tools.^[21] Attride-Stirling's 2001 model introduces thematic networks as a specialized tool for organizing themes hierarchically in qualitative research, particularly suited to complex datasets in health and social care. The model structures data into three levels: basic themes (descriptive elements from the data), organizing themes (groupings of basic themes), and global themes (overarching concepts), visualized as web-like networks to illustrate interconnections without rigid hierarchies. This approach facilitates the synthesis of multifaceted information, such as patient experiences in healthcare interventions, by mapping relationships between themes to reveal underlying patterns.^[22] Widely adopted in health research for its visual clarity, the model supports systematic exploration of qualitative material while maintaining analytical flexibility. Post-2023 developments have seen blended variants of thematic analysis increasingly incorporated into mixed-methods designs, particularly in educational research to bridge qualitative insights with quantitative measures. These approaches combine thematic coding of open-ended responses or interviews with statistical analysis of survey data, providing a holistic view of educational phenomena like student engagement.^[23] For example, a 2025 case study on AI adoption in K-12 education used thematic analysis to interpret educators' qualitative perceptions alongside quantitative readiness scores, highlighting barriers such as training gaps.^[24] Similarly, explorations of blended learning environments in higher education have employed meta-thematic analysis to review effects on academic achievement across studies, demonstrating improved pedagogical outcomes.^[25] Such integrations underscore the adaptability of thematic analysis in contemporary mixed-methods contexts, emphasizing practical applications in policy and curriculum development.^[26]

The Analytical Process

Familiarization with Data

The familiarization phase represents the foundational step in thematic analysis, where researchers immerse themselves in the dataset to develop an in-depth understanding of its content, context, and nuances. This immersion is essential for building familiarity before proceeding to more structured analytical activities, enabling the identification of potential patterns and meanings within the data. According to Braun and Clarke, this phase involves transcribing the data if necessary, repeatedly reading and re-reading the entire dataset, and noting down initial ideas or impressions that emerge. A key activity in this phase is the preparation of transcripts from audio or video recordings, which serves not only as a practical step but also as an initial form of engagement with the material. Researchers typically produce an orthographic transcript—a verbatim account that captures all spoken words accurately, along with relevant nonverbal elements such as pauses, laughter, coughs, or emphasis to preserve the data's richness and subtleties. While full Jeffersonian transcription (which details every phonetic and paralinguistic feature) may be overly detailed for thematic analysis, the orthographic approach ensures that interpretive depth is not lost due to oversimplification, such as through "intelligent" or cleaned-up transcripts that omit these elements. Listening to or viewing the original recordings multiple times alongside the transcripts further enhances immersion, allowing researchers to reconnect with the data's contextual and emotional tones. During repeated readings, researchers actively note initial impressions, including recurring ideas, surprising elements, or potential analytical directions, often in the form of marginal annotations or separate researcher memos. This process highlights the complexities and contradictions inherent in qualitative data, such as ambiguous statements or conflicting participant accounts, which must be acknowledged early to avoid oversimplifying the dataset later. Coffey and Atkinson emphasize that qualitative data is inherently messy and multifaceted, requiring analysts to engage with these intricacies from the outset to inform subsequent interpretation. These preliminary notes serve as the groundwork for generating initial codes, capturing emergent patterns without yet applying formal labels.

Generating Initial Codes

Generating initial codes is the second phase of thematic analysis, where researchers systematically label segments of the data to identify and capture its key features and meanings. This process involves working through the entire dataset, often line-by-line or by meaningful segments, to generate descriptive labels that reflect the content without preconceived categories. Building on notes from the familiarization phase, researchers produce an initial set of codes, with iterative coding applied across all items to ensure comprehensive coverage. Central to this phase is data reduction, which condenses voluminous raw data into analyzable, meaningful units while preserving the original context and nuances. As described by Coffey and Atkinson, this involves segmenting the data into equivalence classes or indexed portions that allow for retrieval and reorganization, balancing simplification with the retention of interpretive depth to avoid loss of meaning. Codes serve as tags—such as single words, phrases, or short sentences—attached to excerpts, enabling the researcher to link raw material to emerging concepts. For inductive thematic analysis, open coding is a primary strategy, where codes emerge directly from the data rather than imposed frameworks, fostering a bottom-up approach that highlights unanticipated patterns. Researchers are advised to code inclusively, considering surrounding context and allowing segments to receive multiple codes if they relate to diverse aspects, while avoiding the temptation to force data into rigid or existing categories. This ensures codes remain faithful to the dataset's richness, including contradictions and complexities. The output of this phase is a comprehensive list of codes, collated alongside their corresponding data extracts, often organized by data item (e.g., interview transcript) for easy reference. This coded material forms the foundation for subsequent theme development, with researchers typically generating dozens to hundreds of codes depending on dataset size, reviewed iteratively for relevance and saturation. Tools like qualitative software (e.g., NVivo) can facilitate this by enabling efficient tagging and export, though manual methods such as highlighting or indexing cards are equally valid.

Searching for Themes

In the searching for themes phase of thematic analysis, researchers collate the initial codes generated from the data into potential themes by grouping related codes and assembling all relevant data extracts under each candidate theme. This step involves examining the codes for patterns of meaning and beginning to organize them into broader categories that capture recurring ideas or concepts across the dataset. According to Braun and Clarke (2006), this phase starts once coding is complete and focuses on sorting codes to form overarching themes while ensuring that all coded extracts are linked back to these emerging structures.^[10] Visual aids such as mind maps, tables, or thematic piles are commonly employed to facilitate this organization, helping researchers identify relationships between codes, such as hierarchies where sub-themes support main themes, or connections that indicate thematic overlaps. These tools allow for a more intuitive exploration of how codes cluster to represent coherent patterns in the data, rather than isolated occurrences. Braun and Clarke (2006) emphasize that themes should go beyond mere frequency, instead encapsulating significant aspects of the data relevant to the research question, with each potential theme supported by multiple data extracts to demonstrate its patterned nature.^[10] The process is inherently iterative, requiring researchers to revisit the full set of codes and data to ensure comprehensive coverage, while discarding or reassigning any that do not contribute to viable themes, such as placing uncategorized codes in a temporary "miscellaneous" pile for later review. This back-and-forth movement between codes and emerging themes refines the structure until a provisional organization emerges. The output of this phase is an initial thematic map—a visual or tabular representation outlining candidate themes, their sub-themes, and associated coded extracts—which provides a foundation for subsequent refinement. Braun and Clarke (2006) describe this map as a key artifact that illustrates the interconnectedness of themes and supports ongoing analysis.^[10]

Reviewing Themes

In thematic analysis, the reviewing themes phase serves to validate and refine the candidate themes initially collated during the searching for themes stage, ensuring they accurately capture patterns in the data.^[10] This iterative process involves two distinct levels of review, allowing researchers to assess the themes' coherence and relevance before proceeding to more interpretive steps.^[10] At the first level, researchers examine the collated extracts of coded data assigned to each theme to determine if they form a coherent and meaningful pattern that supports the theme's proposed essence.^[10] If inconsistencies arise, themes may be reworked by adding, removing, or reorganizing data extracts; alternatively, ill-fitting extracts can be discarded, or new themes can be generated from them.^[10] This step emphasizes internal homogeneity, where data within a theme should align closely to convey a unified idea. The second level extends the review to the entire dataset, verifying that the themes account for the breadth of the data and are sufficiently prevalent and distinct from one another.^[10] Researchers may need to recode additional portions of the dataset to ensure comprehensive coverage, checking for external heterogeneity to confirm that themes do not overlap redundantly.^[10] Refinements here often include merging similar themes, splitting overly broad ones, or discarding those that lack evidential support across the data.^[10] Upon completion, this phase yields a revised thematic map—a visual or conceptual structure outlining the refined themes and their interrelationships—ready for final definition and naming.^[10] The process underscores the non-linear nature of thematic analysis, where iterative checking enhances the themes' validity and fit to the dataset.^[10]

Defining and Naming Themes

In thematic analysis, the phase of defining and naming themes involves refining the preliminary thematic structure to articulate the core essence of each theme, ensuring they form a coherent analytical narrative. Researchers develop detailed descriptions that capture the "story" of each theme, outlining its scope, focus, and central organizing concept, while organizing relevant data extracts into a logical account. This process builds on the themes refined during the review phase, emphasizing interpretive depth to reveal patterns of shared meaning within the dataset.^[27] Key considerations include ensuring that themes directly address the research questions, providing insightful answers rather than mere summaries of the data. Themes must highlight nuances, such as subtle variations in participant experiences, and contradictions, like conflicting perspectives within the data, to avoid oversimplification and promote a balanced representation. In reflexive thematic analysis, researchers actively consider their interpretive role, acknowledging how personal assumptions shape theme definitions to enhance transparency and rigor. Names for themes should be concise—typically one to three words—and evocative, capturing the theme's essence in a way that is both analytical and memorable, such as drawing from vivid data extracts or conceptual metaphors. Themes can be organized hierarchically, with main themes encompassing broader patterns and sub-themes detailing specific facets, which helps manage complexity in larger datasets. For instance, a main theme like "perceived barriers" might include sub-themes such as "resource limitations" and "social stigma" to illustrate interconnected aspects. This structure ensures internal coherence, where each theme and sub-theme remains distinct yet contributes to the overall thematic map. The output of this phase consists of clear, precise definitions for each theme, often comprising a few sentences that delineate its boundaries and significance, accompanied by illustrative quotes from the data to demonstrate its presence and diversity. These definitions serve as the foundation for subsequent reporting, enabling themes to be vividly exemplified without overlapping or losing analytical focus. For example, a theme defined as "vagina as liability" might include sub-themes like "nastiness and dirtiness," supported by participant quotes such as "It's disgusting down there," to concretely anchor the abstract concept in the data.

Producing the Report

The final phase of thematic analysis involves synthesizing the identified themes into a coherent and compelling narrative that effectively communicates the findings to the intended audience. This stage transforms the analytical work into a scholarly report that not only presents the themes but also demonstrates their relevance to the research questions and broader context. According to Braun and Clarke, the report should provide a concise, logical, and non-repetitive account that convinces readers of the analysis's merit and validity by embedding vivid data extracts within an interpretive framework. The structure typically begins with selecting key extracts that exemplify each theme's prevalence and essence, followed by weaving these into a story that links back to the defined themes and overarching research aims. Writing the report requires balancing descriptive elements with deeper interpretation to avoid superficial summaries of the data. Researchers should select compelling examples that illustrate theme patterns without overwhelming the reader, ensuring extracts are analyzed to address questions such as "What does this theme signify?" and "What are its implications for the research question?" This interpretive layer elevates the report beyond mere paraphrasing, fostering a narrative that highlights interconnections among themes and relates them to existing literature. Visual aids, such as thematic maps, can enhance clarity by diagramming theme relationships, particularly when the analysis involves complex interdependencies. Braun and Clarke emphasize producing an engaging scholarly output that maintains analytical depth while adhering to the report's word limits and audience expectations.^[15] Ethical considerations are integral to this phase, ensuring transparent reporting that acknowledges the researcher's influence on theme construction and interpretation. Reports must explicitly address limitations, such as potential biases or the scope of the data, to uphold reflexivity and credibility. The final output is typically an analysis section within a larger research paper or thesis, featuring clearly named themes supported by illustrative extracts, a discussion of their implications, and ties to theoretical or practical contributions. This approach, as refined in reflexive thematic analysis, prioritizes methodological coherence and reader accessibility.^[28]^[15]

Methodological Considerations

Reflexivity

Reflexivity in thematic analysis refers to the ongoing process through which researchers actively reflect on their personal biases, assumptions, and positionality, recognizing how these elements influence the interpretation of data and the construction of themes.^[29] This self-awareness is integral to reflexive thematic analysis (RTA), where the researcher's subjectivity is viewed not as an obstacle but as a vital component of knowledge production, shaping the analytical lens applied to the dataset.^[30] Positionality encompasses factors such as the researcher's cultural background, professional experience, and theoretical orientations, all of which inevitably affect how patterns of meaning are identified and articulated.^[31] Practical approaches to reflexivity include maintaining detailed journals throughout the analytical process to document evolving thoughts, emotional responses, and potential influences on theme development.^[31] Researchers are encouraged to explicitly record how their background informs decisions, such as which data excerpts are prioritized or how themes are framed, thereby making the interpretive process transparent. Discussions with supervisors or peers can further support this by prompting exploration of unexamined assumptions, without aiming for consensus that might dilute individual interpretive agency.^[30] These practices are woven into every phase of RTA, from data familiarization to report writing, ensuring consistent self-scrutiny.^[29] In RTA, reflexivity is essential for establishing validity, as it counters the illusion of objectivity by embracing the researcher's active role in co-constructing findings, thereby enhancing the credibility and depth of the analysis.^[29] This approach positions subjectivity as a strength, allowing for richer, more nuanced insights that reflect the researcher's unique perspective while remaining rigorously engaged with the data.^[31] Without reflexivity, analyses risk reproducing unacknowledged biases, leading to interpretations that appear neutral but are subtly shaped by implicit assumptions. Challenges in implementing reflexivity include the difficulty of fully balancing deep subjectivity with methodological rigor, as researchers may struggle to articulate their influence without veering into over-personalization or defensiveness. Common pitfalls involve superficial reflections that fail to connect personal positionality to specific analytical choices, or conflating reflexivity with positivist notions of bias elimination, which undermines RTA's foundational principles.^[29] Addressing these requires sustained practice and critical self-examination to maintain analytical integrity.^[30]

Coding Reliability

Coding reliability in thematic analysis pertains to the consistency and reproducibility of code application across multiple researchers, ensuring that the interpretive process yields dependable results in structured variants of the method. This approach, rooted in post-positivist paradigms, treats codes as objective tools for encoding data patterns, often using a predefined codebook to guide analysis. Inter-coder reliability checks form the core method, involving independent coding by team members followed by statistical assessment of agreement; Cohen's kappa is commonly employed as it corrects for chance agreement, with values exceeding 0.70 typically deemed acceptable for reliability. Training for coders, including workshops on code definitions derived from initial code generation, is essential to align interpretations and minimize variability.^[32] Debates surrounding coding reliability center on its tension with more interpretive approaches, such as reflexive thematic analysis, where researcher subjectivity is embraced rather than controlled. Proponents argue that reliability enhances trustworthiness and transparency, particularly in applied or multidisciplinary contexts requiring defensible outcomes, while critics contend it imposes a false objectivity that undermines the authenticity and depth of qualitative insights. For instance, agreement should be prioritized in team-based studies aiming for generalizable topic summaries, but de-emphasized in exploratory work valuing nuanced, researcher-driven themes. Best practices include conducting pilot coding on a data subset to test and refine the codebook, enabling early detection of ambiguities. Consensus discussions among coders then resolve discrepancies through iterative negotiation, fostering a shared understanding without suppressing diverse perspectives. Qualitative analysis software, such as NVivo or ATLAS.ti, supports these processes by allowing simultaneous coding tracking, overlap visualization, and automated reliability metric calculations, streamlining team workflows. A key limitation is that an overemphasis on reliability can stifle creativity, leading to rigid, superficial codes that overlook emergent meanings in the data and constrain the method's flexibility.^[30]

Sample Size and Data Saturation

In thematic analysis, determining an appropriate sample size is crucial to ensure sufficient data for identifying patterns without unnecessary excess. For homogeneous samples, such as those exploring shared experiences within a specific group, guidelines typically recommend 6-10 interviews to capture common themes effectively. Larger samples, often 12-20 or more, are advised for diverse populations to account for variability in perspectives and achieve broader representation.^[33] These recommendations stem from empirical studies assessing theme coverage, emphasizing that sample size should align with the research's scope and resources rather than rigid quotas. Data saturation refers to the point in the analysis where additional data yield no new themes or insights, signaling that the dataset adequately represents the phenomenon under study.^[34] This concept involves iterative assessment, where researchers progressively code and review emerging patterns to evaluate redundancy, often monitoring for diminishing returns in theme development during the coding and theme-searching phases.^[34] However, saturation is not a universal endpoint; in reflexive thematic analysis, it may be less applicable as interpretation drives meaning-making beyond mere data exhaustion.^[35] Several factors influence sample size decisions in thematic analysis, including the depth of inquiry, the heterogeneity of the population, and the distinction between qualitative richness and quantitative thresholds for coverage. For instance, studies with high information power—driven by clear aims, specific sampling, and robust analytical strategies—can achieve saturation with smaller samples, whereas broader or more heterogeneous contexts demand larger ones to ensure comprehensive theme identification. This approach supports thorough familiarization with the data by providing enough material to immerse in nuances without overwhelming the process. Post-2023 guidance underscores flexibility in sample size over fixed numbers, advocating context-sensitive judgments informed by ongoing analysis rather than preconceived saturation metrics.^[33] Integrative reviews highlight that while empirical benchmarks like 9 interviews for theme saturation in interviews offer starting points, researchers should prioritize epistemological alignment and practical feasibility to justify adequacy.^[33] This shift promotes adaptive sampling, where initial data collection informs expansions if needed, ensuring robust yet efficient thematic findings.^[35]

Advantages and Limitations

Advantages

Thematic analysis offers significant flexibility, allowing researchers to adapt it to a wide range of epistemologies, including essentialist and constructionist paradigms, without being tied to a specific theoretical framework.^[10] This adaptability extends to various data types, such as interviews, focus groups, or textual materials, and it does not require large sample sizes, making it suitable for in-depth exploration of smaller datasets.^[5] Furthermore, its versatility enables it to function as a standalone method or in combination with other qualitative approaches, providing a quicker alternative to more rigorous methods like grounded theory while maintaining analytical depth.^[10] A key strength of thematic analysis is its accessibility, particularly for novice researchers, as it is a straightforward method that requires minimal specialist training or detailed theoretical knowledge.^[10] The six-phase structure—familiarization, coding, theme generation, review, definition, and reporting—guides users through the process in a systematic yet non-prescriptive manner, democratizing qualitative analysis for interdisciplinary teams.^[5] The method excels at generating rich insights by capturing the complexity and depth of participants' perspectives through interpretative themes that go beyond surface-level summaries to provide "thick descriptions" of data patterns.^[10] This focus on meaningful patterns allows for nuanced understandings of social and psychological phenomena, enhancing the interpretative power of qualitative research.

Limitations

Thematic analysis is often critiqued for its heavy reliance on researcher interpretation, which can introduce subjectivity and bias if not sufficiently managed through reflexivity. This interpretive flexibility allows personal assumptions or preconceptions to influence theme identification, potentially leading to findings that reflect the analyst's perspective more than the data itself.^[36]^[37] A key limitation is the potential lack of analytical rigor, where the method can devolve into mere descriptive summarization rather than deep interpretive analysis if the iterative phases—such as coding and theme review—are rushed or superficial. This results in themes that lack coherence, overlap excessively, or fail to provide meaningful insights, undermining the method's credibility in qualitative research.^[36]^[38] Scalability poses another challenge, as thematic analysis is labor-intensive and manual in nature, making it less suitable for very large datasets where exhaustive coding becomes time-consuming and resource-heavy. Themes derived from such analyses may oversimplify complex patterns in voluminous data, limiting the method's applicability in big qualitative research contexts.^[39] Post-2020 debates have highlighted the risks of over-flexibility in thematic analysis, particularly in its reflexive variant, which can lead to inconsistent application across studies due to vague methodological reporting and mixing of incompatible epistemological approaches. This inconsistency often stems from superficial engagement with foundational guidelines, resulting in incongruent practices like applying positivist reliability measures to interpretivist analyses. As of 2025, critiques continue to emphasize common pitfalls such as fragmented analysis, generic themes, and atheoretical application that risk reducing depth.^[40]^[37]^[41]

Applications and Modern Developments

Applications Across Disciplines

Thematic analysis has been extensively applied in psychology to explore lived experiences, particularly in mental health narratives, allowing researchers to identify patterns in personal accounts that reveal emotional, social, and cognitive dimensions of psychological distress. For instance, a study examining the social networks of children whose parents have serious mental illnesses used reflexive thematic analysis on interview data from 20 children and young people, identifying key themes such as "network composition and quality," "protective factors," and "barriers to support," which highlighted how familial mental illness shapes relational dynamics and resilience.^[42] This approach has proven valuable for uncovering subjective experiences in recovery processes, as demonstrated in analyses of narratives from individuals with lived experience of mental distress, where themes of agency, stigma, and social support emerged from semi-structured interviews with 71 participants.^[43] In the health sciences, thematic analysis is commonly employed to dissect patient feedback, informing improvements in care delivery and treatment adherence. Recent applications include the analysis of open-ended responses from patients in primary care settings, where a hybrid human-AI thematic approach on 1,000 feedback entries revealed dominant themes like the need for empathetic provider training and barriers to effective communication, ultimately guiding interventions to enhance patient-provider interactions.^[44] Within education, thematic analysis facilitates the examination of teacher reflections and student experiences, providing insights into pedagogical practices and learning environments. For example, a thematic analysis of reflective narratives from 25 in-service teachers identified core themes including "professional growth through challenges," "student-centered adaptations," and "institutional influences," illustrating how reflections on classroom interactions foster identity development and instructional improvements.^[45] Similarly, analyses of student experiences in higher education settings, such as those involving 145 students navigating online learning transitions, have uncovered themes of isolation, technological barriers, and peer support, informing strategies to enhance engagement and equity in diverse educational contexts.^[46] In the social sciences, thematic analysis supports investigations into policy impacts and cultural studies, often integrated with multi-method designs to capture nuanced societal dynamics. Emerging applications of thematic analysis since 2023 have increasingly focused on psychosocial analysis within complex datasets, leveraging advanced techniques to handle multifaceted qualitative data in interdisciplinary contexts. For instance, AI-assisted thematic analysis has been applied to large-scale psychosocial datasets from mental health surveys involving over 500 respondents, extracting themes of trauma interplay and social determinants that traditional methods might overlook, thus enabling scalable insights into population-level well-being.^[47] These developments, including machine learning integrations for pattern detection in mixed psychosocial narratives, have expanded the method's utility in addressing intricate datasets from global health crises, prioritizing ethical reflexivity in theme generation.^[48]

Integration with Software and AI Tools

Traditional software tools have significantly enhanced the efficiency of thematic analysis by facilitating data organization, coding, and visualization. NVivo, developed by Lumivero, supports the entire process of thematic analysis, including importing qualitative data from interviews, surveys, and multimedia sources, applying codes to segments, and generating visualizations such as mind maps and hierarchical charts to illustrate theme relationships.^[49]^[50] Similarly, ATLAS.ti enables researchers to code data excerpts, create thematic networks for mapping interconnections between codes and themes, and produce visualizations like code-document tables and Sankey diagrams to represent pattern distributions across datasets.^[51]^[52] These tools streamline manual tasks, reducing time spent on data management while preserving researcher control over interpretive decisions.^[53] Post-2023 developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have introduced generative models to augment thematic analysis, particularly for initial coding phases. ChatGPT, an OpenAI large language model (LLM), has been utilized to generate preliminary codes from transcripts by processing text inputs and suggesting patterns, thereby accelerating the familiarization and coding stages of Braun and Clarke's framework.^[54]^[55] In 2025, the RIPES model emerged as a structured approach for AI-reflexive thematic analysis, emphasizing reflexivity in AI outputs, interpretive validation, procedural consistency in prompts, evaluation of generated themes, and consideration of the situated context of AI applications to ensure methodological rigor.^[13] Complementing this, the DeTAILS toolkit (Deep Thematic Analysis with Iterative LLM Support) integrates LLMs into an interactive workflow, allowing researchers to iteratively refine codes, cluster data, and synthesize themes through feedback loops with models like GPT-4, enhancing scalability for large datasets.^[56]^[57] Implementation of AI in thematic analysis often involves custom-GPT workflows tailored for data summarization and theme extraction. Researchers configure custom GPTs within platforms like ChatGPT to follow Braun and Clarke's six-phase process, inputting raw data for automated summarization of key excerpts and provisional theme identification, which can handle volumes beyond manual capacity.^[58] However, 2025 studies highlight critical lessons on AI bias, noting that LLMs may perpetuate cultural or linguistic skews from training data, leading to overlooked nuances in diverse datasets, and recommend bias audits through diverse prompt testing and cross-validation with multiple models.^[59]^[60] The integration of AI tools offers substantial benefits, such as expediting coding and summarization to process extensive qualitative data in hours rather than weeks, while enabling deeper exploration of patterns through iterative refinements.^[58]^[61] Nonetheless, caveats persist, including the risk of superficial interpretations lacking contextual depth, necessitating human oversight for reflexive validation, ethical considerations, and final theme synthesis to mitigate AI hallucinations and ensure interpretive authenticity.^[13]^[62]

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