title: Shedding the cobra effect: problematising thematic emergence, triangulation, saturation and member checking.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Qualitative research is widely accepted as a legitimate approach to inquiry in health professions education (HPE). To secure this status, qualitative researchers have developed a variety of strategies (e.g. reliance on post-positivist qualitative methodologies, use of different rhetorical techniques, etc.) to facilitate the acceptance of their research methodologies and methods by the HPE community. Although these strategies have supported the acceptance of qualitative research in HPE, they have also brought about some unintended consequences. One of these consequences is that some HPE scholars have begun to use terms in qualitative publications without critically reflecting on: (i) their ontological and epistemological roots; (ii) their definitions, or (iii) their implications.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, we share our critical reflections on four qualitative terms popularly used in the HPE literature: thematic emergence; triangulation; saturation, and member checking.
  
  
  METHODS
  We discuss the methodological origins of these terms and the applications supported by these origins. We reflect critically on how these four terms became expected of qualitative research in HPE, and we reconsider their meanings and use by drawing on the broader qualitative methodology literature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Through this examination, we hope to encourage qualitative scholars in HPE to avoid using qualitative terms uncritically and non-reflexively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Varpio
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Rola
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ajjawi
authors.affiliation: Chang Gung Medical Education Research Centre, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Lynn V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Monrouxe
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Bridget C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: HealthPEER (Health Professions Education and Education Research), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Charlotte E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Rees
mesh_terms: D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012107:Research Design