2.4.5—Credibility
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2027
- Objective
- 2.4.5
- Level
- SL
Credibility asks whether qualitative findings are trustworthy enough to believe
Credibility is the trustworthiness of a qualitative account: whether its interpretation is believable given the data, method and researcher. Transferability asks whether the richly described insight can inform another context, not whether it statistically represents a population.
Transparency about sampling, procedure, analysis and limitations lets a reader judge fit. Triangulation can compare datasets or researchers, while reflexivity makes the researcher's influence visible rather than pretending interpretation is neutral.
An interview study of refugee experiences may be credible when the coding process and participant context are explicit, yet not transferable to every migration setting. The boundary is about fit and detail, not a simple pass/fail label.
Credibility is not the same as replicability, and transferability is not automatic generalisability. State which claim is being made and which evidence supports it.