Content analysis is a systematic, replicable technique for compressing text (in our case, survey items) into fewer content categories based on explicit coding rules (Berelson 1952; Krippendorff 1980; U.S. General Accounting Office [GAO] 1996; Weber 1990).
The study team used a number of rigorous and replicable sampling techniques to identify the sub-national areas, the facilities, and the individuals included in the ORPHEA study.
Further research to not only assess the quality of maternity care provisioning, but also to develop simple, replicable assessment tools and techniques that could be used to evaluate the quality of care provided at health facilities would be important.
There are recent reports in another complex disease (age-related macular degeneration) that also provide grounds for optimism that this technique produces replicable genetic association data.
This is a Monte-Carlo based simulation method, considered more replicable than the traditional extraction techniques (Kaiser's criterion or Scree plot), that compares the unrotated eigenvalues to eigenvalues from a random sample with the same number of cases and variables.
According to Krippendorff (1989: 243) content analysis is defined as a "research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context".
According to Krippendorff (2004, p. 18) content analysis is "a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the context of their use".
Content analysis is 'a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context.', 25 which 'emphasises the quantification of the 'what' that messages communicate, the 'who' (the source), the 'why' (the encoding process) and the consequences of 'effects' they have 'on whom', 25 by which themes can be summarised from meaningful qualitative data.
This knowledge translation process recognises the importance of gathering and synthesising evidence in a robust and replicable manner, and emphasises use of appropriate dissemination techniques and effective exchange of knowledge between researchers and knowledge users.
These include a stable platform; standardized measuring technique; pathway sub-analysis; rapid, digitized, replicable signatures; and simplicity of operation.
