Digging in or building bridges? A scoping review of thematic analysis

Abstract

This scoping review deals with a major trend in qualitative data analysis: thematic analysis (TA) that provides a general framework to develop relatively transparent processes; TA thus helps mitigate long-standing concerns with allegedly subjective aspects of qualitative research. The review examines articles published in the top-ranked academic journals in the research area “communication” (n = 342). It illustrates that TA has quickly become more popular over recent years, complementing longer established qualitative methods. The analysis also reveals that TA is a flexible tool that has been successfully applied to make sense of a wide array of qualitative data. Building on these findings, we deduce practical advice for researchers applying TA and make suggestions on how to improve on current TA practices by, first, documenting common features of successful TA articles (best practice), and, second, identifying apparent superficialities and untapped potentials.