Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research

John W. Creswell, PhD, is a professor of family medicine and codirector of the Michigan Mixed Methods Research and Scholarship Program at the University of Michigan. He has authored numerous articles and 28 books on mixed methods research, qualitative research, and research design. While at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he held the Clifton Endowed Professor Chair, served as director of a mixed methods research office, founded SAGE’s Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and was an adjunct professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan and a consultant to the Veterans Administration health services research center. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to South Africa in 2008 and to Thailand in 2012. In 2011, he co-led a national working group on mixed methods practices at the National Institutes of Health, served as a visiting professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2014, he was the president of the Mixed Methods International Research Association. In 2015, he joined the staff of family medicine at the University of Michigan. John has been teaching research methods courses for the past 40 years. Visit him at his website: johnwcreswell.com.

Vicki L. Plano Clark, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Quantitative and Mixed Methods Research Methodologies area of the University of Cincinnati’s School of Education. Her methodological scholarship aims to delineate useful designs for conducting mixed methods research, examine procedural issues associated with achieving meaningful integration within these designs, and consider larger questions about the personal, interpersonal, and social contexts for the adoption and use of mixed methods. She recently coauthored the book Mixed Methods Research: A Guide to the Field (2016; SAGE) with Nataliya V. Ivankova and has coauthored several books with John W. Creswell, including The Mixed Methods Reader (2008; SAGE) and Understanding Research: A Consumer’s Guide (2010, 2015; Pearson Education). She is a founding coeditor of the Mixed Methods Research Series (SAGE Publishing). She also currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR) and Program Chair for the Mixed Methods Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. In 2011, she co-led the development of Best Practices for Mixed Methods in the Health Sciences for the National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Her teaching focuses on foundations of research methodologies and mixed methods research, including a two-semester mixed methods sequence and special topics courses. She also engages in research and evaluation projects on a wide array of topics such as the management of cancer pain, researchers’ development of visual displays, the effectiveness of school reform initiatives, the quality of communication between attorneys and their clients, and the development of innovative curricular materials for undergraduate physics.