A Model for Presenting Threats to Legitimation at the Planning and Interpretation Phases in the Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research Components of a Dissertation

The assessment of validity—or more appropriately known as legitimation—is the most important step in all research studies, whether the research study represents a quantitative research study, a qualitative research study, or a mixed research study. Despite its importance, a significant proportion of authors do not discuss to any degree the legitimation issues that emerged in their studies. It is likely that the prevalence rate among authors of dissertations is even higher, not only because they represent beginning researchers but also because many of their advisors/supervisors themselves do not discuss (adequately) the limitations of findings/interpretations. Thus, in this article we provide a model for presenting threats to legitimation both at the planning and interpretation phases in the quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research components of a dissertation. In so doing, we provide an exemplar of the legitimation process, which we believe provides evidence of a comprehensive technique for identifying and addressing threats to legitimation for researchers in general and dissertation researchers in particular.