The degree to which research findings are independent of who conducts the study. If two researchers follow the same protocol and get different results, you have an objectivity problem.
Definition: The degree to which research findings are independent of who conducts the study. If two researchers follow the same protocol and get different results, you have an objectivity problem.
Objectivity means your research findings should not depend on who runs the study. A different moderator, analyst, or evaluator following the same protocol should arrive at the same conclusions.
All research involves human judgment. You decide which quotes to highlight, how to categorize observations, and what counts as a "significant" pattern. These decisions are inherently subjective.
The practical goal is not eliminating subjectivity but making it transparent and manageable. Document your decisions. Use standardized scoring criteria. Have multiple people code the same data and measure agreement.
Objectivity is a prerequisite for reliability. If your results depend on who collected them, they cannot be consistent across repeated measurements. When inter-rater agreement is low, fix your protocol before trusting your data.
The consistency of a research method—whether it produces similar results when repeated under the same conditions. About precision, not accuracy. A method can be reliable without being valid.
Whether a research method measures what it claims to measure. About accuracy, not precision. A method can be reliable (consistent) but not valid (accurate) if it consistently measures the wrong thing.
Systematic deviation from the true value in research findings. Cannot be eliminated, only managed through standardization and awareness. The goal is systematic bias (manageable) over unsystematic bias (chaos).
This term is referenced in the following articles: