Threats to Research Validity

Research is an indispensable part of modern reality, facilitating the progress and development of societies, economies, and individuals. Thus, it is crucial to ensure the quality of research at all its stages. The most critical aspect of quality is research validity, or whether the results of studies are interpreted and understood correctly. Threats to validity are characteristics of research designs that lessen the degree to which results are interpreted correctly. This entry first discusses conceptual frameworks of research validity and then looks at specific types of validity threats and ways of avoiding validity threats.