Table 1.

Summary of research paradigms, quality criteria and patient roles in research^a

	Postpositivism	Interpretivism	Participatory	Pragmatism
Ontology	Critical realism—the reality is imperfectly apprehendable	Relativism—co‐constructed realities in local and specific contexts	Participative reality—subjective–objective reality	Reality is renegotiated and interpreted based on usefulness in specific contexts
Epistemology	Modified dualist/objectivist	Transactional/subjectivist; cocreated research findings	Extended epistemology of experimental, propositional and practical knowing; cocreated knowledge	Transactional realism; knowledge constructed based on interactions between people and their environments
Axiology	Reason, universal	Value‐laden, contextual	Value‐laden, transformative	Value‐laden, practical
Methodology	Modified experimental; falsification of hypothesis (including quantitative methods)	Hermeneutical/dialectical	Collaborative, action‐oriented inquiry; use of language grounded in shared experiential context	Mixed methods; action‐oriented inquiry; design‐based
Quality criteria	Internal/external validity, reliability, objectivity	Trustworthiness, credibility, dependability	Congruence of experiential, presentational and practical knowing; leads to transformative action in service of human flourishing	Provides a workable solution to problem, which prompted the research; leads to action/change
Patient roles in researchb, c	Learn/Inform, Participate (e.g., patients informed about a research project through social media channels, or patients enroled as study participants in a clinical trial)	Participate, consult (e.g., patients participate in a priority‐setting activity, or patients share lived experiences in a qualitative interview)	Collaborate, involve, lead/support (e.g., patients are lead investigators on a community‐based research project)	Consult, involve, collaborate, lead/support (e.g., patients sit on a standing advisory council for a clinical trial or patients involved as research partners)

^a Table adapted from Lincoln et al. ¹² and Heron and Reason. ¹³

^b Patient roles/examples adapted from Vandall‐Walker. ¹⁴

^c These roles are not prescriptive or mutually exclusive but are categorized here for the purposes of understanding how participants/patients are often engaged in research.