All researchers must deal with questions related to their unit of analysis and the related idea of unit of observation. Unit of analysis helps the researcher define what is being studied as well as what aspects are being studied. For dissertations, the importance of this concept is that it provides guardrails to know what is in the scope of your dissertation and what is outside the bounds of what you are examining. More specifically, the unit of analysis describes the level at which you are conducting your study. Are you researching states, universities, schools/colleges, departments, presidents, deans, professors, or students just to name a few levels. If you determine that you are studying universities, this leads to a different focus than if you are studying departments. In this post, I will describe unit of analysis and why it is important for qualitative dissertations.

One of the best ways to help identify your unit of analysis is to think about what you want to make recommendations about when you finish your dissertation.

Do you want to recommend new policies at a university level? Then, your unit of analysis is likely organization. If you want to recommend faculty in the natural dbol australia sciences try new teaching approaches, then your unit of analysis is likely a group (a group of science faculty in this example).

Typical units of analysis include individual, group, organizations, social phenomena, and policies/values/principles. 

Doctoral students as novice researchers struggle with defining the unit of analysis for their qualitative research. Often, the challenge is confusion regarding what is their unit of analysis versus their unit of observation.

A unit of observation is the level at which you are collecting data. For example, you might collect data from individuals (such as through interviews), groups (such as observing a class), or documents.

For qualitative researchers, the difference between units of analysis and observation can be particularly fuzzy because they could be the same or different. For instance, you could study student preparation for final exams by interviewing students in which the unit of analysis is individual and the unit of observation is individual.

In this case, both are individual.  On the other hand, you could study student preparation for final exams by interviewing students in which the unit of analysis is the department and the unit of observation is still individual.

In the second study, your goal might be to compare how different departments prepare so your analysis will focus on how the departments are similar or different. 

The reason that unit of analysis and unit of observation are important is that they provide important boundaries for your study particularly your data analysis.

In qualitative research, researchers can struggle to identify what is germane and what is not. By clearly identifying the level and what you are studying, you will be better able to stay focused on what is most important for your dissertation.  

As you define your specific research questions and refine your interests related to your dissertation topic, you will likely narrow your focus. As part of this process, you may find that you thought you were interested at one unit of analysis but now are focusing more on another.

Changing your unit of analysis at this stage of the process is not a problem. Indeed, the unit of analysis can be revisited as much as necessary. In fact, you can change your unit of analysis even at later stages of the process although this is not something I recommend to doctoral students.

The later you are in the dissertation, you will have made some research design and data collection decisions based on your unit of analysis. While you can change and in some circumstances this may well be necessary, but I always suggest discussing this with your dissertation chair first. A change may require you to change your design or collect additional data which can obviously slow your dissertation process. 

A final point that can be useful for dissertation students is to pick a unit of analysis that is commonly used when studying your topic.

As part of your conclusions and recommendations, you will want to draw comparisons between your dissertation and other research on your topic. If your unit of analysis is substantively much different, making these comparisons and injectable steroids otherwise drawing information from the research literature can be unnecessarily complicated.

Moreover, as a new researcher, unit of analysis is probably not the best area to try to be different or unique. Sticking with a commonly used unit of analysis can provide helpful clarity throughout the process and quite simply make the entire dissertation process easier.