This article, on how to choose the types of data that are most appropriate to your study, is the third in a series that aims to support researchers within clinical education who are new to qualitative research. Although individual or focus group interviews may seem to be the most obvious source of data in qualitative research, we describe some alternative data sources and how they can be of value in answering certain research questions. We provide examples of how research participants may tell you about their experiences through audio diaries, how they may show you what is going on by drawing a picture, and how you can study what actually happens in practice by observing how people interact, move, dress and use space. By doing so, we hope to catch your interest and inspire you to think of all the different possibilities when setting up a qualitative study. In qualitative research, almost everything in the real world can serve as data.
© 2018 The Authors. The Clinical Teacher published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.