Editorial: Exploring the Nature of Research Questions in Mixed Methods Research

• demonstrate the need for mixed methods to answer research questions that include clearly interconnected qualitative and quantitative components, • present distinctly identifiable qualitative and quantitative data (or one transformed to the other) that are analyzed and presented separately, • make identifiable inferences or conclusions on the basis of the results of appropriate qualitative and quantitative data analyses, and • clearly integrate the results of the two or more (qualitative and quantitative) strands of the study into coherent conclusions or inferences that are more comprehensive and meaningful than those of the qualitative or quantitative strands alone.