“The term saturation is used ubiquitously in reports of qualitative research. The term is often used, however, as a throw-away line, sans definition, rationale, or explanation of the process. Consequently, there remains a question about what is meant when saturation is used.The concept of saturation originated in grounded theory. Achieving theoretical saturation is one of the tenets of grounded theory. Over time, this specific and singular term has migrated to a general term that reflects various types of saturation such as code, data, theme, and meaning saturation. There is a lack of clarity among saturation types and a lack of transparency in reporting what is meant by saturation and how it was achieved. There is also a question about the relevance of saturation to qualitative methodologies outside grounded theory.”

“The need to ensure rigor and quality in qualitative inquiry, like all science, is not in dispute. There is evidence, however, that the meaning of saturation has become muddied. The meaning of saturation as it originated in grounded theory has been overshadowed by
the notion that saturation applies to all qualitative inquiry and it equates to an adequate sample size and rigor. Moreover, adequate sample size is often addressed by the number of participants rather than the quality of the data.
The evidence in this re-view reflects that for at least six nursing journals, saturation is mentioned in almost half of the articles. The evidence is sparser, however, regarding authors including definitions of saturation or explaining the process for achieving it. There is evidence that data saturation is a dominant type of saturation claimed by authors, but other types are mentioned as well. There is evidence that the concept of saturation is used across a multitude of qualitative methodologies, even those such as reflexive thematic analysis and phenomenology where it is inconsistent with the methodology. There is strong evidence that investigators rely on interviews as the mode of data collection, ignoring other potentially rich data sources. Perhaps more important, there is also strong evidence that investigators focus more on the number of participants rather than the quality of the data and interviews with key participants. Lastly, there is evidence that some of the nursing journals used in this analysis require authors to follow checklist guidelines, yet few of the authors mentioned the use of checklists—and this is a promising sign.”

Jennings, B. M., & Yeager, K. A. (2025). Re-viewing the concept of saturation in qualitative research. International journal of nursing studies advances, 8, 100298.