Abstract
We analyze articles resulting from research by physicians using qualitative methods. The bibliographic search was conducted in the SciELO Brazil from 2004 to 2013 with the keywords: qualitative study, interview, focus group, participant observation, content and speech analysis, social representation, hermeneutic-dialectic. We approach the texts through a theoretical construct based on RATS guidelines for review qualitative studies. We classified the material as: consistent, somewhat consistent and inconsistent. A total of 135 articles in 28 periodicals were selected. We evaluated most articles as consistent (64.4%). The main problems found were: lack of information of the methodological approach; partial descriptive analysis of data without dialogue with literature; conclusions that go no further than common sense; results lacking context and no consideration of limitations on the study. We concluded that the most articles are scientifically valid and we suggest that journals of the health area include specific guidelines in their editorial standards for this type of publication.
Key words:
qualitative study; scientific knowledge; epistemology; research peer review