Who Is on the Bandwagon? Core and Periphery in Mixed Methods Research

The rapid growth of mixed methods research over the past two decades matches what Fujimura (1989) called a “bandwagon effect.” This study compares articles from the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, representing the core of the field, to a more peripheral set of randomly drawn articles. A content analysis of the two sets of articles shows strong differences, with the random sample dominated by convergent designs and lower integration between the qualitative and quantitative results. This research contributes to the field of mixed methods by showing systematic differences between articles published in its flagship journal versus a broad sample of articles from outside this core set. In addition, it offers recommendations for how to reduce this disparity.