Thematic analysisR

Reflexive thematic analysis

Braun and Clarke's approach to thematic analysis, in which the researcher actively develops themes through six recursive phases and treats their own interpretation as a resource rather than a bias.

On this page
  1. In more detail
  2. In Themescape
  3. Where to read more

In more detail

Reflexive thematic analysis is the approach Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke first set out in 2006 and have since developed and renamed to stress the researcher's active role. It is a method for developing, analysing and interpreting patterns of meaning across a qualitative dataset.

The six phases, as named on thematicanalysis.net, are familiarising yourself with the dataset; coding; generating initial themes; developing and reviewing themes; refining, defining and naming themes; and writing up. The phases are recursive: researchers move back and forth between them rather than completing each once.

Themes are understood as the researcher's creation, shaped by their questions, their theoretical position and their reflexivity. Quality comes from depth of engagement and a coherent account, not from coding agreement or saturation.

In Themescape

Themescape is used from phase 3 to phase 6, most of all in phases 3 to 5. It displays and refines the coding the researcher has already done, so themes can be seen, reviewed and presented. It does not create codes or themes.

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The viewer with a theme selected, its codes around it and its definition in the panel. Sample data.

Where to read more

Article: Three views of one thematic map ›

Article: Writing working definitions that survive review ›

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (n.d.). Thematic analysis. The University of Auckland.

Related terms

The words that sit closest to this one.

Back to the A to Z
Thematic analysisThematic analysisA family of methods for developing and interpreting patterns of meaning, or themes, across qualitative data such as interviews, focus groups or open survey answers.Read the entryThematic analysisThemeA pattern of shared meaning across a dataset, organised around a central idea, which the researcher develops from their codes and gives a name and a working definition.Read the entryThematic analysisReflexivityThe researcher's ongoing reflection on how their own position, assumptions and choices shape the analysis.Read the entryThematic analysisCodebookA structured list of codes with definitions, used in codebook approaches to thematic analysis to apply codes consistently, often across several coders.Read the entryThemescapeBuild modeA Parent mode, in beta, for turning a figure style into a finished figure, reshaping it and exporting it.Read the entryThematic analysisCandidate themeA provisional theme generated in phase 3, held loosely while the researcher reviews whether it works against the coded data and the whole dataset.Read the entry

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