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Academic English & Research vocabulary · Research Design

Reliability

Meaning in academic english & research, with examples

/rɪˌlaɪəˈbɪləti/nounCommon term

In academic english & research, reliability means: The extent to which a measurement or method gives consistent results when it is repeated or used by different researchers.

In Turkish: güvenirlik, güvenilirlik

How it is used

Reported for scales and tests (internal consistency, often with Cronbach's alpha), for repeated measurements (test-retest reliability) and for coding (inter-rater reliability). Reliability is necessary for validity but does not guarantee it.

Example sentences

  1. The scale showed high reliability (Cronbach's α = .89).

  2. To check inter-rater reliability, a second researcher coded 20% of the interviews.

Common collocations

  • inter-rater reliability
  • test-retest reliability
  • internal consistency
  • high reliability
  • validityThe extent to which a study or instrument really measures what it claims to measure and supports the conclusions drawn from it.
  • questionnaireA set of written questions given to many people to collect information about their opinions, experiences or behavior.
  • quantitativeDescribing research that collects numerical data and uses statistics to measure, compare or test relationships, often with larger samples.
  • thematic analysisA qualitative method for finding, organizing and interpreting patterns of meaning, called themes, across interviews, texts or other data.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Research Design

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