Researcher-guided ChatGPT thematic analysis of parent interviews

Research applicability

Accept as a bounded research workflow, not as evidence that dietary or nutraceutical treatments work. Publisher methods explicitly document analyst familiarization, inductive/deductive coding, theme development, review, definition and reporting with ChatGPT-4. Author-reported study outputs are not editorial reproduction.

Getting started

Editorial, untested adoption guidance: read the methods and prompt appendix, then pilot on consented de-identified material; preserve original transcripts and check every generated quotation and theme.

Maintenance

Paper-based workflow; ongoing software maintenance not established.

License

Reuse rights for text/data/software must be checked separately; publication access does not establish unrestricted reuse.

Workflow & human oversight

Researcher-led workflow: people set research questions, approve data access and adjudicate outputs; no autonomous end-to-end performance claim. Workflow level intentionally unspecified.

Workflow level is not an evidence score; higher is not better evidence.

Approach

An AI-assisted qualitative health-research workflow uses ChatGPT-4 for researcher-guided coding, candidate themes and reporting, with analysts reviewing outputs against parent interview transcripts.

Limitations

Methods and abstract sections of publisher HTML reviewed (paper-excerpt); not a comprehensive full-paper audit or independent replication. Small interview study; parent perceptions do not establish treatment efficacy. Authors report three fabricated quotations, requiring transcript-level verification. Claims of efficiency and reduced bias are not established by a controlled comparison in the inspected methods. Recruitment wording refers to n=10 participants while results clarify 10 interviews with 12 parents; no sample-size efficacy inference is made.

Reproducibility

No software executed, participants studied or reported outcome independently reproduced by this reviewer.

Adoption requirements

Ethics approval and consent appropriate to the new study, de-identified transcripts, institution-approved handling of sensitive health data, model access and qualitative-method expertise. Publication of a workflow does not authorize uploading confidential interviews.