Triangulation

Need significant body of evidence to support hypothesis.
If taken from literature, read extensively around subject and gather wide range of correlative sources.
If evidence is from own work, number of data sets required from different circumstances to ensure experiments/observations are repeatable.
This approach is called triangulation – sets of evidence from various sources supporting same hypothesis required to reach valid conclusion.
Sources can include:

• different researchers
• different experiments (must be repeatable)
• different methodologies

Despite being called “triangulation” there is no requirement to have just three sources, the more the better.