Due to the potential for inappropriate disclosure of personal information in qualitative studies, protecting the of participants is especially important.

a. confidentiality and status
b. privacy and location
c. contact information
d. confidentiality and anonymity

d. confidentiality and anonymity.

Explanation:

Qualitative study is a type of research that tries to gain qualitative information about a specific problem. It takes into account all the information gained through people's thoughts and opinions.Qualitative studies try to understand the reasons of a problem from the perspectives of its respondents rather than just finding a statistical data. Therefore, it becomes very important to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants because the participants give personal opinions regarding a certain problem which may be controversial or contradicting to the social norms.