Qualitative Inquiry (Journal)

Qualitative Inquiry is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on qualitative methodology. The journal provides a forum for social scientists to share their work and to discuss practical and theoretical issues regarding the treatment and advancement of qualitative research. Since its initial publication in 1995, Qualitative Inquiry has published articles across disciplinary, racial, ethnic, gender, national, and paradigmatic boundaries, presenting research from a variety of academic disciplines including anthropology, communication, cultural studies, education, evaluation, family studies, gerontology, health, history, management, medicine, nursing, psychology, and sociology.

One aspect that distinguishes this journal from others in the field is its emphasis on publishing new forms of qualitative inquiry, which often defy the format, methods, and contents used in more traditional periodicals. A reader perusing a typical issue of Qualitative Inquiry may find photographs, papers with a methodological focus, short stories, poems, and ideological debates about qualitative research. Although this diversity may pose some challenges to those accustomed to traditional textual forms, the thread that unites all these perspectives and formats is the search for tinkering with, dialoguing, or reflecting on topics and issues across the social sciences. Examples of articles published in recent issues include “Only a Piece of Meat: One Patient's Reflections on Her Eight-Day Hospital Experience,” by Elaine Feder-Alford; “Reading and Writing Womanist Poetic Prose: African American Mothers With Deaf Daughters,” by Valerie Borum; “The Participant as Ally and Essentialist Portraiture,” by Klaus G. Witz; “Balancing the Berimbau: Embodied Ethnographic Understanding,” by Neil Stephens and Sara Delamont; and “Found Poetry as Literature Review: Research Poems on Audience and Performance,” by Monica Prendergast.

Qualitative Inquiry—a bimonthly journal—also publishes special issues on specific topics. A case in point was the 2002 issue on the events following the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. This issue included mostly short pieces—between 300 and 1,000 words—that ratify the journal's commitment to publish work that radically reformulates social science and is responsive to social justice issues. That same year, in an effort to provide a space for the many submissions the editors received on the topic of September 11, 2001, the editors decided to publish a second issue on the same topic. This action alone exemplifies the participatory, collaborative, innovative, and responsive nature of this journal.