Qualitative Research (Journal)

The journal Qualitative Research (QR) is published by Sage Publications (United Kingdom) and first appeared in 2001. Its founding editors are Paul Atkinson and Sara Delamont. The founding book reviews editor was Amanda Coffey. All of the editorial team is from Cardiff University, which has a long tradition of qualitative research in the social sciences. QR appears four times per year. There are four associate editors—one for continental Europe, one for Australasia, and two for the Americas—and an international editorial board. Atkinson and Delamont were invited to start QR by Sage after they had edited the Handbook of Ethnography with Amanda Coffey, John Lofland, and Lyn Lofland.

QR is committed to publishing papers of the highest quality that advance or reflect upon methodological or epistemological aspects of qualitative research in the social sciences. A full range of qualitative methods is represented: focus groups, participant observation, all types of interview, documentary analyses, audio and visual recordings, and narrative, conversational, and discourse studies. The editors do not seek to promote narrow or sectarian perspectives on the conduct of qualitative research. QR is intended to be multidisciplinary: Papers from anthropologists, economists, educational researchers, geographers, historians, psychologists, and sociologists are all eligible, as are papers that cross those and other disciplinary borders. The journal recognizes the increasing significance of qualitative social research in a diverse range of substantive and disciplinary fields—including education, health and nursing studies, business and management, urban studies, and film and music studies.

Given these commitments, there are two fundamental requirements for publication. First, papers must advance the discussion of methods or methodology. QR does not publish papers that are primarily devoted to reporting empirical research. Second, papers must be of interest to an international readership. Papers based on empirical research should always be contextualized so that readers from countries other than the research site can gain insight from them.

The book review section, which regularly contains excellent reviews of a wide range of books, many of which are not being evaluated in other journals that either eschew reviews altogether or ignore methods books when commissioning reviews, is a key part of the journal. QR is one of the few academic publications in which those books are reliably reviewed.