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The Qualitative Report An online journal dedicated to qualitative research since 1990 |
| Article Submission Guidelines |
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The Qualitative Report An online journal dedicated to qualitative research since 1990 |
| Article Submission Guidelines |
In 1990, we launched The Qualitative Report as a paper journal in order to give writers and researchers an outlet for expressing themselves in and about qualitative research. The world back then was not so qualitative research-friendly as it is today. It was difficult to find journals totally dedicated to qualitative approaches or ones open to publishing research utilizing such methods. We envisioned the journal as a safe haven for authors and readers to explore these new and strange approaches to discovery and exploration.
A couple of years later, we took The Qualitative Report online and reached out to a worldwide audience. We have seen our readership and paper submissions increase dramatically. We have seen a decided improvement in the state of qualitative research as an accepted family of approaches to research and reflection. We have also been witness to the wonderful growth of quality in the field. We have found the emergence of all of these events to be quite fulfilling and rewarding.
Over these years, as we have worked with our authors, we have begun to approach them and their papers in a way that we think is different from what may be the standard procedure at other journals. We became more and more curious about our own process. We reviewed our reviews and we spoke with our authors and editorial board members. In this reflection, we began to see a pattern. The reviewers and editors enjoyed the emerging style and felt the authors appreciated what we were trying to do. The authors agreed the reviews they were receiving were different too. They thought The Qualitative Report reviews were richly developed, extremely helpful, and respectful of their ideas and of them.
Based upon these reflections, we introduced a new editorial process at The Qualitative Report in 2002. Our goal for this process continues to be focused on helping all authors to prepare their papers for eventual publication in the journal. In this system, all authors who submit papers are accepted as members of The Qualitative Report's community.
The hallmark of The Qualitative Report will not be built upon rejection rates; rather, we want to distinguish ourselves by assisting authors to improve themselves and their texts. We strongly believe all authors and their research have merit. Sometimes, that quality is not readily apparent in the text. The goal of this approach is to help authors to develop their ideas and to work collaboratively with their mentoring reviewers to help them to bring out the best in their work. The tenor of this editorial relationship will be one of respect and collaboration.
Our mission is to nurture and mentor authors who submit their papers to The Qualitative Report and to support them throughout the paper development process. In doing so, we have envisioned The Qualitative Report as a learning environment, one through which we will commit our collective human and informational resources to help each and every author produce papers of excellence and distinction.
Now in 2004, we are moving into another developmental phase of The Qualitative Report which will assist authors in the improvement of their manuscripts submitted even more efficiently and effectively. We want to keep the manuscript as our centerpiece, that is, the focus of our attention throughout the process from initial submission to final publication. In the manuscript development process, we, the editors and reviewers in partnership with authors, want to focus on embedding the collective manuscript improvement efforts into the manuscript itself. In other words, the manuscript is the centerpiece of the entire reviewing, editing, and revising enterprise. Instead of producing separate review and response documents that can move us all away from the manuscript, we will work together to weave all our collective comments and responses in the manuscript to create an evolving audit trail that will ultimately produce the published paper. To do this we have asked reviewers to act more in the role of a consultant by offering both editing and revising suggestions and recording them for your use via some special features of Microsoft Word. This will create an audit trail that we think will ease tracking and addressing changes in revising and improving manuscripts. Please see "A Guide for TQR Authors" for more information on this innovative process.
Submissions to The Qualitative Report are peer reviewed. Each author will be assigned to an editorial development team headed by one of the journal's editors, who along with the reviewers, will work closely with the author as manuscript consultants in pursuit of developing the paper for publication in The Qualitative Report. The manuscript development group will also focus on helping the author develop as a writer and researcher. By making this acceptance, we dedicate ourselves to creating a context in which all participants in the editorial development process can grow as authors and mentors. As a team, they can successfully work together to improve the manuscripts until the submissions become published papers in this journal.
Papers submitted for review to The Qualitative Report must be original works on the part of the authors, must not have been published previously, and must not be under review with another publication at any time during the review process. A wide variety of submissions are welcomed to The Qualitative Report. Given the richness and diversity of qualitative research and researchers from around the world, papers reflecting scientific, artistic, critical and clinical postures are all fitting contributions to the electronic pages of this journal. Methods depicted in these papers may be qualitative, comparative, mixed, collaborative, action-oriented, appreciative, and/or critical in nature. Papers may be qualitative research studies, commentaries about the conduct of qualitative research, prescriptive pieces on carrying out qualitative research, "back stage" essays in which authors give a perspective on how they created and crafted a particular project, presentations on technological innovations relevant to qualitative researchers and their inquiries, and any other issues which would be important for practitioners, teachers, and learners of qualitative research.
The length of submitted works may vary greatly. Since The Qualitative Report is not restricted by the economics of paper, contributors can concentrate on the particularities of their paper at hand and let those considerations shape the length of their narrative rather than an arbitrary limit of words or pages.
The style of writing for contributions to The Qualitative Report is also a matter of particularity for authors. Given the subtle, and, sometimes, not so subtle ways in which a style guide can shape the writing choices made by an author, contributors may take greater latitude in making stylistic choices in their manuscripts. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) is used as a guide for contributors to The Qualitative Report only when it comes to the format of references and citations within the text. Otherwise, style is a matter of choice on the parts of authors.
Even though The Qualitative Report is based on a textual metaphor, nontextual forms of representation are also welcomed. Graphics, pictures, sounds, moving images, and hyperlinking may all be features in works presented in this journal.
Contributors to The Qualitative Report can also engage in a process known as "Living Documents" (Ives & Jarvenpaa, 1996) with their published works in the pages of the journal. In the "Living Documents" approach to writing, authors can nurture their published works and cultivate them as new developments arise within the scope of the paper, as hyperlinked resources located in the paper are updated or changed, and/or as the author's thinking evolves on the topic. Authors wishing to participate in this living scholarship approach with any of their writing in The Qualitative Report need only to email the editor and the process of enlivening the text can ensue.
Contributors can submit their work to The Qualitative Report in a number of ways. On diskette, they can mail a Word or WordPerfect file of their contribution to:
Ronald J. Chenail, Editor
The Qualitative Report
Nova Southeastern University
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314-7796 U.S.A.
Via e-mail, they can send a copy of their contribution to:
ron@nsu.nova.edu
If we are successful in our labors, we will create a sustainable learning system that will foster growth in qualitative researchers and improvement in qualitative research. We trust authors find this new beginning an intriguing opportunity to learn and consider joining us in this pursuit.
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Ives, B., & Jarvenpaa, S. L. (1996, Spring). Will the Internet revolutionize business education and research? Sloan Management Review, 37(3), 33-41.
For more information, please contact
Ronald J. Chenail, Ph.D.
Editor
The Qualitative Report
Nova Southeastern University
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314 USA
Phone: 954.262.5389 | Fax: 954.262.3970
Email: ron@nsu.nova.edu
Home Page: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/index.html
This page is maintained by Ronald J. Chenail, The Office of
Research, Planning, and Governmental Affairs
Copyright 1990-2007. Nova Southeastern
University and Ronald J. Chenail
Revised: January 1, 2007