Insight for Writing a Qualitative Research Paper

Qualitative research helps researchers address issues in a specific context in their research disciplines. There are a number of research approaches which are included under the umbrella of qualitative methods. The social science disciplines have different conventions on best practices in qualitative research. This essay describes the structure of a qualitative research manuscript which is suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Although the essay refers to qualitative research, similar principles can be applied for quantitative research and for mixed methods which employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a better understanding of research problems than either approach by itself (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). Qualitative research is used for addressing “how” questions rather than “how many,” for understanding real life from the perspective of those being studied, and for examining and articulating processes. Just as quantitative research encompasses many ways to collect data (e.g., survey and laboratory studies) and to analyze data (e.g., structural equation modeling, multiple regression, and factor analyses), so does qualitative research. For example, an individual may choose to collect data using a case or an ethnographic method. However, when analyzing the data, the individual can continue to use case or ethnographic methods or even employ grounded theory. Moreover, qualitative research can be inductive or deductive, and sometimes, it is a combination of both inductive and deductive. Common reasons for rejecting qualitative research papers include: (i) unclear statement of research question, (ii) unclear structure of the paper, (iii) inconsistency among theories, methods and data analysis, and (iv) inconsistency