Publishing Qualitative Research

Abstract

based on qualitative methods. 1 With FBR’s acceptance rate of about 10%, this means that we have received and processed a great deal more qualitative submissions in total. My experience is that the quality of these manuscripts varies widely. When improvement is needed, I find that there are a number of common strategies I consistently suggest to authors in my editorial letters. This editorial article is primarily designed to combine these suggestions into one document. In addition, I asked a few others for their suggestions about how to publish qualitative research. In response to my request, I received excellent feedback from a number of FBR associate editors, reviewers, and authors who have experience with qualitative methods. I thank them all! Below you will find seven strategies that I believe capture most of the suggestions I received and that reflect my personal experiences. These strategies relate to publishing qualitative research—focusing on the point in time when a study is mostly completed and authors are beginning the process of developing a journal article; my hope is that attention to these strategies will help (especially new) qualitative researchers navigate the publishing process. This editorial builds on a previous FBR editorial by Ron Chenail (2009), titled “Communicating Your Qualitative Research Better.” I recommend this article in many of my editorial letters to authors, and continue to encourage qualitative researchers to read it. Chenail’s key messages are equally critical today as they were 5 years ago. My suggestions below about how to publish qualitative research link back to Chenail’s important points. Also, because I want to use examples to illustrate my points in this editorial, I have selected two recently published FBR articles that are excellent exemplars of qualitative research. One article is based on interview data, and the other is based on the qualitative analysis of text in documents. Although there are other types of qualitative data, interviews and documents constitute the data source of choice for the vast majority of qualitative studies submitted to FBR. These articles are two of my personal favorites from the many excellent qualitative studies published. The first is an article published by Carlo Salvato and Guido Corbetta (2013) on transitional leadership of professional advisors in family firms. It was one of the articles included in FBR’s special issue on Advising Family Enterprise and is based on in-depth interviews with key individuals in four family firms. The second article I use as an example is by two PhD students—Evelyn Micelotta and Mia Raynard (2011)—that is based on analysis of documents gathered from official websites of the world’s oldest family busi