Seven Strategies for Publishing Qualitative Research

In the April issue of Family Business Review, Trish Reay, an associate professor at the University of Alberta School of Business, offers seven tips drawn from her own experiences on “Publishing Qualitative Research.” “These strategies,” she writes, “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.”

As associate editor at Family Business Review (FBR), I have received and managed many manuscripts based on qualitative research methods. In the past 5 years (2009-2013), almost 15% of articles published in FBR were based on qualitative methods. 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!

Click here to read the entire editorial. This post by Cynthia Navalenko first appeared at the Management INK blog and later at Social Science Space.