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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 13k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on qualitative research methods and ethics, with an emphasis on reflexivity, interpretative phenomenological analysis, interviewing techniques, translation challenges, researcher positionality, fieldwork experiences, and the ethical considerations of anonymity and participant observation.

  • Reflexivity
  • Ethics
  • Qualitative Research
  • Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
  • Interviewing
  • Translation
  • Positionality
  • Fieldwork
  • Anonymity
  • Participant Observation
Research works
13k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
39% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

Which countries lead Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (845 and 482 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 845 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 482 works
  3. 3 Canada 206 works
  4. 4 Australia 188 works
  5. 5 Germany 129 works
  6. 6 China 69 works
  7. 7 South Africa 69 works
  8. 8 India 64 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 62 works
  10. 10 Denmark 53 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 39.0%United Kingdom: 22.2%Canada: 9.5%Australia: 8.7%6 others listed: 20.6%39%largest
United States845 · 39.0%United Kingdom482 · 22.2%Canada206 · 9.5%Australia188 · 8.7%6 others listed446 · 20.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Toronto publishes the most Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research, followed by Health Affairs and University of Oxford.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of TorontoCanada 22 works
  2. 2 Health AffairsUnited States 18 works
  3. 3 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 17 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 17 works
  5. 5 The University of MelbourneAustralia 16 works
  6. 6 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 16 works
  7. 7 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 16 works
  8. 8 The University of SydneyAustralia 15 works
  9. 9 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 14 works
  10. 10 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 14 works

Who are the leading researchers in Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics include Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke and Pierre Bourdıeu.

  1. 1 Virginia Braun New Zealand 286k citations
  2. 2 Victoria Clarke United Kingdom 285k citations
  3. 3 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  4. 4 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics?

The most cited paper in Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics is "Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches" (Sarah Lewis, 2015), with 22,287 citations. Next come "Scoping studies: advancing the methodology" (15,551) and "Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research" (12,886).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches Sarah Lewis · Health Promotion Practice 2 Apr 2015 22,287
2 Scoping studies: advancing the methodology Danielle Elaine Levac, Heather L. Colquhoun, Kelly Kathleen O’Brien · Implementation Science Open access 20 Sep 2010 15,551
3 Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research Dennis A. Gioia, Kevin G. Corley, Aimee L. Hamilton · Organizational Research Methods 24 Jul 2012 12,886
4 Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies Kirsti Malterud, Volkert Siersma, Ann Dorrit Guassora · Qualitative Health Research 27 Nov 2015 12,448
5 Whatever happened to qualitative description? Margarete Sandelowski · Research in Nursing & Health Open access 2000 12,287
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research done?

The largest centres of Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Melbourne (Australia), New York (United States) and Toronto (Canada).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 99 works
  2. 2 MelbourneAustralia 45 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 37 works
  4. 4 TorontoCanada 35 works
  5. 5 SydneyAustralia 33 works
  6. 6 Los AngelesUnited States 24 works
  7. 7 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 22 works
  8. 8 BethesdaUnited States 22 works
  9. 9 AmsterdamNetherlands 22 works
  10. 10 ManchesterUnited Kingdom 21 works
See Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics on the map

Where is the best place to study Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Saskatchewan, University of Oxford and University of Toronto score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.63%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Monash UniversityUniversity of Saskat…University of OxfordUniversity of Toronto
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of SaskatchewanCanada 71.327.3%11.5×10 +233.7%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 65.215.6%4.8×17 +114.9%
3University of TorontoCanada 63.210.2%4.2×22 -0.1%
4Monash UniversityAustralia 61.929.6%4.3×11 +20.3%
5University of British ColumbiaCanada 61.714.9%4.3×13 +25.4%
6University of GeorgiaUnited States 61.627.0%8.0×9 +25.1%
7Manchester Metropolitan UniversityUnited Kingdom 60.625.7%20.2×8 +42.3%
8The University of MelbourneAustralia 60.010.6%5.7×16 +21.9%
9Newcastle UniversityUnited Kingdom 60.015.3%10.0×12 +74.5%
10University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 56.720.1%5.6×12 +0.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics, country by country

Is Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.011% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics0.013% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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