Bournemouth's Centre for Qualitative Research Partners with The Qualitative Report

Bournemouth University’s Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) is proud to announce its developing association with the online, qualitative journal, The Qualitative Report (TQR). Electronically published from Nova-Southeastern University in Florida, the journal was the first of its kind in both qualitative research and open-access publication solely on the Internet. The journal also publishes The Weekly Qualitative Report to subscribers.

CQR is envisioned as a resource for qualitative research across departments and faculties at Bournemouth University. TQR is particularly well placed to support CQR in these efforts, with its cross-discipline approach in leading-edge, qualitative publication.

CQR is particularly interested in participation in a specific TQR editorship rubric. The scheme will offer BU academics and postgrad students the opportunity to develop their editorial skills through a three-tier process of Assistant, Associate and then finally, full Editor of the journal. Further details will follow shortly.

Additional developments are also in the pipeline: possible publication in TQR Books; participation in TQR’s Annual Qualitative Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, either in person or virtually; participation in Nova’s qualitative webinar series; joint research grant applications with Nova; and participation in the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research.

The Qualitative Report Editor-in-Chief Dr. Ron Chenail stated, “I see a future for Bournemouth and TQR supporting each other, particularly in innovation and forward-looking education, research and publication.”

Dr. Kip Jones, Director of CQR, remarked: “TQR was one of the first journals to publish my work postdoc. Rather than simply reject my early attempt at a submission, the editors worked with me to construct the best possible version of my paper on systematic review of qualitative data. It was published by TQR in 2004 and is the most frequently cited paper of all of my publications to date.”

TQR Editorial Statement
The Qualitative Report (ISSN 1052-0147) is a peer-reviewed, on-line monthly journal devoted to writing and discussion of and about qualitative, critical, action, and collaborative inquiry and research. The Qualitative Report, the oldest multidisciplinary qualitative research journal in the world, serves as a forum and sounding board for researchers, scholars, practitioners, and other reflective-minded individuals who are passionate about ideas, methods, and analyses permeating qualitative, action, collaborative, and critical study. These pages are open to a variety of forms: original, scholarly activity such as qualitative research studies, critical commentaries, editorials, or debates concerning pertinent issues and topics; news of networking and research possibilities; and other sorts of journalistic and literary shapes which may interest and pique readers.

The Qualitative Report is published by Nova Southeastern University. Its Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/

TQR Index and Listing Information
The Qualitative Report is indexed in Scopus, Google Scholar, ERIC, Cambridge Scientific Abstract‘s (CSA) Web Resources Database (WRD) for the Social Sciences, Gale’s Academic OneFile, EBSCO Open Access Journals, Open Science Directory, SocioSite, and All Academic. (Abbreviated list)

Update: Nova Southeastern University, the home of The Qualitative Report, has been listed by Times Higher Education of one of the 20 'Rising Stars' amongst global universities.  The Times said that those listed are  “globally aware and outward-looking ... and focus on innovation including harnessing new partnerships".  CQR at Bournemouth University is proud to be one of Nova's partners!

Keep in touch with further developments in this exciting association on the CQR webpages, HSS blog or follow CQR on Twitter: @BUQualitative

You wake up and suddenly, a story is right in front of you.

A very formal email from the Editor of the International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods greeted me first thing this morning: it’s their pleasure to officially accept my manuscript for the Encyclopedia. I have been working on this entry for about a year now, yet still must wait another year for its publication.

Breakfast a Tiffany’s came out in the year I graduated from high school. My parents were both proud high school graduates from large families where a 12-year education was at a premium, yet achieved by both of my parents in the middle of a depression.

But I was going off to college next, a dream of our father’s—that we all got more education than he ever had. So I headed for the unofficial high school graduation party, got drunk for the very first time that night, and drove my Dad’s Caddy home—very slowly, very carefully. At the end of the summer, I went off to a small liberal arts college, more to please my father than me.

My favourite scene in Breakfast is where the young author takes Holly to the library and shows her his name in the card catalogue. I waited nearly half a lifetime for that experience for myself, then they got rid of the card catalogue and everything turned electronic.

The bookcase is behind me.

My father bought the World Book Encyclopedia for us as children. We would use it to write homework assignments for school. Later, in my teens, he bought the Great Books of the Western World as well. The two sets of volumes sat in a low bookcase opposite the front doorway to our ranch house in the countryside. I would lay of the floor in front of the bookcase, often flipping through incomprehensible volumes by Homer or Thomas Aquinas, enjoying the smell of print on paper, and playing with our French bulldog, Jackie. (In the photograph, left, I seem to be more interested in an LP record than the encyclopedias on the shelves.)

I liked the World Book better because there were pictures and it spoke in plain English to this unsophisticated country boy. I still prefer books with pictures to this day. Actually, I included one in my manuscript for the Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, but things got complicated along the way about rights and then, finally, how apropos the photo was for the text, so it was left out. I think an illustration should draw the reader into the text, create the possibility of an encounter with it. Trick the left side of the brain to engage with the right.

The previous edition of the 12-volume set of these compendia ran about £2500 so I cannot see myself owning a full set of the Encyclopedia of Communication myself. Perhaps the single volume Research Methods will be available and more affordable on its own. Thank god I forgot to have children so I won’t suffer the guilt of not having the set to show them. I am not even sure at this point if I would be able to convince my University’s library to buy the whole set. I can imagine the scene, though, going to see it for the first time myself, perhaps taking a friend, and fingering my 4,000-word entry on “Performative Social Science” in its assigned volume, enjoying a sniff or two of the paper, the ink, and the glue of it. An electronic version, to which I will be privileged to have access is promised, but could never be the same as a volume in my hands.

At this very same time, we are upon a (yet another?) retro period in mode, fashion, lifestyle, cinema and even television series. Suddenly, the disgust generated by Brutalist architecture has turned rather strangely to a kind of warmth, even fondness for it in retrospect. “Mid-Century Modern”—everything is popping up everywhere. Suddenly advised to be suspicious of electronic recording, vinyl is once again hot, hot, hot.  Even cassette tapes seem poised for a rebound. Get your pencils and pens ready to tighten those tapes!

Perhaps it is time to think about “analogue” in publication as well. Completely turned off by PowerPoint presentations ad nauseam, an undergrad class recently cheered in unison when I introduced a lecture with, “Today, there will be no PowerPoints”. On another occasion, opening a workshop, I passed around some materials printed on paper and commented, “This is a piece of paper. There are words on it. You can hold them in you hands. Enjoy the sensation.”

What if there were a sudden wistfulness and renewed respect for the Dewey Decimal system, the card catalogue, and printed books with spines and hard covers? Or perhaps at least electronic publications will come with an accompanying scratch n sniff card, à la John Waters? Could all this be a popular nostalgic trend? 

Will Audrey Hepburn be making a trip to the library card catalogue with me after all?

Tiffany's salesman: Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?

Paul Varjak: Oh yes.

Tiffany's salesman: That's nice to know... It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past, that sort of thing.

 Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) Truman Capote (based on the novel by), George Axelrod (screenplay)