text:
M6 Toll

The M6 Toll, referred to on some signs as the Midland Expressway (originally named the Birmingham Northern Relief Road or BNRR), and stylised as M6toll, connects M6 Junction 3a at the Coleshill Interchange to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with 27 mi of six-lane motorway.

The M6 Toll is the only major toll road in Great Britain, and has two payment plazas, Great Wyrley Toll Plaza for northbound and Weeford Toll Plaza for southbound. The northbound toll plaza is situated between junctions T6 and T7, and the southbound between junctions T4 and T3. The weekday cash cost is £8.90 for a car and £15.90 for a Heavy Goods Vehicle.

The M6 Toll is part of the (unsigned in the UK) E-road E05 and is subject to the same regulations and policing as other motorways in the UK. It has one service station along its 27 mi stretch, Norton Canes services.

Planning and construction
Proposals for a new publicly funded motorway were circulated in 1980. It was originally to be called the A446(M) Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR) and designed to alleviate the increasing congestion on the M6 through Birmingham and the Black Country in England, as well as improving road links to neighbouring parts of Staffordshire and North Warwickshire. This was the busiest section of the M6, carrying up to 180,000 vehicles per day when it was designed to carry only 72,000.

Five alternative routes were put for consultation in 1980 and a preferred route was published in 1986. In 1989 there was a public inquiry relating to a publicly funded motorway.

In 1989 it was announced that it would be built privately and a competition took place which was won by Midland Expressway Limited in 1991. The contract was for a 53-year concession to build and operate the road as an early form of public private partnership with the operator paying for the construction and recouping its costs by setting and collecting tolls, allowing for a 3-year construction period followed by 50 years of operation. At the end of this period the infrastructure would be returned to the Government. Toll rates are set at the discretion of the operator at six-monthly intervals and there is no cap on the rates charged.

There was a second public inquiry from relating to the new scheme in 1994–1995 and a decision to go ahead in 1997. A legal challenge was made by the "Alliance against BNRR" which was cleared in 1998.

Midland Expressway Limited contracted out the construction of the road to a consortium of major contractors Carillion, Alfred McAlpine, Balfour Beatty and Amec (together known as CAMBBA).

Build phase

Site clearance started in 2000, major construction work began over the summer of 2002 and the road opened in December 2003.

2.5 million books, including many Mills & Boon novels, were pulped and mixed into the tarmac surface to help absorb water.

In August 2003, freight operators indicated that they planned to keep their vehicles on the heavily congested M6 through Birmingham rather than send them on the new motorway due to high fees. The AA Motoring Trust said it welcomed the decision to make lorries pay a premium rate explaining that "Car drivers find lorries intimidating and they frequently hold up traffic on motorways when overtaking each other."

The road was partially opened on 9 December 2003 for traffic entering from local junctions, then fully opened on 14 December 2003.

First year of operation
On 10 January 2004, five weeks after opening, a short section of the road near Sutton Coldfield was reduced to one lane to allow for repairs to an uneven surface.

On 23 July 2004 prices for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) were reduced from £10 to £6 to encourage them to use the route "for a trial period".

Traffic levels
In December 2004, one year after opening, Friends of the Earth issued a press release expressing concern that faced with lower than expected traffic numbers, Midland Expressway were trying to attract new traffic-generating developments to greenbelt and greenfield sites in the M6 Toll Corridor. and in April 2005 the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that there was strong interest in the commercial property market place around the M6 Toll "zone of influence".

In May 2005 the Macquarie Infrastructure Group reported that traffic figures were "disappointing". In August 2005 the Highways Agency confirmed in its own "one year" study showing that usage had settled at around 50,000 vehicle per day (lower than the predicted 74,000) but that traffic volumes on the M6 had reduced slightly.

From 2008, traffic levels started to fall. Traffic in the first quarter of 2009 was 39,000 vehicles-per-day (Monday-Friday figures), but recovered to reach 54,000 in the second quarter of 2015.

Historical toll rates
Day time cash prices for various vehicle classes since opening:

There is a 5% discount for using a tag. Leasing of one tag currently costs £1.00/month. In addition, a monthly administrative fee of £2.00 is charged if the user wishes to receive a postal statement.

Exit/entry at some of the intermediate junctions away from the main toll booths entails a reduced toll, typically £1 less than the full fee.

M6 Expressway
There was a proposal to build a new toll motorway, called the M6 Expressway running from the end of the M6 Toll to Knutsford, where much of the traffic leaves the M6 for Manchester. It was announced on 20 July 2006 that this proposal had been abandoned due to excessive costs and anticipated construction problems.

Collection
Tolls can be paid by credit/debit card payments or in advance via an M6 Toll tag. Cash payments are not accepted. Vehicles are classified electronically at the toll booths according to their number of wheels, number of axles and height at first axle. Thus vehicles with trailers are charged extra and some large models of 4x4 are classified as vans.

Failure to pay the toll for using the motorway is a civil offence; anyone attempting to do so will be issued with an unpaid toll notice and required to send payment. If it is not paid within two days a £10 administration charge is added, plus further costs will be added if the toll is still unpaid after 14 days.

An M6 Toll tag is an electronic toll collection device attached to a vehicle's windscreen, which records the vehicle's passage through toll plazas on the M6 Toll.

Each tag can only be used with the registered number plate and has a unique account. All accounts on the M6 Toll are pre-paid, and must contain a positive balance, sufficient to cover the cost of the vehicle's toll, in order for the vehicle to be allowed through the toll gate. If the balance is sufficient, the tag will beep once and the barrier at the toll gate will automatically raise. If the balance is low (fewer than three journeys remaining), the tag will beep twice. If the balance of the account cannot cover the cost of the toll, the barrier will remain closed and an alternative method of payment must be used. Balances can be topped up automatically once a month using Direct Debit or credit card, or by cheque.

The tags contain a microchip which uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. Physically, the tag resembles a DART-Tag, previously used to pay the tolls on the Dartford Crossing. The two systems do not interoperate.

ANPR Systems

A new transformational tolling system involving Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology is currently being trialed on the M6toll as part of the M6toll’s Road Ahead strategy.

The ANPR cameras will identify licence plate data, removing the need for card payments at the toll plazas and replacing them with a remote payment system linked to online accounts. It will enable seamless end to end journeys and mean customers can manage all transactions via the M6toll website, whether for a single vehicle or larger fleets spread across a number of depots.

The ANPR system was Initially launched on 8 April 2021 as a pilot project for business customers, with Maritime, one of the UK’s largest logistics operators, becoming the first vehicles to pay for their journeys on the M6toll via the new tolling system. Once the trials have been completed with Maritime and other commercial vehicle operators, the ANPR system will be rolled out to other road users.

Midland Expressway Limited
The contract to build and operate the M6 Toll was won by Midland Expressway Limited (MEL) in 1991. In 2005 MEL reported an operating profit of around £16 million. Total revenue was £45 million, with staff and other operating costs amounting to £11.4 million and depreciation of £17.4 million. Taking into account net interest costs of around £43 million, that leaves an overall loss of £26.5 million in 2005 – their first full financial year.

As of June 2005, MEL was 100% owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) of Australia, which operated several tolled roads in Australia and North America. Long term debt was £819 million as of 30 June 2005. Disappointing traffic figures for 2005 led to a price rise in June, and MIG Chief Executive Steve Allen commented in the Australian newspaper The Age, "What we need is to slow down the M6".

Business leaders in Staffordshire, now effectively closer to London, welcomed the opening of the road, saying that it would make it easier to do business there.

In June 2006 the decision to not increase tolls was put down to disappointing traffic levels and led to a reduction in value for the owner.

In 2010 MIG was split into two, and the M6 Toll is now managed by Macquarie Atlas Roads.

The road was sold to IFM Investors in June 2017.

Design
The M6 Toll lacks a proper link with the M54, which joins the M6 1.5 mi south of the northern end of the M6 Toll. Plans are afoot to link them eventually but for the time being traffic between the two has to use either the slow and often congested A460 to M54 J1, or go from M54 J2 via the A449 and A5 to M6 J12 – an extra 4 miles/7 km. It is unclear why access to/from the M54, which provides a link to the West Midlands from Shropshire and much of Wales, was not considered a priority when the toll road was being built;  indeed, the M6 Toll did not appear on the M54's junction signs (at J2) until early 2009, more than 5 years after the road was opened.

Since the M6 Toll was designed primarily to speed journeys between the North West and the South East of England (by bypassing Birmingham), it offers no relief to traffic travelling to and from the South West region of the country, which has to continue using the "old" M6 in order to access the M5. The default lanes on the southbound M6 direct drivers onto the M6 Toll, making it easy for traffic bound for the South West, and indeed Birmingham itself, to accidentally enter the toll road, which will not only cost them the toll but will also take them severely off course.

Misleading signage
The M6 Toll interchanges with the M6 were constructed in a way that traffic must turn off to remain on the M6, with the default route straight ahead being the toll route. Therefore, many vehicles wanting to stay on the M6 inadvertently ended up on the M6 Toll, and had to pay the charge. As well as incurring toll charges, the new routes were longer than the original routes leading to accusations that this was just a ploy to increase traffic on the M6 Toll. Similar accusations have been made about variable message signs on the M6 that announce "M6 TOLL CLEAR", even when the M6 is also clear, that are under the control of Midland Expressway Ltd. These issues are mentioned on the M6 Toll FAQ pages, with explanations which emphasise that all drivers using the road are still liable to pay the toll. New signs have been put up above these variable message signs, clarifying the information as "M6 Toll Information".

All M6 Toll related signage has been developed in conjunction with Highways England.

Protest during planning and construction
Environmental campaigners opposed the road, from its inception. While the road was being built, some advocates of direct action dug tunnels under Moneymore Cottage and two large underground bunkers in an adjacent wood named the Greenwood Camp. The camp was in the path of the road in order to frustrate and delay the work. Peter Faulding, a confined space rescue specialist from Specialist Group International who removed Swampy the anti-roads protester from the A30 protest and from the Newbury Bypass tunnels, was brought in to safely remove a number of protesters tunnelled deep underground. The tunnels were very complex and on different levels in Moneymore Cottage. Operation Encompass as it was called by the police was run by the Under sheriff of Staffordshire Mr John James, the eviction operation ran for fourteen days enabling construction to begin. Friends of the Earth claimed that the road would not relieve much traffic from the West Midlands conurbation as most users using the M6 in that area began or ended their journeys within the conurbation and so the M6 Toll would offer no advantage to them. Their campaign co-ordinator for the West Midlands, Chris Crean, said that although the £900 million cost of the road had been borne by private companies, the money should have been spent on public transport.

House of Commons Library briefing paper
In 2017, the House of Commons Library produced a briefing paper on road tolls written by Louise Butcher, which included the M6 Toll. The paper suggested that "The M6 toll road has had mixed success; it is unusual in that it is in direct competition with a free motorway running along the same route; this may account for some of the difficulties it has experienced since opening more than a decade ago."

Features
The M6 Toll has several intermediary junctions, and some were designed originally to limit access to discourage local traffic. Like modern toll roads in continental Europe, the M6 Toll still uses toll plazas, despite many other tolls in the UK switching to electronic toll collection (ETC) or being abolished.

The construction of the motorway threatened the restoration of the Lichfield Canal, which cut across the motorway's route. The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust campaigned and raised funds to build an aqueduct to carry the canal over the motorway. The aqueduct has been finished but the canal has yet to reach it, giving it an odd appearance, known to some local residents as "The Climbing Lemming Bridge".

In 2014/2015 Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust received a Social Investment Business (SIB) grant of £336,000 which will enable the Trust to buy land on either side of the aqueduct and carry out the necessary work to rebuild the canal to bring the aqueduct into use.

In April 2015, Midland Expressway Limited donated £50,000 to Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust to honour an undertaking they made when the M6toll was built. The donation is a "substantial contribution" towards the cost of reinstating the Crane Brook Culvert which was removed when the motorway was built.

Norton Canes Motorway Services Area
The motorway's only service station is situated at Norton Canes, between junctions T6 and T7. It is operated by Roadchef, which has a 25-year lease on the site and the company also uses the site as its head office.

Opened on 9 March 2004, Norton Canes services is located between junctions T6 and T7, and is positioned so that it can be accessed before reaching the main toll plaza in either direction. In 2019, the Motorway Services User Survey found that Norton Canes had the highest customer satisfaction of any motorway services in the UK. In 2021, Norton Canes was voted in the top 5 UK service stations in a Which consumer survey, and was the highest positioned Midlands based service station in the same survey.

Charitable Work
Since the road opened in 2003, M6toll’s ‘Drive for Charity’ initiative has given away more than £1 million to good causes. This has included a regular cash fund of up to £1,500 given away every month to charities, schools, sports clubs or voluntary organisations helping to enhance the lives of local people.

The M6toll also supports the Midlands Air Ambulance charity. The funding provided enabled the organisation to launch the ‘Sky Champs’ education programme, an online learning management system, and range of education packs, launched at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as schools were heavily impacted by the national lockdown

M6toll also provides regular support to the Ride to the Wall initiative, providing free passage for bikers attending the event at the National Memorial Arboretum in October each year.

The annual ‘Ride To the Wall’ charity event attracts bikers from across the UK and overseas, all riding to the Armed Forces Memorial to pay their respects to serving and fallen service men and women to raise funds for the Arboretum.

Junctions
The towns, cities and roads listed are those given on road signs on the motorway as the junction is approached.

{| style="margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; color:black; font-size:90%;" class="wikitable" !scope=col|Junction !scope=col|Coordinates !scope=col|Northbound exits !scope=col|Tolls !scope=col|Southbound exits !scope=col|Tolls
 * - style="background:#0080d0; text-align:center; color:white; font-size:120%;"
 * colspan="6" | M6 Toll motorway
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * M6 J11A
 * 52.6682°N, -2.0716°W
 * Motorway continues as M6  towards Stafford
 * None
 * Start of motorway
 * None
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * T8
 * 52.6649°N, -2.0572°W
 * (M6 South), Wolverhampton A460
 * None
 * No access (on-slip only)
 * None
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * T7
 * 52.6725°N, -2.0154°W
 * Walsall, Cannock A34, Rugeley  A460
 * None
 * No access (on-slip only)
 * None
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * "background:#dcdcfe;"|
 * 52.6677°N, -2.0003°W
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Toll plaza
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"|
 * 52.6626°N, -1.9693°W
 * colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"| Norton Canes services
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * T6
 * 52.6621°N, -1.926°W
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Brownhills, Burntwood A5195
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Brownhills, Burntwood A5195
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * T5
 * 52.6478°N, -1.8348°W
 * No access (on-slip only)
 * None
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Lichfield A5148, Burton  A38
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * T4
 * 52.6384°N, -1.8111°W
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Burton, Lichfield A38, Tamworth  A5
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Tamworth, (M42 North)   A5
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * 52.6232°N, -1.8007°W
 * style="text-align:center;background:#dcdcfe"| Toll plaza
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * rowspan=2| T3
 * 52.57966°N, -1.77773°W
 * No access
 * Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield A38
 * - style="text-align:center"
 * 52.5658°N, -1.7654°W
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Sutton Coldfield A38
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Exit
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| No access (on-slip only)
 * style="background:#dcdcfe;"| Entry
 * T2
 * 52.5516°N, -1.7368°W
 * No entry or exit
 * None
 * A446 (M42 north) – Coleshill
 * None
 * T1
 * 52.5293°N, -1.7296°W
 * Split for M42 northbound, entry from A4097 (M42 J9, A446)
 * None
 * Merge with M42 southbound
 * None
 * M42 J8
 * 52.5091°N, -1.7255°W
 * Merge from M6 J4a southbound
 * None
 * No entry or exit
 * None
 * M42 J7A
 * 52.4815°N, -1.7103°W
 * Merge from M42 northbound
 * None
 * Split for M42 southbound
 * None
 * M6 J3A
 * 52.4739°N, -1.6717°W
 * Begins from M6 northbound
 * None
 * Merge with M6 southbound
 * None
 * None
 * M42 J7A
 * 52.4815°N, -1.7103°W
 * Merge from M42 northbound
 * None
 * Split for M42 southbound
 * None
 * M6 J3A
 * 52.4739°N, -1.6717°W
 * Begins from M6 northbound
 * None
 * Merge with M6 southbound
 * None
 * Merge with M6 southbound
 * None

The southernmost section of the M6 Toll, south of Junction T1, is shared by traffic using the M42. Vehicles using only this five-mile section are not charged a toll.

Statutory instruments
Each motorway in England requires that a legal document called a statutory instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built. The dates given on these statutory instruments relate to when the document was published, and not when the road was built. Provided below is a list (possibly incomplete) of the statutory instruments relating to the M6 Toll.
 * Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 121: The Birmingham Northern Relief Road and Connecting Roads Scheme 1998 S.I. 1998/121
 * Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 124: The Birmingham Northern Relief Road Toll Order 1998 S.I. 1998/124
 * Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2186: The M6 Toll (Collection of Tolls) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2186
 * Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2187: The M6 Toll Wide Load Routes (Speed Limit) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2187
 * Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2188: The M6 Toll (Speed Limit) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2188

title: M6 Toll


text:
William Halcrow

Sir William Halcrow (4 July 1883 – 31 October 1958) was one of the most notable English civil engineers of the 20th century, particularly renowned for his expertise in the design of tunnels and for projects during the Second World War.

Early years
Halcrow was born in Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, (at 9 Shakespeare Terrace) at a time when Sunderland was the site of extensive railway and harbour developments.

He joined the London-based firm of PW and CS Meik as a pupil (coincidentally, engineering brothers Patrick Meik and Charles Meik were also born in Bishopwearmouth) in the early 1900s and one of his earliest projects was the Kinlochleven hydroelectric scheme in the Western Highlands of Scotland, where he worked as assistant resident engineer.

In 1910 he left the firm to gain overseas experience (working on construction of the King George V Dock in Singapore). During World War I, back in Scotland, he was in charge of the construction of the Invergordon naval base and for defences at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

Lochaber
After a brief return to Singapore to work on the Johor–Singapore Causeway (c.1919), he returned to rejoin Charles Meik and work on the design of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme. When Meik died in 1923, the delivery of this ambitious project (which involved boring a main tunnel 5m in diameter and 24 km long under the northern edge of the Ben Nevis massif, and creating a series of dams and reservoirs) was left in Halcrow's hands; that same year, the firm was renamed CS Meik and Halcrow.

Wartime exploits
His responsibilities extended to tunnels under Whitehall and tunnels for the Post Office and telecommunications.

The knowledge he had gained at Lochaber was to prove invaluable as the Second World War approached and the transport authorities sought to protect the London Underground system from flooding. He also helped design deep air raid shelters, eight of which were attached to existing stations such as Goodge Street tube station (which also housed a signals centre used by General Eisenhower to direct the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944).

Halcrow's expertise was also used in preparatory works at the Manod slate quarry in north Wales, used to keep treasures from the National Gallery, London safe from enemy air raids. His firm was also involved in designing the reinforced concrete caissons used for the Mulberry Harbours employed after D-Day in northern France, while his knowledge of dam construction was used by Barnes Wallis to help perfect the 'bouncing bomb' used in the famous Operation Chastise or Dam Busters raids of July 1943.

Peace-time expansion
After the war, Halcrow's attention once again turned to Scotland. Instead of generating power for aluminium production, the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board proposed a new generation of hydroelectric schemes to generate power for public consumption. The Glen Affric scheme, started in 1947, was the biggest, but there were equally impressive projects in neighbouring catchments such as Glen Garry and Glen Moriston – the latter including one of the first underground power stations in the UK – and Strathfarrar and Kilmorack.

In Wales, the Halcrow firm's attention also turned to water supply projects. The Claerwen dam opened in 1952 and, later, the Clywedog dam, helped create reservoirs to supply the towns and cities of the English West Midlands. Halcrow was also instrumental in persuading the UK government to set up a hydraulics research laboratory at Wallingford in Oxfordshire, while his colleagues were designing railway tunnels at Potters Bar (1955) and the earlier Woodhead Tunnel (1954) and starting work on the new Victoria line underground line beneath central London.

Overseas, Halcrow led the company to work on a wide range of engineering projects, from roads, bridges and harbours in Ghana, Libya and Mozambique to dams in Venezuela and a power station in Buenos Aires.

The Halcrow legacy
Halcrow was knighted in 1944, and elected as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1946. He retired in the late 1950s and died in Folkestone, Kent in 1958.

The firm, renamed WT Halcrow and Partners in 1941 and Sir William Halcrow and Partners in 1944, was known in the early 21st century as Halcrow Group Limited. On 10 November 2011, the firm was acquired by the American consultant CH2M Hill; in 2017 CH2M was acquired by Jacobs Engineering Group.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: William Halcrow


text:
Rebecca Mercuri

Rebecca Mercuri is a computer scientist specializing in computer security and computer forensics. She is considered a leading expert on electronic voting systems.

Education
Mercuri earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 after defending her thesis on electronic voting. She was a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 2004–2005, she was a computer science fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, focusing on transparency and trust in computational systems.

Career
In 1981, Mercuri founded the computer security and forensics consulting company Notable Software, where she continues to work.

In 2000, Mercuri provided expert testimony to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the proceedings following the 2000 United States presidential election, and was mentioned in a brief presented to the Supreme Court for the Bush v. Gore decision. She has also provided testimony to the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; the Federal Election Commission; the United States Commission on Civil Rights; the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

In 2002, Mercuri was asked to inspect the electronic voting machines that malfunctioned in the 2002 Florida gubernatorial election.

Mercuri was the author of a column called "Security Watch", which was published in the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. She was also a contributing editor to the journal from 2002–2008.

After the 2014 security breach of the United States federal government's Healthcare.gov website, Mercuri was noted in the media for the security audit she had performed the previous year, which had concluded that the website had security issues.

Mercuri was an expert witness for the defense in the trial of Roderick Vosburgh. Vosburgh was convicted and jailed. The case was notable for featuring as evidence images of internet-famous "camgirl" Loli-chan.

Mercuri method
Mercuri is known for the Mercuri method, a version of a voter-verified paper audit trail. In her method, a person casts their votes on a machine which then outputs them on an enclosed paper record for verification. The electronic entry provides some of the efficiency afforded by purely electronic systems; the enclosure ensures that the votes are not electronically tampered with after being cast; and the glass safeguards the vote from being removed from the voting booth before it is deposited into the secure ballot box.

title: Rebecca Mercuri


text:
Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This type of research typically involves in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observations in order to collect data that is rich in detail and context. Qualitative research is often used to explore complex phenomena or to gain insight into people's experiences and perspectives on a particular topic. It is particularly useful when researchers want to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences or when they want to uncover the underlying reasons for people's behavior. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, communication studies, social work, folklore, educational research, information science and software engineering research.

Background
Qualitative research has been informed by several strands of philosophical thought and examines aspects of human life, including culture, expression, beliefs, morality, life stress, and imagination. Contemporary qualitative research has been influenced by a number of branches of philosophy, for example, positivism, postpositivism, critical theory, and constructivism. The historical transitions or 'moments' in qualitative research, together with the notion of 'paradigms' (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005), have received widespread popularity over the past decades. However, some scholars have argued that the adoptions of paradigms may be counterproductive and lead to less philosophically engaged communities. In this regard, Pernecky proposed an alternative way to implementing philosophical concerns in qualitative inquiry so that researchers are able to maintain the needed intellectual mobility and elasticity.

Approaches to inquiry
The use of nonquantitative material as empirical data has been growing in many areas of the social sciences, including learning sciences, development psychology and cultural psychology. Several philosophical and psychological traditions have influenced investigators' approaches to qualitative research, including phenomenology, social constructionism, symbolic interactionism, and positivism.

Philosophical traditions
Phenomenology refers to the philosophical study of the structure of an individual's consciousness and general subjective experience. Approaches to qualitative research based on constructionism, such as grounded theory, pay attention to how the subjectivity of both the researcher and the study participants can affect the theory that develops out of the research. The symbolic interactionist approach to qualitative research examines how individuals and groups develop an understanding of the world. Traditional positivist approaches to qualitative research seek a more objective understanding of the social world. Qualitative researchers have also been influenced by the sociology of knowledge and the work of Alfred Schütz, Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, and Harold Garfinkel.

More recent philosophical contributions to qualitative inquiry (Pernecky, 2016 ) have covered topics such as scepticism, idea-ism, idealism, hermeneutics, empiricism and rationalism, and introduced the qualitative community to a variety of realist approaches that are available within the wide philosophical spectrum of qualitative thought. Pernecky also deals with some of the neglected domains in qualitative research, such as social ontology, and ventures into new territories (e.g., quantum mechanics) in order to stimulate a more contemporary debate about common qualitative problems, such as absolutism and universalism.

Sources of data
Qualitative researchers use different sources of data to understand the topic they are studying. These data sources include interview transcripts, videos of social interactions, notes, verbal reports and artifacts such as books or works of art. The case study method exemplifies qualitative researchers' preference for depth, detail, and context. Data triangulation is also a strategy used in qualitative research. Autoethnography, the study of self, is a qualitative research method in which the researcher uses his or her personal experience to understand an issue.

Grounded theory is an inductive type of research, based on ("grounded" in) a very close look at the empirical observations a study yields. Thematic analysis involves analyzing patterns of meaning. Conversation analysis is primarily used to analyze spoken conversations. Biographical research is concerned with the reconstruction of life histories, based on biographical narratives and documents. Narrative inquiry studies the narratives that people use to describe their experience.

Data collection
Qualitative researchers may gather information through observations, note-taking, interviews, focus groups (group interviews), documents, images and artifacts.

Interviews
Research interviews are an important method of data collection in qualitative research. An interviewer is usually a professional or paid researcher, sometimes trained, who poses questions to the interviewee, in an alternating series of usually brief questions and answers, to elicit information. Compared to something like a written survey, qualitative interviews allow for a significantly higher degree of intimacy, with participants often revealing personal information to their interviewers in a real-time, face-to-face setting. As such, this technique can evoke an array of significant feelings and experiences within those being interviewed. Sociologists Bredal, Stefansen and Bjørnholt identified three "participant orientations", that they described as "telling for oneself", "telling for others" and "telling for the researcher". They also proposed that these orientations implied "different ethical contracts between the participant and researcher".

Participant observation
In participant observation ethnographers get to understand a culture by directly participating in the activities of the culture they study. Participant observation extends further than ethnography and into other fields, including psychology. For example, by training to be an EMT and becoming a participant observer in the lives of EMTs, Palmer studied how EMTs cope with the stress associated with some of the gruesome emergencies they deal with.

Recursivity
In qualitative research, the idea of recursivity refers to the emergent nature of research design. In contrast to standardized research methods, recursivity embodies the idea that the qualitative researcher can change a study's design during the data collection phase.

Recursivity in qualitative research procedures contrasts to the methods used by scientists who conduct experiments. From the perspective of the scientist, data collection, data analysis, discussion of the data in the context of the research literature, and drawing conclusions should be each undertaken once (or at most a small number of times). In qualitative research however, data are collected repeatedly until one or more specific stopping conditions are met, reflecting a nonstatic attitude to the planning and design of research activities. An example of this dynamism might be when the qualitative researcher unexpectedly changes their research focus or design midway through a study, based on their first interim data analysis. The researcher can even make further unplanned changes based on another interim data analysis. Such an approach would not be permitted in an experiment. Qualitative researchers would argue that recursivity in developing the relevant evidence enables the researcher to be more open to unexpected results and emerging new constructs.

Data analysis
Qualitative researchers have a number of analytic strategies available to them.

Coding
In general, coding refers to the act of associating meaningful ideas with the data of interest. In the context of qualitative research, interpretative aspects of the coding process are often explicitly recognized and articulated; coding helps to produce specific words or short phrases believed to be useful abstractions from the data.

Pattern thematic analysis
Data may be sorted into patterns for thematic analyses as the primary basis for organizing and reporting the study findings.

Content analysis
According to Krippendorf, "[c]ontent analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid inference from data to their context" (p. 21). It is applied to documents and written and oral communication. Content analysis is an important building block in the conceptual analysis of qualitative data. It is frequently used in sociology. For example, content analysis has been applied to research on such diverse aspects of human life as changes in perceptions of race over time, the lifestyles of contractors, and even reviews of automobiles.

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
Contemporary qualitative data analyses can be supported by computer programs (termed computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software). These programs have been employed with or without detailed hand coding or labeling. Such programs do not supplant the interpretive nature of coding. The programs are aimed at enhancing analysts' efficiency at applying, retrieving, and storing the codes generated from reading the data. Many programs enhance efficiency in editing and revising codes, which allow for more effective work sharing, peer review, data examination, and analysis of large datasets.

Common qualitative data analysis software includes:

 * ATLAS.ti
 * Dedoose (mixed methods)
 * MAXQDA (mixed methods)
 * NVivo
 * QDA MINER

A criticism of quantitative coding approaches is that such coding sorts qualitative data into predefined (nomothetic) categories that are reflective of the categories found in objective science. The variety, richness, and individual characteristics of the qualitative data are reduced or, even, lost.

To defend against the criticism that qualitative approaches to data are too subjective, qualitative researchers assert that by clearly articulating their definitions of the codes they use and linking those codes to the underlying data, they preserve some of the richness that might be lost if the results of their research boiled down to a list of predefined categories. Qualitative researchers also assert that their procedures are repeatable, which is an idea that is valued by quantitatively oriented researchers.

Sometimes researchers rely on computers and their software to scan and reduce large amounts of qualitative data. At their most basic level, numerical coding schemes rely on counting words and phrases within a dataset; other techniques involve the analysis of phrases and exchanges in analyses of conversations. A computerized approach to data analysis can be used to aid content analysis, especially when there is a large corpus to unpack.

Trustworthiness
A central issue in qualitative research is trustworthiness (also known as credibility or, in quantitative studies, validity). There are many ways of establishing trustworthiness, including member check, interviewer corroboration, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement, negative case analysis, auditability, confirmability, bracketing, and balance. Data triangulation and eliciting examples of interviewee accounts are two of the most commonly used methods of establishing the trustworthiness of qualitative studies. Transferability of results has also been considered as an indicator of validity.

Limitations of qualitative research
Qualitative research is not without limitations. These limitations include participant reactivity, the potential for a qualitative investigator to over-identify with one or more study participants, "the impracticality of the Glaser-Strauss idea that hypotheses arise from data unsullied by prior expectations," the inadequacy of qualitative research for testing cause-effect hypotheses, and the Baconian character of qualitative research. Participant reactivity refers to the fact that people often behave differently when they know they are being observed. Over-identifying with participants refers to a sympathetic investigator studying a group of people and ascribing, more than is warranted,  a virtue or some other characteristic to one or more participants. Compared to qualitative research, experimental research and certain types of nonexperimental research (e.g., prospective studies), although not perfect, are better means for drawing cause-effect conclusions.

Glaser and Strauss, influential members of the qualitative research community, pioneered the idea that theoretically important categories and hypotheses can emerge "naturally" from the observations a qualitative researcher collects, provided that the researcher is not guided by preconceptions. The ethologist David Katz wrote "a hungry animal divides the environment into edible and inedible things....Generally speaking, objects change...according to the needs of the animal." Karl Popper carrying forward Katz's point wrote that "objects can be classified and can become similar or dissimilar, only in this way--by being related to needs and interests. This rule applied not only to animals but also to scientists." Popper made clear that observation is always selective, based on past research and the investigators' goals and motives and that preconceptionless research is impossible.

The Baconian character of qualitative research refers to the idea that a qualitative researcher can collect enough observations such that categories and hypotheses will emerge from the data. Glaser and Strauss developed the idea of theoretical sampling by way of collecting observations until theoretical saturation is obtained and no additional observations are required to understand the character of the individuals under study. Bertrand Russell suggested that there can be no orderly arrangement of observations such that a hypothesis will jump out of those ordered observations; some provisional hypothesis usually guides the collection of observations.

Within qualitative research, it is important to examine power-knowledge systems, and ways that particular participants, such as disabled persons may be excluded as a result of structural and attitudinal barriers. Disabled persons have faced exclusion in qualitative research studies in terms of participant recruitment, interview techniques and research methodological design. Mad subjects and self-identifying Mad students continue to encounter sanist oppression and barriers to participation and inclusion in higher educational settings,

Community psychology
Autobiographical narrative research has been conducted in the field of community psychology. A selection of autobiographical narratives of community psychologists can be found in the book Six Community Psychologists Tell Their Stories: History, Contexts, and Narrative.

Educational psychology
Edwin Farrell used qualitative methods to understand the social reality of at-risk high school students. Later he used similar methods to understand the reality of successful high school students who came from the same neighborhoods as the at-risk students he wrote about in his previously mentioned book.

Health psychology
In the field of health psychology, qualitative methods have become increasingly employed in research on understanding health and illness and how health and illness are socially constructed in everyday life. Since then, a broad range of qualitative methods have been adopted by health psychologists, including discourse analysis, thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. In 2015, the journal Health Psychology published a special issue on qualitative research.

Industrial and organizational psychology
According to Doldor and colleagues organizational psychologists extensively use qualitative research "during the design and implementation of activities like organizational change, training needs analyses, strategic reviews, and employee development plans."

Occupational health psychology
Although research in the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) has predominantly been quantitatively oriented, some OHP researchers have employed qualitative methods. Qualitative research efforts, if directed properly, can provide advantages for quantitatively oriented OHP researchers. These advantages include help with (1) theory and hypothesis development, (2) item creation for surveys and interviews, (3) the discovery of stressors and coping strategies not previously identified, (4) interpreting difficult-to-interpret quantitative findings, (5) understanding why some stress-reduction interventions fail and others succeed, and (6) providing rich descriptions of the lived lives of people at work. Some OHP investigators have united qualitative and quantitative methods within a single study (e.g., Elfering et al., [2005] ); these investigators have used qualitative methods to assess job stressors that are difficult to ascertain using standard measures and well validated standardized instruments to assess coping behaviors and dependent variables such as mood.

Social media psychology
Since the advent of social media in the early 2000s, formerly private accounts of personal experiences have become widely shared with the public by millions of people around the world. Disclosures are often made openly, which has contributed to social media's key role in movements like the #metoo movement.

The abundance of self-disclosure on social media has presented an unprecedented opportunity for qualitative and mixed methods researchers; mental health problems can now be investigated qualitatively more widely, at a lower cost, and with no intervention by the researchers. To take advantage of these data, researchers need to have mastered the tools for conducting qualitative research.

Journals

 * Qualitative Inquiry
 * Qualitative Research
 * The Qualitative Report

title: Qualitative research


text:
Talk:Qualitative research

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2018 and 17 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Darin.Omar.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 January 2020 and 3 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Krm107, InaKamenova.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
(Note: this page was redirected to Talk:Qualitative psychological research for some reason not given. Unfortunately, that page is affected by the block-compression problem, so can't be moved.  I've therefore moved the contents here by manual cut-and-paste, Mel Etitis  ( Μελ Ετητης ) 11:44, 6 May 2005 (UTC))

I'm not happy with this article -- I think I failed to be NPOV, and I'm sure the definition of qualitative research could be presented more informatively by someone more versed in the field than I. However, I thought it would be good to have an article for the links in other articles, notably Humanistic psychology, to go to. I've been hoping that the author of that article or someone else from the so-called humanistic school would improve this article, but I've learned not to hold my breath. Trontonian 13:58, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I was wondering if it would be handy and interesting to include different methods of gathering qualitive data. I am looking for a list myself. Such as Benchmark research, feasability study are different methods... Good idea?

-

Has anyone ever written anything NPOV anywhere about qualitative research? This article has now become fat and sluggish and needs to be trimmed down. Looks as if no one else's going to di it, either. Not a lot of qualitative researchers on Wikipedia, I guess, eh? Trontonian 16:12, 31 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Qualitative research is much improved. Thanks. Trontonian 20:28, 1 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Qualitative analysis (Chemistry)
This section needs either improving, or two new pages.

Qualitative inorganic and organic analysis is totally different (chalk and cheese!).

Adding Silver Nitrate to a solution and seeing a white precipitate would rule out Sodium Nitrate, but it doesn't prove the prescence of Sodium Chloride.

I shall try to write something soon. Jeff Knaggs 22:36, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

and the fact that this talk page has been redirected to Qualitative psychological research definitely shows the need for some new pages. Jeff Knaggs 22:40, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

non-social science meanings
Non-social science meanings should probably be separated into other articles, since there's no content overlap. Not sure where the information might be merged; maybe those meanings could have their own articles - but they might resemble dicdefs. Rd232 15:00, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Category
Any comments on pros and cons of creating the Category:Qualitative method?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 22:04, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

reworking of article desperately needed
I recently looked into this article to see if it was worth recommending to a friend who is not in the field of social sciences (whereas I am) to get at least a glimpse of what Qualitative Research is.

This article definitely needs some improvements, right now it does not explain much, and few major developments are simply left out (Grounded Theory is by no means a new invention...), and others are simply wrong (quantitative research does not prove hypotheses, it does try to prove them wrong, and notes the probability of having not found a way to prove the hypotheses wrong, basically speaking) or at least not helpful in understanding qual. research.

Neither the English not the German language version should be left the way it is, and mayhaps they could get rewritten by a group of people who actually work with qualitative research methods and know why they do it?

84.191.160.149 20:41, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Pictures
This article definitely needs some pictures to relieve the eye. Got any suggestions? 204.52.215.107 06:31, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Emphasis Should be Placed on the Social Sciences
In today's usage, "qualitative research" generally applies to the social sciences. All references to the hard sciences should be taken out of the article or delegated to a subsection near the end of the article. Someone who is not familiar with the quantitative and qualitative research approaches might find references to the hard sciences too much to handle and become confused. Remember, sometimes (or oftentimes) people log on to Wikipedia to get the broad picture of a topic that interests them. Qualitative researchers from the disciplines of Education, Recreation, Communications, Nursing, Sociology, and last but not least, Anthropology should be invited to take a look at this.

→I disagree with the premise. As some of the other edits show, qualitative research is alive and well in many areas, not just social research. The difference is largely that for most scientists, with the exception of those physicists who follow Feynman's dictum of "shut up and calculate," the distinction between qualitative and quantitative is a minor issue and methods are chosen and mixed as required, rather than being seen as a huge epistemological and ontological divide. Mysteryrare (talk) 00:22, 19 January 2020 (UTC) →Given the title of the page, it would be more useful to outline the different kinds of qualitative research outside of social research as well as those within. Doing so would provide a better context for any discussion of qualitative methods in social research (possibly a distinct page with reference to this one) and also help overcome the largely false distinction between qual and quant; and some of the biases apparent in both the article and some of the commentary.Mysteryrare (talk) 00:22, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Communication and observation; history
The following is meant as a request for clarification only.

Point 4, in the list at the beginning, about qualitative research depending on communication and observation while quantitative relies on instruments could usefully be clarified. Certainly quantitative research uses communication and observation. If the point is that qualitative observation and communication are unstructured and quantitative structured, then that seems to be the same point as #5.

As for qualitative methods first gaining attention in the 70s, I remember them being hot stuff in the 60s. Certainly participant observation was popular lmg before that. Perhaps some more detail could be added to clarify the statement. John FitzGerald 12:59, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Inherently non-mathematical?
The article starts out with stating that qualitative research is about the how and why of decision making, it ends with "Quantitative data is measurable while Qualitative data can not be put into a context that can be graphed or displayed as a mathamatical term."

This does not make sense to me. Decision making can clearly be put into mathematical terms; mathematics concerns itself with a lot more than graphing, displaying and measuring. Behaviour and reasoning can of course be put into mathematical terms; game theory is a good example.

I do not have any formal background in qualitative research, so I have not changed the article, but it's wrong the way it stands. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.191.125.90 (talk) 17:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

Qualitative data
The point is just that the data collected in qualitative research is text based, meaning that the data says something about the quality not quantity of a phenomenon. It's not that it can not be quantified but if it is quantified it is no longer a qualitative research method.

Falkoner 11:06, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

 * The aims vary with the disciplinary background such as psychologist seeking to gather the reasons that govern a particular behavior. it examines the why, where, when, or who of a given study. Qualitative Research has a strong basis is fields of sociology, political science, social work,and special education. A popular method utilized in this of research is the case study. 58.69.55.191 (talk) 01:00, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Actually, qualitative research can and does employ quantitative techniques. The data collection methods mentioned are just a few of the many used. The fundamental problem with this page is the opening line which provides a terribly shortsighted description, using an example to represent the whole. A better broad description might be "qualitative research aims to describe and understand phenomena whereas quantitative research seeks to measure and predict." 66.90.181.195 04:32, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Agree!! And, at root, a lot of survey research, which is what most people mean by quantitative social research, is based on subjective interpretations, i.e. the 'quality' of a person's experience. Mysteryrare (talk) 00:25, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Needing rewording
I removed this sentence because it doesn't really make any sense:

""Qualitative research methods also began at the margins of acceptable science. From Freud on, ... Carl Rogers (1942; 1951) ... Piaget ... Mary Ainsworth (1979)."[1]"

If anyone wants to put it back, it needs to be placed in context. dr.alf 11:59, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Stustu12's external links
I removed the following links per WP:EL, WP:SPAM, WP:NOT, and WP:COI. Piotrus restored them, who I don't believe has a COI, but I still think they should be discussed first: --Ronz 19:23, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The Qualitative Data Analysis Program at the University of Pittsburgh - A coding and tool development laboratory.
 * The Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT) developed by the Qualitative Data Analysis Program at the University of Pittsburgh - tools for increasing the reliability and validity of coding and the efficiency of the process.
 * Codeshop is a wiki for a fall 2006 NSF-funded workshop "Coding across the Disciplines".

 * The links may be refined further; indeed all three don't belong to the series of articles they were added - but neither was removing a link to Codeshop NSF wiki from Coding (social sciences) useful, nor accusing the editor who added it of spamming. The Qualitative Data Analysis Program seems rather relevant here; the two other links - perhaps not. Since you are interested in weeding the elinks in those articles, please do so - but please don't remove everything, and please don't accuse other editors and experienced academics (as User:Stustu12) of spamming. Thanks, --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 19:35, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The editor added the links and only the links to multiple articles. That is the very definition of spamming. --Ronz 19:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The editor added the links to four related articles. This is not spamming - do remember WP:AGF and WP:BITE.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 19:51, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry, but I disagree. I'm happy to take it to WP:COIN and/or WT:WPSPAM, or you can do so if you'd rather. --Ronz (talk) 01:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I have pruned some of the links, but the rest is relevant (although the mess at qualitative research needs to be cleaned up. If you want to remove the remaining links, please ask for a third opinion.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 02:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll be following up at WT:WPSPAM, which is a perfectly appropriate venue, if you don't seek another first. --Ronz (talk) 02:22, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * As a fairly inexperienced wikipedian, I can assure you this 'controversy' is a deterrent to future engagement. My real curiosity is why the other external links are considered legitimate? User:stustu12 —Preceding comment was added at 02:53, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I am a quite experienced qualitative researcher. I find the links useful and in no way even close to "spam". Seriously, why would anyone consider as such non-profit and educational websites strictly related to the very topic of the article? Pundit | utter  03:18, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Links of this sort, to individual projects like these, are reasonably considered spam at WP. useful alone is not sufficient to meet WP:ELDGG (talk) 19:52, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Individual? Its a project of the University of Pittsburgh. But of course, the ultimate criterion is mainly usability and notability. Pundit | utter  20:10, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I would tend to agree and support the point DGG has made--Hu12 (talk) 20:18, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Just to be sure, I went through WP:EL again. I don't think one link to the page of the program clearly qualifies for elimination (nor is it an obvious keep). Usefulness definitely is a factor (there are virtually no free tools of this sort for qualitative researchers). If it was clear that the whole project not only is but also will always be free for use, I would strongly lobby for its keeping. For now, I'll wait for the opinions of the community.  Pundit | utter  20:42, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Indeed, free or not is crucial here. I was unable to find out if the software is free and/or open source. If it is not free, than I would have to agree it may not be that useful (and CoI would be more relevant), but if it is free, it should most certainly be linked from our pages.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 20:50, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The links are deleted and my patience for your Wikipedian politics is depleted. I doubt that I will invest my time or expertise in this project anytime soon. Nice movement! Former user:stustu12

External links in light of state of article
I think this article is a bit of a mess in terms of the references. I tagged it with nofootnotes because I think it should be a priority to actually identify where (and if) the references are being used for WP:V.

That said, I think the article is at a point where the external links should be to reliable sources that aren't currently being used, or other articles that might not clearly meet WP:RS. I'm always a bit confused as to how lists of professional associations, research institutes, etc are useful at this point. If others are inclined to keep them, I think it would be useful to look to WP:LIST and come up with an inclusion criteria so we can manage what is included in the external links. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ronz (talk • contribs) 21:23, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

adding citations
hi all - i have a citation that could be added at the 1st [citation needed] tag in the 1st few lines of the article - re how & why vs who, what, where when.

i'm not game to play with the html - it isn't something i've done before, so can i submit a citation for a more experienced editor to add?

61.69.190.228 (talk) 01:25, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to edit the article, and if you want I can also do the edit for you. Or you can post the excerpt here with a request to do the job. Btw, you're whole-heartily invited to register, you will find it useful (you will be able e.g. to track changes to your favorite articles). Pundit | utter 04:00, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Monotonic function ?
Is there any reason to list Monotonic function as a related page ? OliAtlason (talk) 01:51, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

 * I highly doubt it -- perhaps someone considered it relevant to some form of qualitative research discussed. I've omitted it, if to be included it should be clear why it's there. Cheers Holon (talk) 01:56, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Content from Qualitative data
The following was added to Qualitative data by 90.44.39.221. I think it belongs here instead.

The Assumptions of Qualitative Designs
1) Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with process, rather than outcomes or products.

2) Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning, how people make sense of their lives, experiences, and their structures of the world.

3) The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories, questionnaires, or machines.

4) Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people, setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting.

5) Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures.

6) The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.

Taemyr (talk) 22:25, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

the prose is, er, dense
As a reader and a writer, I have to say that the meaning is occasionally lost in the verbiage.

I still can't figure out what this means:

''This is because in qualitative research the possibility of the researcher taking a 'neutral' or transcendental position is seen as more problematic in practical and/or philosophical terms. Hence qualitative researchers are often exhorted to reflect on their role in the research process and make this clear in the analysis.''

Maybe it reads better in the original language?

If someone with more expertise would like to team up to clarify the article, I would be happy to help. Please leave a message at my talk page. Katharine908 (talk) 23:50, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

References?
Philosophical Research is mentioned as a methodology but what are the sources about this methodology? I've never heard of it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.1.208.141 (talk) 02:03, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Disambig or redirect at Qualitative analysis?
Please see Talk:Qualitative_analysis. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk to me 17:36, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Definition
This article needs an adequate definition. The few sentences in the first paragraph do not adequately distinguish it from quantitative research (I'm sure quantitative researchers are looking for hows and whys, for example, and examining things in depth). And how does it differ from journalism, say?

John FitzGerald (talk) 21:49, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

 * I agree, the definition must better distinguish qualitative vs quantitative by going beyond goals and briefly indicate differences in methods and also discussing the limitations of qualitative research. (Such as the inability of qualitative to make causal inferences.) I also suggest that the intro should indicate how qualitative research can work with quantitative by suggesting lines of investigation. Robotczar (talk) 15:33, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

Good points, especially the last one. I've had the experience of discovering something unsuspected in focus group results, then confirming its existence powerfully with quantitative research. John FitzGerald (talk)

At one level I agree with this post and the one below "Limitations", there are severe limitations on the causal inferences one can draw from qualitative research. One simply CANNOT do as the quote from Rosenthal suggests and generalise from "an individual case": and YES,quantitative research can help understand how widespread a phenomenon is, that is its principle virtue. Mysteryrare (talk) 00:55, 19 January 2020 (UTC) On the other hand, I agree with "There are not limitations". Much of the dichotomy between qual and quant is hyperbole and misplaced but most especially the notion that quant offers a greater ability to make causal inferences, or is inherently more "scientific." I am much more comfortable drawing a causal inference about an individual case about which I have detailed knowledge and understanding, than generalising about the causality of multi-faceted, complicated social phenomena with many factors, based on numbers. First, at best, statistics measure co-occurrence not causality, the inference of causality is attributed by the researcher not the data. Second, survey data in particular, is not a direct measure, or even an observation of the object of study, it collects subjective responses about phenomena in a carefully controlled, unnatural context that may have little to do with the context of action and largely ignores the process by which the responses are generated (cognitive science). Third, comparative case studies form the basis of many solid theories in chemistry, physics, psychology, medicine and social science. The detailed comparisons between cases are a useful way to test causal hypotheses through a null hypothesis.Mysteryrare (talk) 00:55, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Limitations
This article needs to discuss the limitations of qualitative research, most importantly the inability to make causal inferences from qualitative "data". The subjective nature of the evaluation is also an issue. The article needs to point out that qualitative research lacks several key steps or processes of scientific method and, from a scientific perspective, is simply a first observational and speculative step in applying scientific method. It seems important to point our that there is some conflict between practitioners of humanities-oriented research, which sees qualitative research as sufficient; and scientific researchers who see qualitative research as preliminary.Robotczar (talk) 15:44, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

There are no limitations
There is a false dichotomy appropriated by some to assume that qualitative research is somehow deficient as it doesn't result in a scientific deduction. We would all be worse for wear if we accepted what hard empiricists (positivists) wanted us to believe that the only good knowledge out there is defined purely by objective reasoning. Unfortunately this discussion has gone on ever since Plato deduced that we could solve all of the worlds problems with mathematical knowledge, more recently Locke, Kant, Comte, et. al have all been drawn into this debate.

I will reiterate this with one simple phrase. The dichotomy is false, the allegiance between us and them is completely unnecessary and in the end it is detrimental to the development of Wikipedia as a well reasoned source of encyclopedic information. The positivists need to naff off and start their bun fight elsewhere. Without the subjectivity of life we would be completely unable to operate as human beings, end of story. There are plenty of things that cannot be answered with an quantitative answer and it doesn't mean that the information gathered is any less valid. --121.222.14.129 (talk) 09:47, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Cleanup
This article is overly dense, confusing and disjointed. It goes into too much detail in not enough places and isn't really clear to a lay reader. Here are some thoughts on how to restructure: -- phoebe / (talk to me) 15:24, 4 June 2016 (UTC)
 * a better lede paragraph that summarizes what qual research is and what it is used for, in basic terms
 * a section that describes the type of problems & fields qual research is used on
 * splitting data collection methods and data analysis methods into two sections
 * adding a "relationship with quantitative research" section
 * general prose and reference cleanup; this reads like an undergrad paper rather than an encyclopedia article.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Qualitative research. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080527231135/http://ddl.uwinnipeg.ca/res_des/files/readings/cwmills-intel_craft.pdf to http://ddl.uwinnipeg.ca/res_des/files/readings/cwmills-intel_craft.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 16:22, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Qualitative research. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20130326175632/http://answers.mheducation.com:80/marketing/marketing-research/analyzing-and-reporting-qualitative-market-research to http://answers.mheducation.com/marketing/marketing-research/analyzing-and-reporting-qualitative-market-research

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 12:26, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Major overhaul of the entire article
I am working on a major overhaul of the entire article. I dragged it into my sandbox and am working on it there. If you have suggestions, please share. Thanks. QRfrag (talk) 18:38, 22 April 2017 (UTC)QRfrag

 * Hi QRfrag, I'm happy to see this. I would be interested in helping with the rewrite. If you like, can you share a link to your rewrite and maybe describe what you want to tackle? Thanks. --Simulo (talk) 20:50, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

Hi there, fairly new to this page, and just wondering whether the 'Coding and "thinking"' section (version at 7 April 2018) should be significant revised, deleted, or moved elsewhere... it doesn't currently seem to be a good fit for the context of where it is in the wikipedia article, and some content seemed to be more about quantitative research instead?!? Freebeliever101 (talk) 11:27, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Shouldn't the very first sentence in the page be a definition of qualitative research instead of the existing statement of what the qualitative research approach is? These aren't exactly the same thing. If I go, for example, to Wikipedia's 'Refrigerator' page, the first sentence is "A refrigerator is a box-shaped piece of modern domestic technology for keeping food cold", and not "A refrigerator is used to keep food cold". Similar, but not the same. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.55.79.4 (talk) 02:19, 10 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes. Let's work to make this happen. AnaSoc (talk) 22:27, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Observation Qualia Quanta

 * Lead article sentence could begin with; (today) The field of qualitative research is toward the reality of observation while the field of empirical research (including quantitative research) is toward the reality of experience...
 * In philosophy this idea is meant to suggest, the independence of observation with causal thinking, as necessary for formulative thought... .Arnlodg (talk) 15:39, 25 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I like the current opening paragraph. I don't see the problem with it. Bondegezou (talk) 19:30, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

 * Well at least there could be listed--Qualitive research in philosophy--in the articles contents column; as the original meaning of quality is found in philosophy. then we would need some content provided, hmmm.Arnlodg (talk) 00:43, 26 May 2019 (UTC)
 * That doesn't have much to do with what is generally meant by qualitative research in the social sciences. Bondegezou (talk) 08:52, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

 * My point is, observation is neither the thing itself or description of the thing itself in research; it is neutral as qualia and quanta are either active or passive in research....Arnlodg (talk) 14:28, 26 May 2019 (UTC).

Restructuring Needed
Regarding the lead, the opening sentence is a clear and concise definition with a citation. The second sentence includes quotation marks (Is this a direct quote or intended for emphasis?) without a citation. The third sentence resorts to a too simplistic comparison (as if "how often" is the only other option to "why" and "how" questions -- maybe it just needs a "For example" at the start...) The lead section gets into a discussion on some qualitative methods (but not a comprehensive overview of methods) which should probably be a section in itself that comes later. The block quote seems unnecessary as it just affirms what has already been stated (a citation would accomplish the same). The lead is too detailed. It gets too technical in terminology and includes a lot of information that would be better suited to come later. A good start would be to move the methods discussion to a new "Methods" section, and writers can add methods not yet covered. The section called "Data collection, analysis and field research design" requires work. (There is a whole section on data analysis and should not also be included here.) There could be a section on "Data collection" that describes data collection practices for qualitative research and even link to QR data collection practices like interviews, focus group, visual data, documents, etc. Krm107 (talk) 04:43, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

Intro definition edit
Hi! I did an edit not long ago on the introduction. I've noticed it has been changed, with the outline that the intro I gave (below) needed "More editing for a briefer, less technical lead". I can completely empathise with this, and agree it needs further work to relay into straightforward English.

However, I believe the new edit:
 * Reduces the reader's knowledge by not engaging with key issues below such as inductive reasoning, the connection with philosophical roots, etc.
 * Makes limited distinction on primary data methods, such as interviewing, and secondary research methods that are also employed e.g. data archivial work, discourse analysis, etc. (this also comes from my edit, so critiquing myself)
 * I also think that 'non-numerical' data is too simple, as Hammarberg and de Lacey outline:
 * "...qualitative studies involve the systematic collection, organization, description and interpretation of textual, verbal or visual data."

I think that, yes simplicity is needed, but there needs to be a compromise with loss of knowledge.

I would be grateful to hear anyones thoughouts on this and, looking at the quantitative definition, I am sure that this introduction can be expanded upon a lot more than it is right now.

Previous edit, 31 October 2020:

Qualitative research is a research strategy that focuses importance on the collection of words in obtaining and understanding data through an inductive approach that seeks primarily to generate theory.

Qualitative work stems from interpretivist epistemology which critiques empiricist and positivist standpoints that there are objective truths in world, rather they emphasis individuals' interpretations of the world as the key source of data and understanding. Instead the world is a social reality, where meaning and reality are an ever changing product of an individual's construction. This relies on unstructured and non-numerical data. Data obtained by the researcher from first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, participant-observation, recordings made in natural settings, documents, and artifacts. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Current edit, 31 October 2020:

Qualitative research relies on data obtained by the researcher from first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, participant-observation, recordings made in natural settings, documents, and artifacts. The data are generally nonnumerical. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, social work, and educational research. Qualitative researchers study individuals' understanding of their social reality.
 * I prefer the current edit, but maybe it could be expanded with some material from the previous edit?
 * Problems with the previous edit: "focuses importance on the collection of words" - usually, but qual research is done on images and other materials that are not words. "Qualitative work stems from interpretivist epistemology" - often, but there is qual research done within a positivist frame or that otherwise doesn't adopt an interpretivist epistemology. Bondegezou (talk) 12:00, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

 * I concur with User:Bondegezou. I like the current edit of the lead. It could be expanded a little to mention images. Perhaps someone could cite a text on qualitative research that underlines the application of qualitative research to images. Iss246 (talk) 18:25, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Psychology
I'd like to introduce all of the different areas of psychology that use qual research and will get to work with that task which i think will improve the section in the article. Not sure why there are only a few very small areas of psychology listed and described so far but anyhows. Thanks! Brokenrecordsagain (talk) 01:46, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

 * User:Brokenrecordsagain, please put the citation of Dolder et al. in the Wikipedia format or the American Psychological Association format. Thanks. Iss246 (talk) 03:08, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

 * User:Brokenrecordsagain, please be more careful even when you correct your original WP entry. I understand that you are a newcomer to WP. You did not follow APA format or the WP format for writing a citation. You misspelled the name of the first author. It is Doldor not Dolder. In addition, you added a word to the title of the chapter and to the title of the book. I made all the corrections.

 * Given those errors, please recheck the quotation you inserted, "during the design and implementation of activities like organizational change, training needs analyses, strategic reviews, and employee development plans" and include the page number. Use this page to confirm that you checked. Iss246 (talk) 17:23, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Practical research
The aims vary with the disciplinary background such as psychologist seeking to gather the reasons that govern a particular behavior. it examines the why, where, when, or who of a given study. Qualitative Research has a strong basis is fields of sociology, political science, social work,and special education. A popular method utilized in this of research is the case study. 58.69.55.191 (talk) 00:57, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Qualitative research