Qualitative Health Research
| Julianne Cheek, PhD | Østfold University College, Norway |
Health Research Methods | Health Services Research | Public Health Qualitative Research Methods
Qualitative Health Research provides an international, interdisciplinary forum to enhance health and health care and further the development and understanding of qualitative health research. The journal is an invaluable resource for researchers and academics, administrators and others in the health and social service professions, and graduates, who seek examples of studies in which the authors used qualitative methodologies. Each issue of Qualitative Health Research provides readers with a wealth of information on conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues pertaining to qualitative inquiry.
A Variety of Perspectives
We encourage submissions across all health-related areas and disciplines. Qualitative Health Research understands health in its broadest sense and values contributions from various traditions of qualitative inquiry. As a journal of SAGE Publishing, Qualitative Health Research aspires to disseminate high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds. There are no fees payable to submit or publish in Qualitative Health Research.
A Variety of Perspectives
Qualitative Health Research addresses a variety of perspectives including: cross-cultural health, family medicine, health psychology, health social work, medical anthropology, medical sociology, nursing, pediatric health, physical education, public health, and rehabilitation.
Original, Timely, and Insightful Scholarship
Qualitative Health Research aspires to publish articles addressing significant and contemporary health-related issues. Only manuscripts of sufficient originality and quality that align with the aims and scope of Qualitative Health Research will be reviewed. As part of the submission process authors are required to warrant that they are submitting original work, that they have the rights in the work, that they have obtained, and that can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by them, and that they are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please note that Qualitative Health Research does not accept submissions of papers that have been published elsewhere. Sage requires authors to identify preprints upon submission (see https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/preprintsfaq).
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Qualitative Health Research is an international, interdisciplinary, refereed journal for the enhancement of health care and to further the development and understanding of qualitative research methods in health care settings. We welcome manuscripts in the following areas: the description and analysis of the illness experience, health and health-seeking behaviors, the experiences of caregivers, the sociocultural organization of health care, health care policy, and related topics. We also seek critical reviews and commentaries addressing conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues pertaining to qualitative enquiry.
| Julianne Cheek, PhD | Østfold University College, Norway |
| Megan Aston, PhD | Dalhousie University School of Nursing, Canada |
| Karin Olson, PhD, RN, FAAN | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Michael van Manen, MD, PhD, FRCPC | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Sabine Caillaud, PhD | Université Lumière Lyon 2, France |
| Engle Angela Chan, RN, PhD | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong |
| Cesar A. Cisneros Puebla | University of Tarapaca, Chile |
| Catherine Cook, PhD, RN | Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand |
| Nathalia Cordeiro da Costa | The University of Sydney, Australia |
| Johanna Creswell Báez, PhD, LCSW | University of Colorado, USA |
| S. Nombuso Dlamini | York University, Canada |
| Hadass Goldblatt, PhD | University of Haifa, Israel |
| Phillip Joy, PhD, RD | Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada |
| Truls I. Juritzen, PhD, RN | University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway |
| Gael J. Mearns | Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand |
| Rebecca E. Olson, PhD | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Joy Pierce, PhD | University of Utah, USA |
| Kumar Ravi Priya | Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India |
| Kristen Reynolds | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Judy Siu, PhD, MPhil, BSSc | Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong |
| Jonathan A Smith, DPhil | Birkbeck University of London, UK |
| Tricia Nichola Stephens, LCSW-R, Ph.D | Hunter College - Silberman School of Social Work, New York, NY |
| Janice M. Morse, PhD, FAAN | University of Utah, USA |
| Mitchell Allen, PhD | UC Berkeley, USA |
| Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, PhD | Boston College, USA |
| Joan L. Bottorff, PhD, RN, FCAHS, FAAN | University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Canada |
| Svend Brinkmann, PhD | Aalborg University, Denmark |
| Seung Eun Chung, PhD, RN | Korea National University of Transportation, South Korea |
| Adele Clarke, PhD | University of California, San Francisco, USA |
| Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA |
| Susan Crowther | AUT University Auckland, New Zealand |
| Uwe Flick | Freie Universtität Berlin, Germany |
| Juliet Foster | Kings College London |
| Arthur W. Frank, Ph.D, FRSC | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Kathleen Galvin | University of Brighton, UK |
| Guendalina Graffigna, PhD | Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy |
| Jori N. Hall | University of Georgia, USA |
| Robert D. Hall, PhD | Utah Tech University, USA |
| Eleanor Holroyd, PhD, RN | Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand |
| Susan James, PhD | Laurentian University, Canada |
| Pranee Liamputtong, PhD | VinUniversity, Vietnam |
| Deborah Lupton | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Maria Mayan, PhD | University of Alberta, Canada |
| David L. Morgan, PhD | Portland State University, USA |
| Isabella Nizza, PhD | Birkbeck University of London, UK |
| John Oliffe, PhD, MEd, RN | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Carole A. Robinson, PhD | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Bukola (Oladunni) Salami, RN, MN, PhD | Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Kyung Rim Shin, EdD | Ewha Woman's University, South Korea |
| Massimiliano Tarozzi, PhD | University of Bologna, Italy |
| Earmporn Thongkrajai, RN, PhD | Khon Kaen University, Thailand |
| Sally E. Thorne, PhD | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Max van Manen, PhD | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Judith Wuest, PhD | University of New Brunswick, Canada |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Qualitative Health Research
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
Please read the guidelines below then visit Qualitative Health Research’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qhr to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Qualitative Health Research will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in Qualitative Health Research and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Qualitative Health Research may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Clinical trials
2.8 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Article Format
4.2 Word processing formats
4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Qualitative Health Research, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Each issue of Qualitative Health Research provides readers with a wealth of information —, commentaries on conceptual, theoretical, methodological and ethical issues pertaining to qualitative inquiry as well as articles covering research, theory and methods.
Abstracts should be 250 words or less, and Original Research Articles should be 6,000 words or less excluding the abstract and list of references
1.2.1 What types of articles will QHR accept?
- QHR asks authors to make their own decision regarding the fit of their article to the journal. Do not send query letters regarding article fit.
- Read the Mission Statement on main QHR webpage.
- Search the QHR journal for articles that address your topic. Do we publish in your area of expertise?
- Ask these questions: Does it make a meaningful and strong contribution to qualitative health research literature? Is it original? Relevant? In depth? Insightful? Significant? Is it useful to reader and/or practitioner?
- Note the sections: General articles, critical reviews, articles addressing qualitative methods, commentaries on conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues pertaining to qualitative inquiry.
- QHR accepts qualitative methods and qualitatively-driven mixed-methods, qualitative meta- analyses, and articles addressing all qualitative methods.
- QHR is a multi-disciplinary journal and accepts articles written from a variety of perspectives including: cross-cultural health, family medicine, health psychology, health social work, medical anthropology, medical sociology, nursing, pediatric health, physical education, public health, and rehabilitation.
- Articles in QHR provide an array of timely topics such as: experiencing illness, giving care, institutionalization, substance abuse, food, feeding and nutrition, living with disabilities, milestones and maturation, monitoring health, and children's perspectives on health and illness.
- QHR does NOT publish pilot studies.
Look Out for These Regular Special Features
Pearls, Pith and Provocation: This section fosters debate about significant issues, enhances communication of methodological advances and encourages the discussion of provocative ideas.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
SAGE does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
2.4 Funding
Qualitative Health Research requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Qualitative Health Research to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles. Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals:
All papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you blinded the name and institution of the review committee until such time as your article has been accepted. The Editor will request authors to replace the name and add the approval number once the article review has been completed
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants
Qualitative Health Research conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
At SAGE we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Where relevant, The Qualitative Health Research encourages authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository subject to ethical considerations and where data is included, to add a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file. Authors should also follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway, which includes information about SAGE’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Qualitative Health Research and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Qualitative Health Research offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice program. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
4.1 Article Format (see previously published articles in QHR for style):
- Blinding: A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to peer reviewers.
- Title page: Title should be succinct; list all authors and their affiliation; keywords. Include any removed or anoymized material. Please upload the title page separately from the main document. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
- Blinding: Do not include any author identifying information in your manuscript. See https://sagepub.com/Manuscript-preparation-four-double-blind-journal for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.
- Abstract: Maximum of 250 words. This should be the first page of the main manuscript, and it should be on its own page. Please ensure the abstract is unstructured i.e. no sub-headings.
- Length: Original Research Articles should be 6,000 words or less excluding the abstract and references. Manuscripts should be as tight as possible.
- Methods: QHR readership is sophisticated; excessive details not required.
- Ethics: Include a statement of IRB approval and participant consent. Present demographics as a group, not listed as individuals. Do not link quotations to particular individuals unless essential (as in case studies) as this threatens anonymity.
- Results: Rich and descriptive; theoretical; linked to practice if possible.
- Discussion: Link your findings with research and theory in literature, including other geographical areas and quantitative research.
- References: APA format. Use pertinent references only. References should be on a separate page.
Additional Editor’s Preferences:
- Authors should not include qualitative research checklists, such as COREQ (COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualtiative research), within their manuscripts. Based on the specific qualitative methodology and/or methods, it may be appropriate for authors to describe steps, activities, or concepts related to rigor. For additional, information on this policy, please read Why the Qualitative Health Research (QHR) Review Process Does Not Use Checklists
- Please do not refer to your manuscript as a “paper;” you are submitting an “article.”
- The word “data” is plural.
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC or PDF. The text should be double-spaced throughout with standard 1 inch margins (APA formatting). Text should be standard font (i.e., Times New Roman) 12 point.
4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
- Figures: Should clarify text.
- Include figures, charts, and tables created in MS Word in the main text rather than at the end of the document.
- Figures, tables, and other files created outside of Word should be submitted separately. Indicate where table should be inserted within manuscript (i.e. INSERT TABLE 1 HERE).
- Photographs: Should have permission to reprint and faces should be concealed using mosaic patches – unless permission has been given by the individual to use their identity. This permission must be forwarded to QHR’s Managing Editor.
- TIFF, JPED, or common picture formats accepted. The preferred format for graphs and line art is EPS.
- Resolution: Rasterized based files (i.e. with .tiff or .jpeg extension) require a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Line art should be supplied with a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.
- Dimension: Check that the artworks supplied match or exceed the dimensions of the journal. Images cannot be scaled up after origination.
- Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
Qualitative Health Research is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qhr to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal SAGE Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Qualitative Health Research editorial office as follows:
Isabel Stephenson, Peer Review Manager
Email: qhr@sagepub.com