Submitting a proposal
Researchers who would be best positioned to submit a proposal include:
- founders or cofounders of a method or methodology who have seen their method/methodology used in the field across generations, issues, and social changes;
- researchers who have focused expertise in using a method or methodology and have seen its evolution across generations, issues, and societal changes; or
- historians of psychology interested in writing about how a methodology has shifted in relation to social issues.
Proposals should be approximately two to three pages in length. For each of the sections described below, please include a few sentences that describe your ideas for that section. Please indicate a deadline by which the first draft will be submitted for our planning.
Proposals to write these papers should be emailed to the Editor Heidi M. Levitt, PhD. These submissions will undergo a review process by the associate editors to determine which proposals to invite. After acceptance these papers will go out for peer review, with an eye towards strengthening their utility. Assuming that the reviews are responded to adequately, the expectation is that the piece will go forward.
Sections
Please format the manuscript as a typical submission to Qualitative Psychology. Please use these headings in your article, although you may add other subheadings as well:
Title: “A Methodological Retrospective” will be the subtitle for each article title. This uniformity is to allow researchers and instructors to search for this term when looking for articles that provide an authoritative overview of a methodological approach.
Abstract: Please include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.
Biographical Statement: Please begin your article with a 200-word biographical statement that focuses on your methodological contributions to the field, making clear your expertise in your method/methodology. Please label this “Biographical Statement”.
The Initial Development of [your Method/Methodology]: A narrative about how your methodology was initially developed and what it entailed.
This section can include:
- A brief history of the state of your method before you came to it. Were/how were qualitative researchers engaging in similar forms of analysis?
- An initial description how you first began using your method/methodology. In what context did you begin to use this approach and in relation to what sorts of questions, participants, issues, aims?
- A brief summary of the steps entailed at that time (mentioning where they came from if others used them before).
- Information on what was happening in the world or in the field at the time and debates or issues that made your method/methodological approach important.
- Were there voices being left out that increased the importance of your method/methodology? How did the method/methodology study cultural diversity?
A Description of the Evolution of [your Methodology]: A narrative about how your methods, methodology, epistemology, or procedures has shifted across time.
This section can include:
- Specific research experiences or demands that led you and/or other founders to notice that a shift was needed.
- Changes in psychology or the questions being explored that led you and/or others to shift how you engaged in your methods.
- Changes in societal perspectives that led to procedures being incorporated or adjusted into the method.
- Were there changes you promoted to create a more inclusive methodology?
- Changes in how qualitative methods were understood that led you and/or others to notice that a shift was necessary.
Contemporary Adaptions of [your Method/Methodology]: In this section, researchers will provide a description of not just the current recommended steps to conducting your method/methodology, but a description of considerations on how methodologies are adapted given characteristics tied to time, context, participants, aims, etc.
- New directions, types of people, or problems in the current use of a methodology.
- A description of current steps in using the method that highlights key decisional points in the application of a methodology.
- Expectations of how a methodology might shift in the future, with new investigators, social shifts, resource changes, aims, diverse perspectives, etc. A comment on methods as historically in flux or as personal, professional, and social ventures.
- Recommendations for continued learning (books, conferences, etc.)
Going Forward: In this section, researchers will provide thoughts for the continued development of their method/methodology.
This may include:
- Method/methodological recommendations for procedures and/or principles for future researchers. These do not have to be steps that are static, but might better be principles that identify key issues in making decisions about procedures to be used.
- New topics and issues that the approach would be particularly useful to explore.
Central lessons to hold in mind about the continuing evolution of a method/methodology. Issues tied to studying diversity of new types.
Manuscript length: 30–35 pages of text, including references.
