Concept and Current Status

FQS is a multilingual online journal of qualitative research. Its main aim is to promote discussion and cooperation between qualitative researchers from different countries and social science disciplines (anthropology, communication studies, criminology, cultural sciences, education, ethnology, history, linguistics, management information systems, medicine, nursing, philosophy, politics, psychology, social work and sociology). Speed, flexibility and interactivity—the unique attributes of the Internet—are employed to develop forms of discourse and standards of quality which are quite different from those of the traditional print media. FQS is an experimental undertaking in the sense that it is an open project: all of its participants—readers, authors, editorial board members and editors alike—are invited to participate in the further development of its content and formal design.

Why FQS? Qualitative Research and the Internet

As a rule, qualitative researchers undergo dual socialization—within the respective discipline and as qualitative researcher. In many fields, the decision to espouse qualitative research methods means that one is at home on the periphery of one's discipline. As a consequence of this marginalization, one must develop a dual identity as, for example, a psychologist and a qualitative researcher. Belonging to qualitative research means acknowledging some shared premises—for example a preference for an approach to social and psychological realities which focuses on meaning. It also entails recourse to some common traditions such as hermeneutics and phenomenology and, to a lesser extent, recognition of certain standard works.

When FQS was started up in 1999 there were few joint discussion forums which went beyond this lowest common denominator. The various discipline areas existed more or less independently of one another. And, in addition to disciplinary boundaries, national boundaries also worked in a very restrictive way. On the one hand, for example, the American qualitative research communities' reception of theoretical approaches written in German more or less ceased with the works of early phenomenological writers. Methodologies such as the Narrative Interview, the Problem-Centered Interview or Objective Hermeneutics were largely unknown in non-German-language contexts. On the other hand, only a few methodological developments from abroad reached the German-speaking research community. Grounded Theory, for example, is extremely popular in Germany, whereas in the United States it is just one of many methodologies.

Furthermore, back in 1999 German-language qualitative research was hardly present on the Web at all. While English language on-line journals and discussion forums, such as the highly-frequented mailing list QUALRS-L and the Qualitative Research Web Ring had been in existence for many years, there had been few comparable efforts within German-language qualitative research. Nevertheless, a growing interest was perceptible. However, routines for the creative use of the unique Internet resources for the social sciences were still lacking at that time. In a way, this was also the case for established English-language online journals. Here, too, traditional media and their way of functioning were merely transferred to the Net.

Internet: New Potentials for Scientific Exchange

Since 1999 the situation described above has improved considerably, due also to our own efforts. This is evident when one takes a look at back issues of FQS, or at the continuously increasing number of accesses to our server. FQS will continue to play a part in promoting the development of qualitative research by linking interdisciplinary and international discourse and by using different Internet tools. In so doing, it will follow the standards of the traditional print media and use their potential, while at the same time endeavouring to systematically harness the resources and advantages of the Internet. These include:

• Flexible publication time: Using traditional print media often means that quite a long time elapses before contributions can be published. In FQS, however, articles can be made available as soon as they have passed the peer-review and copy-editing process and have been adapted for the Internet.

• Flexible publication space: Traditional print media generally work within an exactly defined space. FQS, on the other hand, can handle space in a much more flexible way. This is also in the interests of scientific quality control. Due to limited space and in the interests of concision, traditional media must generally dispense with a detailed description of the research process and the presentation of the empirical basis of the individual contributions. FQS, by contrast, is able to provide access to more detailed information about the research process and even to the original data, thereby facilitating scientific quality control and offering a broader basis for further discussion.

• Direct interaction among authors, editors, and readers: Readers can contact authors, members of the editorial staff or members of the editorial board directly via e-mail. In addition to promoting such a direct exchange of ideas, FQS aims to offer occasional moderated online chats on various topics of interest to qualitative researchers.

FQS—Current Status

In its first two years, the development of FQS depended more or less on private efforts. This was not enough to maintain it on a long-term basis. That is why we decided to apply for financial support from a public funding organization for academic research. The application was approved and since July 2001 two pilot projects had been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation).

Thanks to this funding, all full texts in FQS will remain accessible free of charge. In other words, we were able to dispense with our former fee-paying subscription-model. When we started FQS, we decided on access fees because, at the time, this seemed to be the only way to finance certain basics such as server, domain, Internet access etc. However, from the very beginning we considered the fee-paying model to be anachronistic in view of the most valuable potential of the Internet, i.e. worldwide cooperation and mutual information on qualitative research across disciplinary and (sub-) cultural boundaries.

All persons interested in FQS and its further development are warmly welcome to participate in the concrete conceptualization and realization of our range of services. We look forward to your suggestions, support, and cooperation!

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© 1999-2008 Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
(ISSN 1438-5627)

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Center für Digitale Systeme, Freie Universität Berlin