Source: Janet Salmons

This presentation video is an “in conversation” event between Dr Janet Salmons of MethodSpace SAGE and Dr Nicole Brown exploring the role of journaling for researchers. This version of the video is similar to the one that we recorded for the NVivo conference Transcending Boundaries in Qualitative Research. 

In our contribution, Nicole Brown, author of Making the Most of Your Research Journal (2021) and Janet Salmons, author of “Journaling Right and Left” (2022) discuss insights gained from our own journaling experiences and with teaching or coaching other researchers to journal. Where can you transcend boundaries between disciplinary fields and the arts, between academic and personal writing, between written and creative expressions? In your research journal! Research journals serve multiple purposes: to develop qualitative research skills, to support your research journey, and for self-care and respite from stressful aspects of this journey. Whether you log into an app or open a paper notebook, research journals are a place for memos and notes, reflective and reflexive activities, and/or drawing, painting, or collage. Sharing examples from her own practice, Nicole highlights that research journaling takes no distinct form or format and that we need to let go of our own expectations of what journals and journal entries look like. Janet shares her art journals and explains how her creative process informs her research and academic writing practice. We offer practical tips about when and how to record entries and what to do with journal entries.