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The author is writing this article as a journal to show how a journal may be used as a qualitative research technique in long-term qualitative studies. The history of journal writing within the context of the arts and humanities is described to illuminate our understanding of the tradition of this type of writing. For qualitative researchers, the act of journal writing may be incorporated into the research process to provide a data set of the researcher’s reflections on the research act. Participants in qualitative studies may also use journals to refine ideas, beliefs, and their own responses to the research in progress. Finally, journal writing between participants and researcher may offer the qualitative researcher yet another opportunity for triangulation of data sets at multiple levels: first, the interdisciplinary triangulation of journal writing as a trope of literature, and second, data triangulation in terms of journal writing of the researcher, participants, and interaction between both.
Valerie J. Janesick (Wed,) studied this question.