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The aims of this study are to review the literature examining the arguments for and against the telephonic qualitative research interviews, to develop criteria for assessing when the use of the telephone is suitable in qualitative research and if suitable to offer detailed strategies for the effective use of this data collection instrument.

The study is a thematic analysis of the literature, informed by the researchers’ experiences using the telephone, computer-based audio and face-to-face interviews for an accounting research project involving 50 semi-structured interviews with managers.

The study identifies five criteria to determine the suitability of using the telephone in qualitative research interviews. In addition, the study offers a set of detailed strategies on what to do before, during and after a telephonic qualitative research interview.

The study can assist qualitative researchers in deciding when to use the telephone and how to use it effectively.

The study builds on the limited prior research and provides a more complete list of strategies on the effective use of the telephone in qualitative social sciences research. These strategies are a synthesis of existing studies and observations drawn from the author's study, which examines the work of organisational managers. In comparison, prior studies have been based on research projects that explored sensitive personal issues and emotive experiences not always related to managerial work.

The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising complementary way to conduct interviews in qualitative accounting research.

The paper is based on our experiences designing and using vignettes in five separate qualitative accounting studies, which collectively involve over 200 interviews with various participants. It discusses the opportunities the use of vignettes in interviews offers to qualitative accounting research, as well as the challenges associated with designing and using vignettes. The paper also reflects on fellow researchers’ varied reactions during seminars, workshops, and the journal review process.

Vignettes emerge as a productive and engaging complementary way for accounting researchers to obtain additional insights and perspectives not usually accessible in semi-structured interviews. The paper also provides practical insights into developing, using and publishing qualitative accounting studies using vignettes, contributing an additional behind-the-scenes view of using qualitative research methods.

The aim of this paper is to increase awareness of vignettes as a complement to the standard qualitative accounting interview. It provides guidance on how vignettes might be used productively for studying rare, new, emerging, complex, or multi-period real-world accounting phenomena. It also discusses how vignettes can promote transparency, honesty, and a greater level of detail in participants’ responses, as well as facilitate the involvement of lay people in accounting studies.

This article presents fieldwork perspectives gained from conducting qualitative research among Bangladeshi immigrant communities in Lisbon (Portugal), Boston (Massachusetts – USA) and Brussels (Belgium). This discussion will primarily benefit those who conduct, or are interested in, undertaking qualitative research with Bangladeshi immigrants, one of the largest immigrant communities represented globally.

The author conducted 32 semi-structured interviews using a qualitative descriptive approach.

The author discusses and demonstrates effective strategies to acquire meaningful insights from fieldwork while interviewing Bangladeshi immigrants. Though maintaining standard criteria for producing credible qualitative research is crucial, the adoption of a flexible and dynamic approach is also necessary. The article highlights versatile approaches taken in the following four areas: (1) establishing community presence, (2) managing informed consent, (3) adjusting research instruments and protocols, and (4) dealing with unexpected situations during fieldwork. Moreover, these elements are examined within the context of navigating the role and positionality of the researcher.

The generalizability of these techniques is limited to this study, but similar issues in conducting qualitative research with Bangladeshi communities and other immigrant groups can be found.

This paper addresses a gap in the discussion of fieldwork strategies for conducting qualitative research with Bangladeshi immigrant communities. Practical knowledge for researchers facilitating qualitative research with this group is relatively scarce despite the growing presence of these communities globally.

This reflection is aimed primarily at doctoral students, early career researchers and more experienced accounting researchers seeking to undertake interview-based academic accounting research. It is specifically designed to identify and confront some common obstacles to publishing interview-based management accounting research.

This reflection is autoethnographic in the sense that it is based primarily on my publication experience, observations and reflections as an author/co-author and also as a reviewer and editor/editorial board member in submitting, reviewing and evaluating interview-based management accounting research. It therefore adopts a form of participant observation in approach in which the author seeks to provide to readers a sense of “being there” insofar as addressing the barriers to publishing interview-based management accounting research.

Whilst the insights that interview-based accounting research can offer are well established, there remain practical obstacles in publishing this form of research. These obstacles – portrayed in this paper as “hoops” through which authors must jump – largely reduce to challenges in convincing the reader of the credibility and authenticity of their approach and demonstrating the trustworthiness and dependability of the findings and conclusions reached.

The academic and practical issues raised in this commentary will assist emerging scholars in anticipating and dealing with the challenges they face in submitting these types of studies to academic accounting journals.

This paper is a critical analysis and reflection of the process of publishing interview-based accounting research. Rather than attempting to replicate the many excellent commentaries on this topic, it is designed to be of practical use to emerging scholars in the design, delivery and presentation of qualitative interview-based accounting research with a particular aim of navigating the submission and review process.

This paper aims to examine the current practice of reporting on translation issues in qualitative, interdisciplinary accounting research. Based on an analysis of the methodological consideration of the translation of quotations from non-English interviews and additional interviews with experienced researchers, the authors aim to develop recommendations for the reporting on such translation procedures in future accounting research relying on interviews not conducted in English.

The analysis is based on papers published in four highly ranked interdisciplinary accounting journals: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ), Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS), Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA) and Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management (QRAM). The subjects of the analysis are publications of non-English-speaking researchers who conducted non-English interviews and therefore were confronted with translation issues when attempting to get published in these English-language journals. Additionally, to gain deeper insights into reporting decisions on language and translation issues, the authors conducted interviews with experienced researchers in the field of qualitative, interdisciplinary accounting research whose mother tongue is not English. The authors combine these empirical insights with current developments in translation studies.

As suggested by translation studies, translation is an act of sense making and reconstruction of meaning, and therefore is a complex task that needs to be carried out with caution. However, the findings suggest that in current interdisciplinary, qualitative accounting research, the reporting of language and translation issues, especially with regards to the translation of quotations from interview data, have so far received only limited attention. The authors therefore call for more awareness of and sensibility toward dealing with language and translation issues, which should be reflected in more transparent reporting on translation processes to support the credibility and authenticity of qualitative accounting studies based on non-English interviews.

This paper is limited to the reporting on the methodological consideration of translating quotations from non-English interviews in papers published in AAAJ, AOS, CPA and QRAM between 2004 and 2015. For future accounting research that relies on such interviews, the authors call for more transparency and provide specific recommendations. This in turn should strengthen the awareness that language and translation are factors to be considered and reported.

This paper is the first to develop recommendations for the reporting of translation processes in accounting research studies, which are based on interviews not led in the English language.

This study aims to describe key elements that are critical to virtual qualitative research especially while working with practitioners as participants.

This paper takes a reflexive researcher approach using a case study to explore how researchers adopted a qualitative research approach using digital technology. We use five principles suggested by Boland et al. (2022) as a framework to consider and reflect on our experiences as researchers and those of our participants.

We highlight the gatekeeper’s support, trusted relationship with the organisations, interpersonal skills of interviewers, stringent measures of securing data and shared experiences of interviewee and interviewers helped complete virtual research. We recommend that four key factors such as digital competency, feasibility, flexibility and resilience should be considered while undertaking or commissioning virtual, qualitative research studies.

Social care practitioners and qualitative researchers increasingly negotiate with digital technologies to undertake their work. In this paper, we evidence how online qualitative approaches can be effective provided challenges are dealt with diligently in each stage of the research process.

Technological advancement and the expansion of resources are key propellers of methodological innovations in scientific research. The virtual field is gradually occupying a larger space in scientific research, particularly regarding qualitative research. There are numerous tools that help in accessing the field of study, collecting data, recruiting of subjects, and providing support in processing and analyzing data. Low cost, time saving and access to otherwise inaccessible groups are the main potentialities pointed out in the literature. This chapter aims to enrich methodological discussions regarding information and communication technologies (ICTs), as well as to improve data collection methods mediated by ICTs used in qualitative research. Through a review of the body of literature on internet mediated research (IMR), production on the topic was characterized. The most widely used data collection methods are identified and discussed. Discussions originated from the review were broadened and deepened through contributions emerging from a study carried out by the authors. The results reinforce the contributions pointed out by the analyzed body of work and highlight the contextual, relational, and data validity dimensions. In an interconnected way, these dimensions allow for the production/obtaining data with specificities deriving from a new relation of individuals with time and space. Finally, attention is drawn to the idea that the background for methodological discussions about IMR is the same as the one for methodological discussions regarding science in its most different approaches – the demand for strong methodological, epistemological and ontological coherence.

The telephone has been widely used to conduct quantitative research in diverse fields of study, generally using survey methodology. However, comparatively very few qualitative studies opt for this means of data collection. The purpose of this paper is to argue in favour of a medium that has generally been second‐rated in qualitative research. It aims at establishing telephone interviews as an equally viable option to other established methods of qualitative data collection.

This paper is informed by the authors’ experience of using this method, as well as the limited number of previous research articles presented on the topic. It discusses its specific strengths and limitations, drawing on a conducted longitudinal study to illustrate key points. Its application to particular qualitative analysis methods, in view of the acknowledged requirements for each of these approaches, is also presented.

Telephone conversations naturally follow an agenda‐driven format that is initiated by the caller, similar to semi‐structured interviews. The authors propose that the telephone medium and interview modality are complementary. Also, the interview transcripts provide rich textual data that can subsequently be analysed using a range of qualitative data analysis methods.

Focus is placed on the methodological strengths of using telephone interviews in qualitative research, rather than convenience factors which have been the most featured element in previous literature. The paper aims at informing researchers who want to consider using the telephone medium for qualitative data collection and analysis.

This chapter will outline and discuss an original approach to qualitative research interviewing, the participant-centered approach (PCA), which was developed in the context of a project which used interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) to explore aspects of the professional identity of academic staff in higher education. The chapter outlines the specific methodological issues which led to the development of the PCA, and discusses the rationale for the development of the approach, highlighting its theoretical and conceptual roots in therapeutic counseling/helping contexts and literature. Practical techniques associated with the approach are described, and the broader methodological and ethical implications of working with it are discussed. The PCA aims to bridge the gap between discussions of qualitative interviewing in methods textbooks and the practical interviewing skills upon which, it will be argued, the quality of data from research interviews depends. The PCA is likely to be of interest to higher education researchers seeking to generate rich data relating to the experiences of a range of stakeholders in the higher education community, and may be of particular interest to novice researchers insofar as it facilitates the scaffolding of expertise and confidence in qualitative research interview practice.

Qualitative research that involves the use of human participants calls for the need to protect those participants to give their honest view during data collection. This is an important part of every primary data collection in qualitative studies using interviews. This paper aims to investigate all available ethical considerations that need to be observed by the researcher when conducting primary data collection through interview and to explore the theories that underpin the ethics in qualitative studies.

This paper systemically reviewed existing qualitative data on ethics and gathered information that were analysed and presented on the topic area.

The findings show that ethical considerations deal with the various approaches adopted by the researcher to make the participants feel safe to participate in any given researcher. During an interview process in qualitative research, the findings show that anonymity, voluntary participation, privacy, confidentiality, option to opt out and avoiding misuse of findings are ethical considerations that must be observed by the researcher. The outcome of the investigation also shows that deontology and utilitarianism, rights and virtue are the main theories that underpin ethical considerations in research.

The rights of the research participants need to be respected in qualitative research to assist in gathering accurate information to achieve the objectives of study. This and other ethical principles such as anonymity, privacy, confidentiality, voluntary participation and option to opt out guide the researcher to systematically adhere to data collection approaches that yield valid results in qualitative data collection using interviews.