  Researchers, editors, educators and publishers need to understand the mix of
research methods used in their field to guide decision making, with a current
concern being that qualitative research is threatened by big data. Although
there have been many studies of the prevalence of different methods within
individual narrow fields, there have been no systematic studies across
academia. In response, this article assesses the prevalence and citation impact
of academic research 1996-2019 that reports one of four common methods to
gather qualitative data: interviews; focus groups; case studies; ethnography.
The results show that, with minor exceptions, the prevalence of qualitative
data has increased, often substantially, since 1996. In addition, all 27 broad
fields (as classified by Scopus) now publish some qualitative research, with
interviewing being by far the most common approach. This suggest that
qualitative methods teaching and should increase, and researchers, editors and
publishers should be increasingly open to the value that qualitative data can
bring.
