Interview and Focus Group Research: A Content Analysis of Scholarship Published in Ranked Journals

Two qualitative methods, interviewing and focus groups, guide scholarship in a range of fields, yet evaluation of such work has long been riddled with complications. Scholars have called for the investigation of norms in qualitative research design to offer evaluators and qualitative scholars alike additional tools for judging and justifying specific methodological choices. In answer to this call, we analyzed the content of articles (N = 13,670) published in top-ranked journals in communication, public health, and interdisciplinary social science from 2005 to 2009. Findings revealed that the typical interview study had approximately 30 participants (median = 27). Focus groups had slightly more participants (median = 36) spread across an average of six groups. Only approximately 25% of all interview and focus group studies (N = 1,865) reported participants' mean age, and only about 19% reported participants' race/ethnicity. These findings offer a point of departure for discussions about standards in qualitative research.