In qualitative and mixed methods research, the researcher and/or research team are critical elements in the research. Given perceptual, cognitive, and memory limitations, human researchers can often bring these shortcomings to their research and decision-making. To combat such tendencies, researcher reflection, self-awareness, and self-critique are seen as some research controls, as are various standardizations in research to control for bias and to provide for multiple points-of-view. One tool that has long been used for researcher reflection to promote research quality has been the research journal. Research journals are field texts created by the researcher or a research team to make sense of the research work; these are professional forms of narrative analyses or narrative inquiries to enhance researcher self-consciousness of their work, their reasoning, their decision-making, and their conclusions. A contemporaneous electronic version of the qualitative or mixed methods research journal is multimedia-based (including visuals, audio, and video) and may be built in data management software programs, shared cloud-based work sites, or simple folders or digital objects. Guided research e-journals may be structured for the elicitation and capture of specific information to ensure researcher attentiveness, awareness, mindfulness, and thoroughness. Guided electronic journaling (used prior to, during, and post-research) may be used to enhance research quality. This chapter proposes a partial typology of guided structures for research journaling and suggests channels for publishing and distributing research e-journals.
Validation of an electronic version of the Self-Awareness Questionnaire in English and Italian healthy samples