Abstract
As the season changes from winter and turns to spring, change also is in the air for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR). Effective January 2015, Professor Donna Mertens completed her tenure of 5 years as coeditor. We want to take this opportunity to thank Professor Mertens for her leadership and service during this tenure as coeditor. We would also like to acknowledge the incredible service and leadership of those editors who preceded her as well, the founding coeditors, Professor John W. Creswell and Professor Abbas Tashakkori, and subsequently, Professor Manfred Max Bergman as well. As for continuity at the helm, one of us, Professor Dawn Freshwater will continue as a coeditor and will be joined anew by the other of us, Professor Michael D. Fetters. Together, we look forward to maintaining the tradition of rigorous scholarship in the now emerged, but still actively developing, field of mixed methods research.
With the current change of the guard, we want to take this opportunity to take stock, to reflect about the trajectory of the field of mixed methods work and how the journal has been a central part of that movement, and to paint a vision forward. While there was only a couple of handfuls of books addressing mixed methods at the launch of the journal in 2007, 5 years later in 2012, Onwuegbuzie reported that there were more than 30, (Onwuegbuzie, 2012) and the number has continued to show dramatic growth since. One pivotal moment in the field was the release by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research in the United States in 2011 of a best practices guide from the National Institutes of Health that provided reviewers and authors of mixed methods studies criteria for developing high quality mixed methods research proposals in the health sciences (Creswell, Klassen, Plano Clark, & Smith, 2011). Another landmark was the launching of the Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA) in March 2013 (Mixed Methods International Research Association). Leveraging the successful series of international mixed methods meetings led by Professor Tessa Muncey and others in the United Kingdom, the inaugural meeting of the MMIRA was held in Boston, USA, in June 2014. Since the launch of JMMR in January, 2007, JMMR has published 186 original articles, more than 2,261 individuals have reviewed for JMMR at least once, and many have reviewed multiple manuscripts. In a very short time span, JMMR climbed to be one of the top journals in the category of Interdisciplinary Social Science, and according to Thomson Reuters, in 2014 had an impact factor of 1.676.
Moving forward, we are posing to the mixed methods community to focus even greater attention to the “integration challenge.” We describe the integration challenge qualitatively as the imperative to produce a whole through integration that is greater than the sum of the individual qualitative and quantitative parts. Alan Bryman described many of the barriers to integration in his classic article in JMMR in 2007. (Bryman, 2007) Now, with more experience under the field’s belt, we hope to get all mixed methods researchers to consider the mixed methods challenge. Quantitatively, we express this as 1 + 1 = 3. That is, qualitative + quantitative = more than the individual components. We believe this framework should push all mixed methodologists to think about how integration has and can push research methods to higher levels that would not have been achieved by simply adding together the results of separate qualitative and quantitative studies conducted without full attention to integration. Authors of empirical studies in particular should consider the question, “What synergy was gained by the additional work of using both qualitative and quantitative data methods?” This call urges all mixed methods researchers to carefully plan their studies with intentional choices that can leverage integration. Opportunity abounds for pushing the integration envelope at multiple levels through theory, conceptual models, design, methods, analysis, interpretation, visualization, presentation, publication, and teams. The 1 + 1 = 3 integration formula also gives permission to question the assumptions of qualitative and quantitative disciplinary borders and blinders, to test the waters, and to create and discover new ways of thinking and producing mixed methods results. Through these “brain stretches” mixed methods researchers can best illustrate how the additional work of doing mixed methods research results in a “value added” outcome from being in the “radical middle.” (Onwuegbuzie, 2012) In empirical studies, we will specifically be watching for authors’ insights and articulations on how integration occurred, what the authors learned, and how this could be of value to JMMR readers in their own programs of research.
A strength of the mixed methods community and the journal has always been, and will remain the commitment to a multidisciplinary audience. This diversity is an undeniable pillar of the mixed methods community. JMMR encourages dialogue and submissions from all disciplines. Much progress has been made in applying mixed methodology within disciplines and understanding how application of theory and method methodology can answer questions in ways not previously possible. Importantly, we note that this is also a two-way street, and that researchers working within their discipline should also consider the opposite direction. That is, “How can the application of mixed methods within a discipline, expand and contribute new ways of thinking about the integration of qualitative and quantitative research in mixed methods projects in other disciplines?”
While mixed methods research has emerged as a recognized methodological approach and percolated into the mainstream in many disciplines, much work remains in many other disciplines. Even within disciplines where mixed methods has become commonplace, uptake has been faster in some parts of the world and lags in many others. Hence, the mixed methods community needs to continue to promote the methodology within their respective disciplines, and across the globe to emerging mixed methods communities that that have not fully discovered the “added value” of mixed methods. We call to the readership to work together toward the goal of expanding the understanding across all disciplines, and to promote mixed methods across the four corners of the globe.
In short, in our stewardship of the journal, we look forward to working and growing JMMR with the readership. Share the journal with a friend, find a colleague from another discipline, introduce the journal to your student, teacher, or mentor, present your methods and papers locally and globally. Join the MMIRA, and make the trek to one of the 2015 Regional MMIRA meetings in Jamaica in March, Philadelphia in June, San Antonio in August, or Sendai, Japan in September (see links on Mixed Methods International Research Association website; MMIRA, n.d.). We look forward to forging together an ever stronger and creative mixed methods community.