The Ethos of Citation in Qualitative Research Methodology

Abstract

Framed through Kenneth Burke’s famous parlor metaphor, this article considers how decisions related to citation are foundational to scholarly communication, with particular emphasis on qualitative research logics. Each citation decision implicates academicians in complex rhetorical and ethical situations that have material impact on other scholars, students receiving curriculum, and even existential notions related to the very survival of ideas. Believing that the texts we produce matter—both as objects of care and material constructions in themselves—this inquiry walks through theoretical and practical considerations for citation. Additionally, this article incorporates writing activities, and three writing artifacts from contributors, into the text to explore simple ways to play with citation in the classroom and research.

Reducing Methodological Footprints in Qualitative Research

“…In other words, the most valuable element of epistemology has to do with the means to the predetermined end (DaVia, 2022). Might current citation practices, citing kin, and citing oneself exemplify yet another form of consumerism and academic capitalism (see Kuecker, 2021; Russell, 2016)? Or might intentional citation practices and deep engagement with one’s prior work be seen as conserving and recycling knowledge?…”

“…How might methodological footprints be recognized and recorded if inputs and materials do not latch into existing structures but appear each time a new and different? Kuecker (2021) suggests that scholars could resituate their knowledge production matrixes by replacing canonical scholars with relatively unknown scholars. Qualitative researchers could also turn digital waste (papers which do not need to be published) into playlists, poems, and art and then to be deleted from the cloud.…”

“…Kuecker (2021) suggests that scholars could resituate their knowledge production matrixes by replacing canonical scholars with relatively unknown scholars. Qualitative researchers could also turn digital waste (papers which do not need to be published) into playlists, poems, and art and then to be deleted from the cloud.…”

(Navigating-Circling-Un/Doing)~Post-Qualitative Inquiry: A Collective Biography

“…&&& &&& &&& A politics to thinking~post has emerged (Kuecker, 2021). Prominent post-thinkers directly question if one can think~post without the lineage of poststructuralist continental European philosophers such as Deleuze, Guattari, Derrida, or Serres (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012;St.…”