This edition was arranged from a partnership established between the editorial board of Revista Ciência e Saúde Coletiva (C&SC) and the scientific committee of Ibero-American Congress on Qualitative Research (CIAIQ), by selecting the best works presented in 2018 and 2019.

This special edition brings together articles that delve into different themes and that, at the same time, are connected. They include studies based on data collection and analysis techniques within qualitative health research. This very precious, important and controversial topic, when presented concretely in publications such as this one, makes it possible to share experiences and strengthen the qualitative method use in conducting increasingly relevant studies.

In general, articles herein presented offer scholars and readers many contributions, such as experiences and views on qualitative research, data analysis strategies, as well as investigative procedures that vary according to the attitudes of researchers and their collaborators. Such attitudes reveal much of the assumed world and knowledge conceptions and evidence the researchers’ intentions, i.e., the reasons for their investigations and what they intend to clarify. These aspects allow reading of different procedures that are intended to work with words, views, coexistence, and empathy, contributing to understanding the diversity in qualitative research¹1 Minayo C, Costa AP. Técnicas que fazem uso da palavra, do olhar e da empatia. Pesquisa Qualitativa em Ação. Oliveira de Azeméis: Ludomedia; 2019..

The research modalities presented in the qualitative perspective are diversified, and expose world perception and knowledge that can align or even diverge from each other. According to our point of view, the mentioned aspects show the research’s scope and depth in this thematic issue, which articulate the different articles from the perspective of qualitative research. Not only a set of methods is presented to search for information about control and experimental groups, but strategies that position studies in a different investigative paradigm.

Qualitative research allows researchers to get into the phenomenon’s thinking and meanings; they give subjects a voice, considering their contexts and subjectivities. In this investigative process, new justifications arise to understand and observe the object of study, from the perspective of different beliefs and types of data collection and analysis. These fundamental assumptions lead to debate from the epistemological point, integrating health research and the social sciences²2 Willis JW. Foundations of qualitative research: Interpretive and critical approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications; 2007..

Emphasizing the relevance and scientific rigor of qualitative research, based on the articles presented in this edition, in order to sustain the quality, originality and consistency of the findings, contributes to scientific knowledge advancement in health, which is, without a doubt, our greatest purpose.

References

Publication Dates