The paper ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology' outlines a method for analysing qualitative data. It has been cited between 100,000 and 230,000 times. This is based on multiple databases tracking academic citations.
Virginia (Ginny) and Victoria met when they started their PhDs in the department of Social Sciences at Loughborough in 1997. They wrote the paper in 2005 when Ginny was on sabbatical at the University of the West of England. The paper was formed and shaped by their time at Loughborough. Their PhD supervisors, Professors Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, were major contributors in the field of qualitative research and encouraged Virginia and Victoria to experiment with their research.
Victoria said: “We thought this was a standard PhD experience until we shared and compared experiences with PhD students from other universities and realised our experience at Loughborough was something special!
“Many of our peers and other Loughborough Social Sciences graduates have like us gone on to academic careers and write about research methods.”
Since completing her PhD at Loughborough, Victoria said:
“Writing the paper really changed the trajectory of our careers. We shifted from predominantly researching and writing about gender and sexuality to writing about thematic analysis and qualitative research methods.
“We've been lucky to be invited to teach and speak in lots of different countries – Iran, the Sultanate of Oman, Australia, Iceland, Hungary, and Japan, among others. The embracing of video conferencing since the Covid pandemic has meant that we regularly webinar with researchers and students across the globe.
“We've published several books together - two of which have won prizes, most recently our book ‘Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide’ (with Sage Publications) won the British Psychological Society Book Award in 2022. We continue to work and write together – we're currently working on a second edition of a qualitative research methods introductory textbook.”