Analysing ‘qualitative survey’ researches in the field of education with bibliometric methods

Inspired by the evolving nature of qualitative research, this study aims to examine the use of “qualitative survey”, a newer technique in qualitative data collection methods than interviews and observation. In addition to trends in research capacity, collaborations and research topics, the extent to which this data collection method has become widespread or accepted among researchers can provide insight into the future of this method. In this study, 743 studies published in the field of education between 1992 and 2024 from the Web of Science database were analysed. Web of Science database was searched with the keywords qualitative survey, qualitative questionnaire, open-ended questionnaire and open-ended survey. The results indicate a steady increase in the use of qualitative surveys as a data collection tool in educational research. After 2005, the number of publications has increased significantly. The countries with the highest number of publications and international co-operation are the USA, Türkiye and Australia. The most common keywords were higher education and teacher education. The analysis also revealed findings such as the most published authors, journals, publishers, most cited authors and articles.