Emojicitation, a novel method to explore the hidden terrain of emotions in research. [Preprint]

Controversial topics often evoke strong emotions and expose deeply held values, yet emotions may be difficult for research participants to articulate, or they may be supressed or concealed, making them a hidden terrain difficult to explore in research. Creative research methods, like the emoji-citation proposed in this study, may help researchers to explore this hidden terrain. This paper outlines methodological considerations for using emoji in qualitative research and presents a novel analytical framework for rigorous interpretation of emoji-based data. Drawing on the use of emojicitation in a mixed methods study exploring midwives' perspectives on freebirth, this paper demonstrates how emoji can be effectively integrated into qualitative research on sensitive topics. Fourteen midwives participated in the qualitative phase, sharing their views on the choice to give birth attended in the UK. At enrolment, they expressed their views using only emoji. Their answers were used during the interview to elicit deeper discussion and emotional reflection on the topic of the study. Emoji in this study acted as emotional touchpoints, helping participants access and articulate their feelings, generating rich emotional data. Emoji brought an element of playfulness to research, enhancing social interaction and fostering participant's power in the co-construction of meaning. Emoji also enhanced the storytelling power of research outputs, helping audiences connect with participants' viewpoints. Emojicitation is a novel and evocative method for exploring emotional data in controversial topics. The emojianalysis framework presented here offers a robust and adaptable approach to analysing emoji data, showing promise for future qualitative research.