New Zealand Professor's Paper Is One Of Century's Most-Cited

The 2006 paper `Using thematic analysis in psychology’ has been cited between 100,000 and 230,000 times, based on a range of databases, the prestigious journal Nature reported.

“When the citations hit 1,000 a few years after publication we were shocked, and then as it progressively climbed, it became somewhat surreal,” says Braun.

Co-authored with Victoria Clarke, of the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, the paper filled a gap by explaining how to find themes in qualitative data and providing a step-by-step guide to encourage more deliberate and rigorous research.

Translated into other languages, the paper has connected Braun and Clarke with scholars and students in countries as diverse as Iran, Oman, all the Scandinavian countries, and Japan.

“Feeling like you’re doing something which is really useful for people is very rewarding; it feels like a meaningful contribution to scholarly community,” says Braun.

The papers which attract the most citations aren’t necessarily associated with big scientific breakthroughs such the first mRNA vaccines, CRISPR-based gene-editing techniques or the first measurements of gravitational waves, Nature reported. “Rather, these works tend to describe scientific methods or software, the workhorses on which scientists depend.”

The academics’ successful partnership persists and when Braun visits the UK in a few weeks they will consider their next project – and maybe drink some champagne.

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