Qualitative research is a vital aspect of research in primary care and qualitative studies with a clear and important clinical message can be highly cited [2Hepworth J, Key M. General practitioners learning qualitative research: a case study of postgraduate education. Aust Fam Physician 2015;44:760–763.  [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar],3Greenhalgh T, Annandale E, Ashcroft R, et al. An open letter to the BMJ editors on qualitative research. BMJ. 2016;352:i563. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Google Scholar]]. This series intends to provide novice researchers an introduction to information about conducting high-quality qualitative research in the field of primary care. By novice researchers, we mean Master’s students and junior researchers in primary care as well as experienced quantitative researchers who are engaging in qualitative research for the first time.

Yet Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars have provocatively argued that the ubiquity of – particularly online – digital data finally allows these two opposing research traditions to converge (Latour et al., 2012; Venturini and Latour, 2010). Indeed, a growing number of ‘qualitatively’ inclined STS researchers are beginning to use automated, computational techniques, particularly forms of data visualization, for the purposes of interpretive, rather than purely statistical analyses (Abildgaard et al., 2017; Marres and Weltevrede, 2013; Rogers, 2013; Venturini and Latour, 2010; Venturini et al., 2018).

Yet Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars have provocatively argued that the ubiquity of – particularly online – digital data finally allows these two opposing research traditions to converge (Latour et al., 2012; Venturini and Latour, 2010). Indeed, a growing number of ‘qualitatively’ inclined STS researchers are beginning to use automated, computational techniques, particularly forms of data visualization, for the purposes of interpretive, rather than purely statistical analyses (Abildgaard et al., 2017; Marres and Weltevrede, 2013; Rogers, 2013; Venturini and Latour, 2010; Venturini et al., 2018).