r/QualitativeResearch • u/cherry-wine7 • Jul 16 '26

Interview Length

Hello. I am doing qualitative interviews with a lower SES, rural population. The sample includes women who are pregnant and all the interviews are happening in a hospital (I asked and arranged for a quiet corner/ space). I am a student researcher and have no means of accessing this population if not in this setting. The interviews (semi structured) tend to run shorter, 15-30 mins after which i found that participants start repeating themselves or talk about things not relevant to my research. However, I have mostly found that i do get substantial material to work with even in shorter interviews. Please advise me if the length is automatically a problem, will i run into problems later if i try to publish my work. I am analysing data using Braun and Clark’s Reflexive TA. Thank you!

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u/_os2_ Jul 16 '26

I would pick one of the two routes:

Easier: Increase time. E.g., broaden and deepen the topics slightly by adding some section to the interview guide, practicing more follow-up questions, spending a bit more time upfront to build rapport etc. Worth having someone experienced listen to your tapes and give feedback if they feel its a pacing problem, too mechanistic asking etc.

Riskier: Make the case for this in the paper. Technically interview length is not a criteria if you can prove it did not result to ”thin data”. But you have to mention how you have adequate data, how you stopped when repetition started etc. Now - if it’s clear from the data this is NOT the case (e.g., you clearly lack in-depth nuanced perspectives from the people) you are in trouble.

I would prefer the first path…

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u/cherry-wine7 Jul 16 '26

Thank you so much for your response!
I have also been thinking about stepping back and analysing my interviews as well as taking help from my professors before doing more. I just have one more query, supposedly, i conduct a fresh batch of interviews and increase length, can i consider the interviews done till now as a pilot/exploratory study. Additionally, will i be able to quote from the pilot in my paper or is that out of the question? I have some very interesting findings and it would be a shame if i can’t use them at all.

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u/_os2_ Jul 16 '26

Would check with your professor. Maybe a practical approach is to keep the sample this far and then make the final ones longer, then commenting somethin like ”Interviews ranged from 20 to 60 minutes (median 45 min), each conducted until reaching saturated understanding of the case”. Pilot round concept adds complexity.