A dialogue on Open Research and qualitative scholarship in SLA

Abstract

This critical dialogue examines how Open Research (OR) principles intersect with qualitative epistemologies in second language acquisition. Drawing on our distinct positionalities—Author 1 as a quantitatively trained psycholinguist and Author 2 as a qualitative critical applied linguist from the Global South—we explore both tensions and points of convergence across paradigms. While the OR movement has been shaped by concerns about replicability, we argue that trustworthiness in qualitative research rests on practices such as reflexivity, member checking, audit trails, and relational ethics. OR tools such as preregistration and public repositories offer qualitative researchers new ways to document and communicate their analytic decisions, but adaptation cannot be treated as their responsibility alone. If OR is to engage qualitative epistemologies meaningfully, the movement itself must also adapt by broadening its assumptions about evidence, accountability, transparency, and the desirability of unrestricted public availability of information. We argue for context-sensitive approaches that make decision-making processes visible without imposing uniform standards across methodological traditions.