Keeping a Reflective Journal: A Primer and Starter Templates for Qualitative and Action Research
A primer and starter templates for qualitative and action research
1. Why Keep a Reflective Journal?
In qualitative and action research, the researcher is understood as an active interpreter of the data, not a neutral, detached instrument. Your own reactions, assumptions, and evolving thinking genuinely shape what you notice, how you interpret it, and the decisions you make along the way. A reflective (sometimes called reflexive) journal is where you make that influence visible to yourself, and later, to your readers and examiners, rather than leaving it invisible and unexamined.
A journal generally serves several purposes at once:
Reflexivity and transparency: making your own assumptions and reactions visible rather than pretending they don't exist.
An audit trail: recording why you made a methodological decision at the time you made it, not reconstructed afterward from memory.
Processing the emotional weight of fieldwork: especially relevant when your research involves emotionally difficult material.
A data source in its own right: in action research specifically, the journal often becomes primary data, since your own evolving understanding as a practitioner may be part of what you are studying.
2. Is There a Standard Format? (Short answer: No.)
Michelle Ortlipp's influential 2008 paper on this exact topic, published in The Qualitative Report, makes the case that there is no single correct or required format for a reflective journal, and that journaling is inherently personal and evolves as you go. That said, most researchers draw on a small number of common approaches, summarized below, and it's genuinely useful to try a couple before settling into whatever works for you.
One distinction worth keeping in mind from the start: field notes are primarily descriptive (what happened, what was said, who was present), while a reflective journal is primarily about your own inner process (feelings, assumptions, emerging interpretations, doubts). Many researchers keep both together in one notebook, but it helps to mentally, or visually, keep the two modes separate.
3. Five Common Formats
A. Free-form chronological / diary style
The simplest and most common approach: dated entries, written in flowing prose, no fixed sections. Best for researchers who find rigid prompts constraining, or who already write easily. The risk is that important aspects (like your own assumptions) can get skipped if nothing prompts you to address them.
B. Structured prompt-based entries
A fixed set of questions answered in every entry, useful especially early on, when reflexivity doesn't yet come naturally. Ensures consistency across entries (and across researchers, if you're working as a team), which can help later when writing the methodology chapter.
C. Dual-column / two-track notes
A classic convention from the field notes literature (Bogdan & Biklen): descriptive notes (what was observed or said, kept as factual as possible) in one column, and reflective notes (your own reactions, hunches, emerging interpretations) in a second column, kept visually separate so the two don't blur together on the page.
D. Borrowed reflective-practice models
Structured cycles originally developed for professional reflective practice generally (not research specifically), but widely adapted into research journaling, especially in education, nursing, and social work. Two well-known versions: Gibbs' Reflective Cycle (Description → Feelings → Evaluation → Analysis → Conclusion → Action Plan) and the simpler "What? So What? Now What?" model (Rolfe, Freshwater, & Jasper). Well suited to action research in particular, since the "Action Plan" step maps directly onto planning the next research cycle.
E. Audio or digital journals
Voice memos recorded immediately after a session, transcribed later. Less common in a final thesis but genuinely useful right after an emotionally intense interview or session, when writing feels like too much friction but the reflection needs to happen while it's still fresh.
4. Four Ready-to-Use Starter Templates
Try more than one of these across your first few entries, and see which fits how you actually think and write. There's no requirement to pick just one for the whole study, though most researchers settle into a consistent format after the first few weeks. Copy the headings into your notebook or document and write under each.
Template A: Free-Form Entry (minimal structure)
Date
Context (e.g., which interview, session, or cycle)
Entry (write freely)
Template B: Structured Prompt-Based Entry
Date
Context
What happened? (brief, factual)
What did I feel, and why might I have felt that?
What assumptions or biases might be shaping how I'm interpreting this?
What will I pay attention to, or do differently, next time?
Template C: Dual-Column Descriptive / Reflective Notes
Record the Date and Context, then divide the page into two columns:
Left column: Descriptive notes (what happened or was said, as factually as possible)
Right column: Reflective notes (my reactions, hunches, emerging interpretations)
Template D: Gibbs' Reflective Cycle (well suited to action research cycles)
Date
Cycle / Session number
Description: What happened, factually?
Feelings: What was I thinking and feeling at the time?
Evaluation: What was good or difficult about this experience?
Analysis: What sense can I make of this? What theory or prior understanding helps explain it?
Conclusion: What else could I have done? What have I learned?
Action Plan: What will I do differently in the next cycle/session?
5. One Decision to Make Early: Is the Journal Data, or a Private Tool?
Decide, and note in your methodology chapter, whether your journal will be treated as formal, analyzable data (transcribed, coded, and quoted in your findings) or as a private reflexivity tool that only informs your positionality statement without being formally analyzed. Both are legitimate choices used in published qualitative and action research, but they carry different practical requirements: if you plan to code and quote from it, keep entries reasonably complete and consistently dated from the start, since retrofitting structure onto months of inconsistent notes later is difficult.
6. A Few Practical Tips
Write soon after the event, ideally the same day, while details and feelings are still fresh, not reconstructed days later from memory.
Date every entry, and note which participant, session, or cycle it relates to, since this becomes important when you're writing up months later.
Prioritize honesty over neatness. A messy, honest entry is more useful to you later than a tidy one written to look impressive.
Store it securely and treat it with the same confidentiality care as your other field data, since your journal may contain identifying details about participants even though it's primarily about your own reflections.
Revisit earlier entries periodically, not just at the end. Rereading your own thinking from a few weeks ago is often where genuine "aha" moments about your own assumptions actually happen.
References
Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories and methods (5th ed.). Pearson.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.
Ortlipp, M. (2008). Keeping and using reflective journals in the qualitative research process. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 695-705. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2008.1579
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection for nursing and the helping professions: A user's guide. Palgrave.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
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