Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal (Jan 2009)
The Hook: Getting your grounded theory research published
Abstract
I learned about the hook as a fledgling writer back in the late 70’s, and early 80s. I wrote about stepfamilies when almost nobody else did (Stern, 1978, 1982a, 1982b). My big break came when I published an English-language version on how to do grounded theory. In my field, nursing, grounded theory was the buzz word of the day, but few nurses had a sociological background, and thus the vocabulary to be able to understand the Glaser and Straus description (Stern, 1980). That article kick started my career as a writer and researcher. There was a time when it was required reading for graduate students in nursing around the world. Twenty-nine years after its publication, I got a request for a reprint from a doctoral student in New Zealand. What the hook consists of then is timing, a subject that has impact, and a title that sparks the interest of a potential reader. A classic example of all three is The Discovery of Grounded Theory (Glaser and Straus, 1967), a then new approach to sociological research. Sociologists were interested, but as the authors were based at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, they had an eager audience in the nursing community who were looking for a research method to formalize what they did as nurses.
