{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T21:56:35Z","timestamp":1788472595190,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1-2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,16]],"date-time":"2020-11-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605484800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000054","name":"National Cancer Institute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2T32CA057711-26"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2T32CA057711-26"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000054","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Qualitative Social Work"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>As a social worker and qualitative researcher, I read Albert Camus\u2019s The Plague as I lay recovering from COVID-19. The existential novella documents the experience of the citizens of Oran, Algeria during a fictional epidemic, and The Narrator\u2019s documentation is explicitly based on qualitative \u201cdata\u201d from participant observation, key informant accounts, and document analysis. Camus\u2019s text forces the reader to reflect on what it means to qualitatively study an issue or an event when the researcher is also affected by it. Just as readers of The Plague must ponder the objectives and interpretation of The Narrator who is \u201cclosely involved in all that he proposed to narrate,\u201d qualitative researchers must contemplate their own assumptions, aims, and subjectivity, which is both foundational and often overlooked in qualitative inquiry. While this is particularly critical when studying shared or collective experiences, like that of a pandemic, these assumptions and aims should always be made transparent in qualitative research. To this end, I suggest a series of reflective questions for researchers to iteratively grapple with throughout the research process.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1473325020973345","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,16]],"date-time":"2020-11-16T17:56:12Z","timestamp":1605549372000},"page":"41-47","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["COVID and Camus: Reflections on\n                    <i>The Plague,<\/i>\n                    collective experience, and qualitative inquiry during a pandemic"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5176-2652","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisabeth","family":"Stelson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1473325020973345","unstructured":"Bassett MT, Chen JT, Krieger N (2020) The unequal toll of COVID-19 mortality by age in the United States: Quantifying racial\/ethnic disparities. In:\n                      Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Working Papers 19.\n                      https:\/\/cdn1.sph.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2020\/06\/20_Bassett-Chen-Krieger_COVID-19_plus_age_working-paper_0612_Vol-19_No-3_with-cover.pdf"},{"key":"bibr2-1473325020973345","volume-title":"Doing Qualitative Research","author":"Borkan J (","year":"1999"},{"key":"bibr3-1473325020973345","volume-title":"The Plague","author":"Camus A (","year":"1987"},{"key":"bibr4-1473325020973345","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krieger, N., Waterman, P. D. & Chen, J. T. (2020). COVID-19 and Overall Mortality Inequities in the Surge in Death Rates by Zip Code Characteristics: Massachusetts, January 1 to May 19, 2020. American Journal of Public Health, e1\u2013e3. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305913Krieger, N., Waterman, P. D. & Chen, J. T. (2020). COVID-19 and Overall Mortality Inequities in the Surge in Death Rates by Zip Code Characteristics: Massachusetts, January 1 to May 19, 2020. American Journal of Public Health, e1\u2013e3. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305913","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305913"},{"key":"bibr5-1473325020973345","volume-title":"Racism: A Short History","author":"Fredrickson GM","year":"2002"},{"key":"bibr6-1473325020973345","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9781400821211"},{"key":"bibr7-1473325020973345","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(01)05627-6"},{"key":"bibr8-1473325020973345","first-page":"89","volume-title":"Doing Qualitative Research","author":"Miller W","year":"1999"},{"key":"bibr9-1473325020973345","first-page":"127","volume-title":"Doing Qualitative Research","author":"Miller W","year":"1999"},{"key":"bibr10-1473325020973345","volume-title":"The Racial Contract","author":"Mills CW","year":"1997"},{"key":"bibr11-1473325020973345","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3102\/0013189X017007017"},{"key":"bibr12-1473325020973345","first-page":"8","volume":"3","author":"Ratner C","year":"2002","journal-title":"Forum: Qualitative Social Research"},{"key":"bibr13-1473325020973345","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1077800414563803"},{"key":"bibr14-1473325020973345","volume-title":"Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory","author":"Strauss A","year":"1998"}],"container-title":["Qualitative Social Work"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1473325020973345","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/1473325020973345","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1473325020973345","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T06:08:21Z","timestamp":1777702101000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1473325020973345"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,16]]},"references-count":14,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1-2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/1473325020973345"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1473325020973345","relation":{},"ISSN":["1473-3250","1741-3117"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1473-3250","type":"print"},{"value":"1741-3117","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,16]]}}}