The Qualitative Report 2013 Volume 18, Article 60, 1-12 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/umoquit60.pdf Diagrammatic Elicitation: Defining the Use of Diagrams in Data Collection Muriah Umoquit University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario Canada Peggy Tso University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Canada Tünde Varga-Atkins and Mark O’Brien University of Liverpool, United Kingdom Johannes Wheeldon Norwich University, Vermont USA The use of graphic representations of experience and the social environment in the data collection process is an emerging approach. The terms diagramming, mapping and drawing are often used interchangeably, with no common interdisciplinary understanding of what they mean. The lack of a unifying terminology has resulted in simultaneous but separate developments undermining a more coherent approach to this emergent method. By defining what a diagram is and examining where diagramming fits amongst other data collection approaches, this paper proposes the term diagrammatic elicitation to refer to the use of diagrams in the data collection process. Two subcategories of this approach include: (a) participant-led diagrammatic elicitation, where participants create original diagrams and (b) researcher-led diagrammatic elicitation, where the researcher draws the diagram during the data collection process for discussion or participants edit a researcher- prepared diagram. Establishing these terms will allow researchers to share best practice and developments across disciplines. Keywords: Data Collection, Diagram, Drawings, Diagrammatic Elicitation, Concept Maps, Elicitation, Focus Groups, Interviews, Mind Maps, Qualitative Methodology, Tables, Visuals, Visual Methods Introduction A recent extensive systematic review (Umoquit, Tso, Burchett, & Dobrow, 2011) found that over 80 published articles discussed some form of diagramming as a data collection approach, with the majority being published after 2000 and a significant rise after 2006. This finding is consistent with the work of Nesbit and Adescope (2006), whose review indicated a steady rise of concept and knowledge maps in the experimental and quasi- experimental studies looking at the use of diagrams for learning. In this article, we consider that data collection implies the process of gathering, co-creating data between the participant and researcher. We argue diagrams can be either the end product of the research (i.e., with no other kinds of data collected- or analyzed-only the diagram) or the subject of further discussion, for instance, in an interview (i.e., with the data being the interview transcript, and optionally, the diagram itself). The use of diagrams in data collection has spanned many fields, including education, engineering, environmental science, geography, industrial design, psychology and others