SAGE has been a major force shaping the field of qualitative methods, not just in its specialist methods journals like Qualitative Inquiry but in the 'empirical' journals such as Social Studies of Science. Delving into SAGE's deep backlist of qualitative research methods journals, Paul Atkinson and Sara Delmont, editors of Qualitative Research, have selected over 70 articles to represent SAGE's distinctive contribution to methods publishing in general and qualitative research in particular. This collection includes research from the past four decades and addresses key issues or controversies, such as: explanations and defences of qualitative methods; ethics; research questions and foreshadowed problems; access; first days in the field; field roles and rapport; practicalities of data collection and recording; data analysis; writing and (re) presentation; the rise of auto-ethnography; life history, narrative and autobiography; CA and DA; and alternatives to the logocentric (such as visual methods).