Introduction Our interest in the topic of the emotions of researchers conducting qualitative research in general, and the emotions of doctoral students conducting qualitative research in the social sciences in particular, was sparked following an emotional turmoil experienced by the first author while conducting her doctoral research under the supervision of the second author. An analysis of the reasons that led to this emotional turmoil and of her attempt to cope with it, led us to expand the topic of the researcher's emotions while conducting research into a broader discussion. In this paper, we will present this discussion by examining the ways in which doctoral students manage their emotions while conducting their doctoral research, focusing on those conducting qualitative research. In particular, we will discuss two questions in this context: * Why is it important to study the emotional labor of doctoral students? * Can the topic "The emotional labor of doctoral students" constitute in itself a topic for a doctoral dissertation? The discussion of these questions is important in light of a more general question--Can the emotional involvement of researchers have a detrimental effect on research?--and also in light of the two existing approaches that differ in their answer to this question. On the one hand, the traditional viewpoint, based on the standpoint voiced by the 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes, who declared "I think, therefore I am" (Keegan, 2006), lauds the disassociation between cognition and emotion and instructs researchers to maintain objectivity and emotional disconnection from the topic of research so as to reveal the truth. On the other hand, a feminist viewpoint in research holds that the emotional labor that researchers perform should be acknowledged, some even calling for the recognition of researchers' emotions as additional research data (Blee, 1998; Coffey, 1999; Gilbert, 2001; Haynes, 2006). Clearly, other approaches exist as well. In this paper, we will first review the literature on emotional labor in qualitative research, and then we will focus on a doctoral research that investigates the emotional labor of doctoral students. We note that this paper is neither a research paper nor a comprehensive literature review on doctoral studies; other resources which are dedicated to these topics are available (e.g., Atkinson, Delamont, & Parry, 2000). In writing this paper we intend to increase the awareness of the emotional work of doctoral students in the context of qualitative research. Emotional Labor While Conducting Qualitative Research When conducting qualitative research, it is customary to emphasize that researchers must be aware of the emotions of the research participants, and the need to protect the research participants from any emotional harm is highlighted (Lucas & Lidstone, 2000). To that end, various research bodies and government agencies, including universities, have adopted ethical codes. At the same time, researchers report on a variety of emotions that they themselves have experienced at different stages of the research execution, such as empathy, loneliness, curiosity, sadness, frustration, joy, boredom, and apprehension, which were even sometimes accompanied by physiological or behavioral phenomena (Blee, 1988; Chong, 2008; Dickson-Swift, James, Kippen, & Liamputtong, 2009; Haynes, 2006; Rager, 2005). Hence, any discussion of emotions in the context of qualitative research must include not only the research subjects or participants, but also the researchers themselves. This paper's point of departure is, therefore, that part of the labor of qualitative researchers is emotional labor, which refers to the effort a person invests in expressing or coping with his or her emotions so as to achieve objectives pertaining to his or her work: Emotional labor means the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display; emotional labor is sold for wage and therefore has exchange value. …