The paper “‘Am I not answering your questions properly?’ Clarification, adequacy and responsiveness in semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews” by Irvine et al presents a study comparing semi-structured qualitative research interviews conducted via telephone versus face-to-face. The study seeks to contribute empirical evidence on how interview mode affects the spoken interaction and resulting data. The analysis draws on techniques from Conversation Analysis to compare 11 interviews (6 telephone, 5 face-to-face) originally conducted for a study on mental health and employment. Several interactional differences emerged: The researcher offered more formulations and completions of the interviewee’s talk in face-to-face mode. Interviewees requested slighty more clarification of questions in telephone interviews. The researcher provided fewer vocalized acknowledgement tokens in telephone mode. Interviewees checked more explicitly that their responses were adequate in telephone mode. Telephone interviews tended to be shorter than face-to-face. Possible explanations are discussed, including differences in rapport, listener effort, and expectations of interviewer involvement. A key implication is that telephone respondents may feel less confident they are satisfying the interviewer’s needs. The study represents an initial foray into systematic empirical comparison of interview modes. Further research with larger samples would help establish more robust findings on the interactional consequences of telephone versus face-to-face in qualitative interviewing.