Working with documents, in whatever form (multimedia, textual, digital/physical etc.) is the backbone of academic research and the bulk of how students conduct research. Any ‘artefact’ that has been created in the past is a document and therefore can be used for research. While traditionally this was limited to books, journal articles and government/public policy documents (essentially the things students and researchers find in libraries and archival repositories) – today it is a vast field that includes social media, podcasts, videos and much more besides.
The resources below have been curated by the E-International Relations team. You can find more resources on our methods homepage.
Using Archives, An Introduction to Archival Research by Drexel Libraries (YouTube)
Documents in social research by Graham R Gibbs (YouTube)
Research Methods: Personal and Historical Documents by Tutor2u (YouTube)
Using Documents As Data by Helen Kara (YouTube)
What is..? textual analysis by the University of Manchester (YouTube)
YouTube and TikTok as Methods, by Clare Southerton (YouTube)
Websites
QuestionPro. “What is documentary research? Examples, methodology, advantages and disadvantages”. https://www.questionpro.com/blog/documentary-research/
Kridel., C. (2021). “An introduction to Documentary Research”. American Educational Research Association. https://www.aera.net/SIG013/Research-Connections/Introduction-to-Documentary-Research
How (and How Not) to Use Archival Sources in Political Science (Alexander Lee). https://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/alexander_lee/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/archives.pdf
Letters as Data. (Janet Salmons). https://www.methodspace.com/letters-as-data/
Schmidt., L. “Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research.” Society of American Archivists. https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives.
Writing@CSU Guide: Content analysis. (Carol Busch et al.). https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=61
Discourse Analysis. Doctoral Training Center, Warwick University (Malcolm N. MacDonald). https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/esrcdtc/coretrainingmodules/quals/discourse.pdf
What is blog analysis by Helen Snee (PDF slideshow)
Using social media for social research: An introduction. Social Media Research Group, Government Social Research. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524750/GSR_Social_Media_Research_Guidance_-_Using_social_media_for_social_research.pdf
