Document Analysis
Document analysis is a systematic qualitative research method for examining written, visual, or audiovisual sources—such as policy documents, historical records, organizational records, media reports, emails, social media posts, photographs, or videos—to extract meaning, identify patterns, and understand social phenomena. Developed by Weber and Mannheim in early 20th-century sociology, the method bridges historical research, content analysis, and textual interpretation. Document analysis is used across disciplines to understand organizational change, policy evolution, media representation, historical events, and cultural meaning. Documents provide evidence of what organizations, institutions, or societies value, decide, and communicate, often revealing contradictions between policy and practice.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Scott, J. (1990). A Matter of Record: Documentary Sources in Social Research. Polity Press. · ISBN 978-0745608419
- Prior, L. (2003). Using Documents in Social Research. SAGE Publications. · ISBN 978-0761959052
- Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40. · DOI 10.3316/QRJ0902027
- Flick, U. (2014). An Introduction to Qualitative Research (5th ed.). SAGE Publications. · ISBN 978-1446282921
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.