documentary review in research pdf

Document Analysis

First Online: 02 January 2023

Cite this chapter

Benjamin Kutsyuruba 4

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Education ((SPTE))

4999 Accesses

2 Citations

This chapter describes the document analysis approach. As a qualitative method, document analysis entails a systematic procedure for reviewing and evaluating documents through finding, selecting, appraising (making sense of), and synthesizing data contained within them. This chapter outlines the brief history, method and use of document analysis, provides an outline of its process, strengths and limitations, and application, and offers further readings, resources, and suggestions for student engagement activities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Available as EPUB and PDF
Read on any device
Instant download
Own it forever
Compact, lightweight edition
Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Qualitative Text Analysis: A Systematic Approach

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis: A Guide for Beginners

Qualitative Content Analysis: Theoretical Background and Procedures

Altheide, D. L. (1987). Ethnographic content analysis. Qualitative Sociology, 10 (1), 65–77.

Article Google Scholar

Altheide, D. L. (1996). Qualitative media analysis . SAGE.

Google Scholar

Altheide, D. L. (2000). Tracking discourse and qualitative document analysis. Poetics, 27 , 287–299.

Atkinson, P. A., & Coffey, A. (1997). Analysing documentary realities. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research: Theory, method and practice (pp. 45–62). SAGE.

Berg, B. L. (2001). Qualitative research methods for social sciences . Allyn and Bacon.

Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9 (2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027

Bryman, A. (2003). Research methods and organization studies . Routledge.

Book Google Scholar

Cardno, C. (2018). Policy document analysis: A practical educational leadership tool and a qualitative research method. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice , 24 (4), 623–640. https://doi.org/10.14527/kuey.2018.016

Caulley, D. N. (1983). Document analysis in program evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 6 , 19–29.

Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). SAGE.

Derrida, J. (1978). Writing and difference . Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Aldine De Gruyter.

Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). Longman.

Goode, W. J., & Hatt, P. K. (1952). Methods in social research . McGraw-Hill.

Hodder, I. (2000). The interpretation of documents and material culture. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 703–715). SAGE.

Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. SAGE.

Lombard, M., Snyder-Duch, J., & Bracken, C. C. (2002). Content analysis in mass communication: Assessment and reporting of intercoder reliability. Human Communication Research, 28 , 587–604.

Lombard, M., Snyder-Duch, J., & Bracken, C. C. (2010). Practical resources for assessing and reporting intercoder reliability in content analysis research projects . Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://matthewlombard.com/reliability/index_print.html

Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum: Qualitative social research (Vol. 1(2)). Retrieved March 22, 2011, from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/viewArticle/1089/2385

McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry (7th ed.). Pearson.

Merriam, S. B. (1988a). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach . Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S. B. (1998b). Case study research in education . Jossey-Bass.

Miller, F. A., & Alvarado, K. (2005). Incorporating documents into qualitative nursing research. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 37 (4), 348–353.

Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook . SAGE.

O’Leary, Z. (2014). The essential guide to doing your research project (2nd ed.). SAGE.

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). SAGE.

Prior, L. (2003). Using documents in social research . SAGE.

Prior, L. (2008a). Document analysis. In L. Given (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopaedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 231–232). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909

Prior, L. (2008b). Repositioning documents in social research. Sociology, 42 (5), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508094564

Prior, L. (2012). The role of documents in social research. In S. Delamont (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative research in education (pp. 426–438). Edward Elgar.

Salminen, A., Kauppinen, K., & Lehtovaara, M. (1997). Towards a methodology for document analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48 (7), 644–655.

Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research . SAGE.

Wharton, C. (2006). Document analysis. In V. Jupp (Ed.), The SAGE dictionary of social research methods (pp. 80–81). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020116

Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research, design and methods (4th ed.). SAGE.

Additional Reading

Kutsyuruba, B. (2017). Examining education reforms through document analysis methodology. In I. Silova, A. Korzh, S. Kovalchuk, & N. Sobe (Eds.), Reimagining Utopias: Theory and method for educational research in post-socialist contexts (pp. 199–214). Sense.

Kutsyuruba, B., Christou, T., Heggie, L., Murray, J., & Deluca, C. (2015). Teacher collaborative inquiry in Ontario: An analysis of provincial and school board policies and support documents. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 172 , 1–38.

Kutsyuruba, B., Godden, L., & Tregunna, L. (2014). Curbing the early-career attrition: A pan-Canadian document analysis of teacher induction and mentorship programs. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 161 , 1–42.

Segeren, A., & Kutsyuruba, B. (2012). Twenty years and counting: An examination of the development of equity and inclusive education policy in Ontario (1990–2010). Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 136 , 1–38.

Online Resources

Document Analysis: A How To Guide (12:27 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOsE9saR_ck

Document Analysis with Philip Adu (1:16:40 min) https://youtu.be/bLKBffW5JPU

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

Benjamin Kutsyuruba

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benjamin Kutsyuruba .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Janet Mola Okoko

Scott Tunison

Department of Educational Administration, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Keith D. Walker

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Kutsyuruba, B. (2023). Document Analysis. In: Okoko, J.M., Tunison, S., Walker, K.D. (eds) Varieties of Qualitative Research Methods. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04394-9_23

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04394-9_23

Published : 02 January 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-04396-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-04394-9

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Find a journal
Track your research

Search Menu
Advance Articles
Editor's Choice
Supplements
Open Access Articles
Research Collections
Review Collections
Author Guidelines
Submission Site
Open Access Options
Self-Archiving Policy
About Health Policy and Planning
About the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
HPP at a glance
Editorial Board
Advertising and Corporate Services
Journals Career Network
Journals on Oxford Academic
Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

Introduction, what is document analysis, the read approach, supplementary data, acknowledgements.

< Previous

Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach

Article contents
Figures & tables

Sarah L Dalglish, Hina Khalid, Shannon A McMahon, Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach, Health Policy and Planning , Volume 35, Issue 10, December 2020, Pages 1424–1431, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaa064

Permissions Icon Permissions

Document analysis is one of the most commonly used and powerful methods in health policy research. While existing qualitative research manuals offer direction for conducting document analysis, there has been little specific discussion about how to use this method to understand and analyse health policy. Drawing on guidance from other disciplines and our own research experience, we present a systematic approach for document analysis in health policy research called the READ approach: (1) ready your materials, (2) extract data, (3) analyse data and (4) distil your findings. We provide practical advice on each step, with consideration of epistemological and theoretical issues such as the socially constructed nature of documents and their role in modern bureaucracies. We provide examples of document analysis from two case studies from our work in Pakistan and Niger in which documents provided critical insight and advanced empirical and theoretical understanding of a health policy issue. Coding tools for each case study are included as Supplementary Files to inspire and guide future research. These case studies illustrate the value of rigorous document analysis to understand policy content and processes and discourse around policy, in ways that are either not possible using other methods, or greatly enrich other methods such as in-depth interviews and observation. Given the central nature of documents to health policy research and importance of reading them critically, the READ approach provides practical guidance on gaining the most out of documents and ensuring rigour in document analysis.

Rigour in qualitative research is judged partly by the use of deliberate, systematic procedures; however, little specific guidance is available for analysing documents, a nonetheless common method in health policy research.

Document analysis is useful for understanding policy content across time and geographies, documenting processes, triangulating with interviews and other sources of data, understanding how information and ideas are presented formally, and understanding issue framing, among other purposes.

The READ (Ready materials, Extract data, Analyse data, Distil) approach provides a step-by-step guide to conducting document analysis for qualitative policy research.

The READ approach can be adapted to different purposes and types of research, two examples of which are presented in this article, with sample tools in the Supplementary Materials .

Document analysis (also called document review) is one of the most commonly used methods in health policy research; it is nearly impossible to conduct policy research without it. Writing in early 20th century, Weber (2015) identified the importance of formal, written documents as a key characteristic of the bureaucracies by which modern societies function, including in public health. Accordingly, critical social research has a long tradition of documentary review: Marx analysed official reports, laws, statues, census reports and newspapers and periodicals over a nearly 50-year period to come to his world-altering conclusions ( Harvey, 1990 ). Yet in much of social science research, ‘documents are placed at the margins of consideration,’ with privilege given to the spoken word via methods such as interviews, possibly due to the fact that many qualitative methods were developed in the anthropological tradition to study mainly pre-literate societies ( Prior, 2003 ). To date, little specific guidance is available to help health policy researchers make the most of these wells of information.

The term ‘documents’ is defined here broadly, following Prior, as physical or virtual artefacts designed by creators, for users, to function within a particular setting ( Prior, 2003 ). Documents exist not as standalone objects of study but must be understood in the social web of meaning within which they are produced and consumed. For example, some analysts distinguish between public documents (produced in the context of public sector activities), private documents (from business and civil society) and personal documents (created by or for individuals, and generally not meant for public consumption) ( Mogalakwe, 2009 ). Documents can be used in a number of ways throughout the research process ( Bowen, 2009 ). In the planning or study design phase, they can be used to gather background information and help refine the research question. Documents can also be used to spark ideas for disseminating research once it is complete, by observing the ways those who will use the research speak to and communicate ideas with one another.

Documents can also be used during data collection and analysis to help answer research questions. Recent health policy research shows that this can be done in at least four ways. Frequently, policy documents are reviewed to describe the content or categorize the approaches to specific health problems in existing policies, as in reviews of the composition of drowning prevention resources in the United States or policy responses to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in South Africa ( Katchmarchi et al. , 2018 ; Adebiyi et al. , 2019 ). In other cases, non-policy documents are used to examine the implementation of health policies in real-world settings, as in a review of web sources and newspapers analysing the functioning of community health councils in New Zealand ( Gurung et al. , 2020 ). Perhaps less frequently, document analysis is used to analyse policy processes, as in an assessment of multi-sectoral planning process for nutrition in Burkina Faso ( Ouedraogo et al. , 2020 ). Finally, and most broadly, document analysis can be used to inform new policies, as in one study that assessed cigarette sticks as communication and branding ‘documents,’ to suggest avenues for further regulation and tobacco control activities ( Smith et al. , 2017 ).

This practice paper provides an overarching method for conducting document analysis, which can be adapted to a multitude of research questions and topics. Document analysis is used in most or all policy studies; the aim of this article is to provide a systematized method that will enhance procedural rigour. We provide an overview of document analysis, drawing on guidance from disciplines adjacent to public health, introduce the ‘READ’ approach to document analysis and provide two short case studies demonstrating how document analysis can be applied.

Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents, which can be used to provide context, generate questions, supplement other types of research data, track change over time and corroborate other sources ( Bowen, 2009 ). In one commonly cited approach in social research, Bowen recommends first skimming the documents to get an overview, then reading to identify relevant categories of analysis for the overall set of documents and finally interpreting the body of documents ( Bowen, 2009 ). Document analysis can include both quantitative and qualitative components: the approach presented here can be used with either set of methods, but we emphasize qualitative ones, which are more adapted to the socially constructed meaning-making inherent to collaborative exercises such as policymaking.

The study of documents as a research method is common to a number of social science disciplines—yet in many of these fields, including sociology ( Mogalakwe, 2009 ), anthropology ( Prior, 2003 ) and political science ( Wesley, 2010 ), document-based research is described as ill-considered and underutilized. Unsurprisingly, textual analysis is perhaps most developed in fields such as media studies, cultural studies and literary theory, all disciplines that recognize documents as ‘social facts’ that are created, consumed, shared and utilized in socially organized ways ( Atkinson and Coffey, 1997 ). Documents exist within social ‘fields of action,’ a term used to designate the environments within which individuals and groups interact. Documents are therefore not mere records of social life, but integral parts of it—and indeed can become agents in their own right ( Prior, 2003 ). Powerful entities also manipulate the nature and content of knowledge; therefore, gaps in available information must be understood as reflecting and potentially reinforcing societal power relations ( Bryman and Burgess, 1994 ).

Document analysis, like any research method, can be subject to concerns regarding validity, reliability, authenticity, motivated authorship, lack of representativity and so on. However, these can be mitigated or avoided using standard techniques to enhance qualitative rigour, such as triangulation (within documents and across methods and theoretical perspectives), ensuring adequate sample size or ‘engagement’ with the documents, member checking, peer debriefing and so on ( Maxwell, 2005 ).

Document analysis can be used as a standalone method, e.g. to analyse the contents of specific types of policy as they evolve over time and differ across geographies, but document analysis can also be powerfully combined with other types of methods to cross-validate (i.e. triangulate) and deepen the value of concurrent methods. As one guide to public policy research puts it, ‘almost all likely sources of information, data, and ideas fall into two general types: documents and people’ ( Bardach and Patashnik, 2015 ). Thus, researchers can ask interviewees to address questions that arise from policy documents and point the way to useful new documents. Bardach and Patashnik suggest alternating between documents and interviews as sources as information, as one tends to lead to the other, such as by scanning interviewees’ bookshelves and papers for titles and author names ( Bardach and Patashnik, 2015 ). Depending on your research questions, document analysis can be used in combination with different types of interviews ( Berner-Rodoreda et al. , 2018 ), observation ( Harvey, 2018 ), and quantitative analyses, among other common methods in policy research.

The READ approach to document analysis is a systematic procedure for collecting documents and gaining information from them in the context of health policy studies at any level (global, national, local, etc.). The steps consist of: (1) ready your materials, (2) extract data, (3) analyse data and (4) distil your findings. We describe each of these steps in turn.

Step 1. Ready your materials

At the outset, researchers must set parameters in terms of the nature and number (approximately) of documents they plan to analyse, based on the research question. How much time will you allocate to the document analysis, and what is the scope of your research question? Depending on the answers to these questions, criteria should be established around (1) the topic (a particular policy, programme, or health issue, narrowly defined according to the research question); (2) dates of inclusion (whether taking the long view of several decades, or zooming in on a specific event or period in time); and (3) an indicative list of places to search for documents (possibilities include databases such as Ministry archives; LexisNexis or other databases; online searches; and particularly interview subjects). For difficult-to-obtain working documents or otherwise non-public items, bringing a flash drive to interviews is one of the best ways to gain access to valuable documents.

For research focusing on a single policy or programme, you may review only a handful of documents. However, if you are looking at multiple policies, health issues, or contexts, or reviewing shorter documents (such as newspaper articles), you may look at hundreds, or even thousands of documents. When considering the number of documents you will analyse, you should make notes on the type of information you plan to extract from documents—i.e. what it is you hope to learn, and how this will help answer your research question(s). The initial criteria—and the data you seek to extract from documents—will likely evolve over the course of the research, as it becomes clear whether they will yield too few documents and information (a rare outcome), far too many documents and too much information (a much more common outcome) or documents that fail to address the research question; however, it is important to have a starting point to guide the search. If you find that the documents you need are unavailable, you may need to reassess your research questions or consider other methods of inquiry. If you have too many documents, you can either analyse a subset of these ( Panel 1 ) or adopt more stringent inclusion criteria.

Exploring the framing of diseases in Pakistani media

In Table 1 , we present a non-exhaustive list of the types of documents that can be included in document analyses of health policy issues. In most cases, this will mean written sources (policies, reports, articles). The types of documents to be analysed will vary by study and according to the research question, although in many cases, it will be useful to consult a mix of formal documents (such as official policies, laws or strategies), ‘gray literature’ (organizational materials such as reports, evaluations and white papers produced outside formal publication channels) and, whenever possible, informal or working documents (such as meeting notes, PowerPoint presentations and memoranda). These latter in particular can provide rich veins of insight into how policy actors are thinking through the issues under study, particularly for the lucky researcher who obtains working documents with ‘Track Changes.’ How you prioritize documents will depend on your research question: you may prioritize official policy documents if you are studying policy content, or you may prioritize informal documents if you are studying policy process.

Types of documents that can be consulted in studies of health policy

During this initial preparatory phase, we also recommend devising a file-naming system for your documents (e.g. Author.Date.Topic.Institution.PDF), so that documents can be easily retrieved throughout the research process. After extracting data and processing your documents the first time around, you will likely have additional ‘questions’ to ask your documents and need to consult them again. For this reason, it is important to clearly name source files and link filenames to the data that you are extracting (see sample naming conventions in the Supplementary Materials ).

Step 2. Extract data

Data can be extracted in a number of ways, and the method you select for doing so will depend on your research question and the nature of your documents. One simple way is to use an Excel spreadsheet where each row is a document and each column is a category of information you are seeking to extract, from more basic data such as the document title, author and date, to theoretical or conceptual categories deriving from your research question, operating theory or analytical framework (Panel 2). Documents can also be imported into thematic coding software such as Atlas.ti or NVivo, and data extracted that way. Alternatively, if the research question focuses on process, documents can be used to compile a timeline of events, to trace processes across time. Ask yourself, how can I organize these data in the most coherent manner? What are my priority categories? We have included two different examples of data extraction tools in the Supplementary Materials to this article to spark ideas.

Case study Documents tell part of the story in Niger

Document analyses are first and foremost exercises in close reading: documents should be read thoroughly, from start to finish, including annexes, which may seem tedious but which sometimes produce golden nuggets of information. Read for overall meaning as you extract specific data related to your research question. As you go along, you will begin to have ideas or build working theories about what you are learning and observing in the data. We suggest capturing these emerging theories in extended notes or ‘memos,’ as used in Grounded Theory methodology ( Charmaz, 2006 ); these can be useful analytical units in themselves and can also provide a basis for later report and article writing.

As you read more documents, you may find that your data extraction tool needs to be modified to capture all the relevant information (or to avoid wasting time capturing irrelevant information). This may require you to go back and seek information in documents you have already read and processed, which will be greatly facilitated by a coherent file-naming system. It is also useful to keep notes on other documents that are mentioned that should be tracked down (sometimes you can write the author for help). As a general rule, we suggest being parsimonious when selecting initial categories to extract from data. Simply reading the documents takes significant time in and of itself—make sure you think about how, exactly, the specific data you are extracting will be used and how it goes towards answering your research questions.

Step 3. Analyse data

As in all types of qualitative research, data collection and analysis are iterative and characterized by emergent design, meaning that developing findings continually inform whether and how to obtain and interpret data ( Creswell, 2013 ). In practice, this means that during the data extraction phase, the researcher is already analysing data and forming initial theories—as well as potentially modifying document selection criteria. However, only when data extraction is complete can one see the full picture. For example, are there any documents that you would have expected to find, but did not? Why do you think they might be missing? Are there temporal trends (i.e. similarities, differences or evolutions that stand out when documents are ordered chronologically)? What else do you notice? We provide a list of overarching questions you should think about when viewing your body of document as a whole ( Table 2 ).

Questions to ask your overall body of documents

HIV and viral hepatitis articles by main frames (%). Note: The percentage of articles is calculated by dividing the number of articles appearing in each frame for viral hepatitis and HIV by the respectivenumber of sampled articles for each disease (N = 137 for HIV; N = 117 for hepatitis). Time frame: 1 January 2006 to 30 September 2016

Representations of progress toward Millennium Development Goal 4 in Nigerien policy documents. Sources: clockwise from upper left: ( WHO 2006 ); ( Institut National de la Statistique 2010 ); ( Ministè re de la Santé Publique 2010 ); ( Unicef 2010 )

In addition to the meaning-making processes you are already engaged in during the data extraction process, in most cases, it will be useful to apply specific analysis methodologies to the overall corpus of your documents, such as policy analysis ( Buse et al. , 2005 ). An array of analysis methodologies can be used, both quantitative and qualitative, including case study methodology, thematic content analysis, discourse analysis, framework analysis and process tracing, which may require differing levels of familiarity and skills to apply (we highlight a few of these in the case studies below). Analysis can also be structured according to theoretical approaches. When it comes to analysing policies, process tracing can be particularly useful to combine multiple sources of information, establish a chronicle of events and reveal political and social processes, so as to create a narrative of the policy cycle ( Yin, 1994 ; Shiffman et al. , 2004 ). Practically, you will also want to take a holistic view of the documents’ ‘answers’ to the questions or analysis categories you applied during the data extraction phase. Overall, what did the documents ‘say’ about these thematic categories? What variation did you find within and between documents, and along which axes? Answers to these questions are best recorded by developing notes or memos, which again will come in handy as you write up your results.

As with all qualitative research, you will want to consider your own positionality towards the documents (and their sources and authors); it may be helpful to keep a ‘reflexivity’ memo documenting how your personal characteristics or pre-standing views might influence your analysis ( Watt, 2007 ).

Step 4. Distil your findings

You will know when you have completed your document review when one of the three things happens: (1) completeness (you feel satisfied you have obtained every document fitting your criteria—this is rare), (2) out of time (this means you should have used more specific criteria), and (3) saturation (you fully or sufficiently understand the phenomenon you are studying). In all cases, you should strive to make the third situation the reason for ending your document review, though this will not always mean you will have read and analysed every document fitting your criteria—just enough documents to feel confident you have found good answers to your research questions.

Now it is time to refine your findings. During the extraction phase, you did the equivalent of walking along the beach, noticing the beautiful shells, driftwood and sea glass, and picking them up along the way. During the analysis phase, you started sorting these items into different buckets (your analysis categories) and building increasingly detailed collections. Now you have returned home from the beach, and it is time to clean your objects, rinse them of sand and preserve only the best specimens for presentation. To do this, you can return to your memos, refine them, illustrate them with graphics and quotes and fill in any incomplete areas. It can also be illuminating to look across different strands of work: e.g. how did the content, style, authorship, or tone of arguments evolve over time? Can you illustrate which words, concepts or phrases were used by authors or author groups?

Results will often first be grouped by theoretical or analytic category, or presented as a policy narrative, interweaving strands from other methods you may have used (interviews, observation, etc.). It can also be helpful to create conceptual charts and graphs, especially as this corresponds to your analytical framework (Panels 1 and 2). If you have been keeping a timeline of events, you can seek out any missing information from other sources. Finally, ask yourself how the validity of your findings checks against what you have learned using other methods. The final products of the distillation process will vary by research study, but they will invariably allow you to state your findings relative to your research questions and to draw policy-relevant conclusions.

Document analysis is an essential component of health policy research—it is also relatively convenient and can be low cost. Using an organized system of analysis enhances the document analysis’s procedural rigour, allows for a fuller understanding of policy process and content and enhances the effectiveness of other methods such as interviews and non-participant observation. We propose the READ approach as a systematic method for interrogating documents and extracting study-relevant data that is flexible enough to accommodate many types of research questions. We hope that this article encourages discussion about how to make best use of data from documents when researching health policy questions.

Supplementary data are available at Health Policy and Planning online.

The data extraction tool in the Supplementary Materials for the iCCM case study (Panel 2) was conceived of by the research team for the multi-country study ‘Policy Analysis of Community Case Management for Childhood and Newborn Illnesses’. The authors thank Sara Bennett and Daniela Rodriguez for granting permission to publish this tool. S.M. was supported by The Olympia-Morata-Programme of Heidelberg University. The funders had no role in the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of any funder.

Conflict of interest statement . None declared.

Ethical approval. No ethical approval was required for this study.

Abdelmutti N , Hoffman-Goetz L. 2009 . Risk messages about HPV, cervical cancer, and the HPV vaccine Gardasil: a content analysis of Canadian and U.S. national newspaper articles . Women & Health 49 : 422 – 40 .

Google Scholar

Adebiyi BO , Mukumbang FC , Beytell A-M. 2019 . To what extent is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder considered in policy-related documents in South Africa? A document review . Health Research Policy and Systems 17 :

Atkinson PA , Coffey A. 1997 . Analysing documentary realities. In: Silverman D (ed). Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice . London : SAGE .

Google Preview

Bardach E , Patashnik EM. 2015 . Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving . Los Angeles : SAGE .

Bennett S , Dalglish SL , Juma PA , Rodríguez DC. 2015 . Altogether now… understanding the role of international organizations in iCCM policy transfer . Health Policy and Planning 30 : ii26 – 35 .

Berner-Rodoreda A , Bärnighausen T , Kennedy C et al. 2018 . From doxastic to epistemic: a typology and critique of qualitative interview styles . Qualitative Inquiry 26 : 291 – 305 . 1077800418810724.

Bowen GA. 2009 . Document analysis as a qualitative research method . Qualitative Research Journal 9 : 27 – 40 .

Bryman A. 1994 . Analyzing Qualitative Data .

Buse K , Mays N , Walt G. 2005 . Making Health Policy . New York : Open University Press .

Charmaz K. 2006 . Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis . London : SAGE .

Claassen L , Smid T , Woudenberg F , Timmermans DRM. 2012 . Media coverage on electromagnetic fields and health: content analysis of Dutch newspaper articles and websites . Health, Risk & Society 14 : 681 – 96 .

Creswell JW. 2013 . Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design . Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE .

Dalglish SL , Rodríguez DC , Harouna A , Surkan PJ. 2017 . Knowledge and power in policy-making for child survival in Niger . Social Science & Medicine 177 : 150 – 7 .

Dalglish SL , Surkan PJ , Diarra A , Harouna A , Bennett S. 2015 . Power and pro-poor policies: the case of iCCM in Niger . Health Policy and Planning 30 : ii84 – 94 .

Entman RM. 1993 . Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm . Journal of Communication 43 : 51 – 8 .

Fournier G , Djermakoye IA. 1975 . Village health teams in Niger (Maradi Department). In: Newell KW (ed). Health by the People . Geneva : WHO .

Gurung G , Derrett S , Gauld R. 2020 . The role and functions of community health councils in New Zealand’s health system: a document analysis . The New Zealand Medical Journal 133 : 70 – 82 .

Harvey L. 1990 . Critical Social Research . London : Unwin Hyman .

Harvey SA. 2018 . Observe before you leap: why observation provides critical insights for formative research and intervention design that you’ll never get from focus groups, interviews, or KAP surveys . Global Health: Science and Practice 6 : 299 – 316 .

Institut National de la Statistique. 2010. Rapport National sur les Progrès vers l'atteinte des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement. Niamey, Niger: INS.

Kamarulzaman A. 2013 . Fighting the HIV epidemic in the Islamic world . Lancet 381 : 2058 – 60 .

Katchmarchi AB , Taliaferro AR , Kipfer HJ. 2018 . A document analysis of drowning prevention education resources in the United States . International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 25 : 78 – 84 .

Krippendorff K. 2004 . Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology . SAGE .

Marten R. 2019 . How states exerted power to create the Millennium Development Goals and how this shaped the global health agenda: lessons for the sustainable development goals and the future of global health . Global Public Health 14 : 584 – 99 .

Maxwell JA. 2005 . Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach , 2 nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications .

Mayring P. 2004 . Qualitative Content Analysis . In: Flick U, von Kardorff E, Steinke I (eds). A Companion to Qualitative Research . SAGE .

Ministère de la Santé Publique. 2010. Enquête nationale sur la survie des enfants de 0 à 59 mois et la mortalité au Niger 2010. Niamey, Niger: MSP.

Mogalakwe M. 2009 . The documentary research method—using documentary sources in social research . Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review 25 : 43 – 58 .

Nelkin D. 1991 . AIDS and the news media . The Milbank Quarterly 69 : 293 – 307 .

Ouedraogo O , Doudou MH , Drabo KM et al. 2020 . Policy overview of the multisectoral nutrition planning process: the progress, challenges, and lessons learned from Burkina Faso . The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 35 : 120 – 39 .

Prior L. 2003 . Using Documents in Social Research . London: SAGE .

Shiffman J , Stanton C , Salazar AP. 2004 . The emergence of political priority for safe motherhood in Honduras . Health Policy and Planning 19 : 380 – 90 .

Smith KC , Washington C , Welding K et al. 2017 . Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries . Tobacco Control 26 : 604 – 7 .

Strömbäck J , Dimitrova DV. 2011 . Mediatization and media interventionism: a comparative analysis of Sweden and the United States . The International Journal of Press/Politics 16 : 30 – 49 .

UNICEF. 2010. Maternal, Newborn & Child Surival Profile. Niamey, Niger: UNICEF

Watt D. 2007 . On becoming a qualitative researcher: the value of reflexivity . Qualitative Report 12 : 82 – 101 .

Weber M. 2015 . Bureaucracy. In: Waters T , Waters D (eds). Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification . London : Palgrave MacMillan .

Wesley JJ. 2010 . Qualitative Document Analysis in Political Science.

World Health Organization. 2006. Country Health System Fact Sheet 2006: Niger. Niamey, Niger: WHO.

Yin R. 1994 . Case Study Research: Design and Methods . Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage .

Supplementary data

Email alerts, citing articles via.

Recommend to Your Librarian

Affiliations

Online ISSN 1460-2237
Copyright © 2024 The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Oxford University Press
About Oxford Academic
Publish journals with us
University press partners
What we publish
New features
Open access
Institutional account management
Rights and permissions
Get help with access
Accessibility
Advertising
Media enquiries
Oxford University Press
Oxford Languages
University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
Cookie settings
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Health Policy Plan
v.35(10); 2020 Dec

Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach

Sarah l dalglish.

1 Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

2 Institute for Global Health, University College London, Institute for Global Health 3rd floor, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK

Hina Khalid

3 School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Technology University, Arfa Software Technology Park, Ferozepur Road, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

Shannon A McMahon

4 Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Medical Faculty and University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 130/3, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Associated Data

Key Messages

Rigour in qualitative research is judged partly by the use of deliberate, systematic procedures; however, little specific guidance is available for analysing documents, a nonetheless common method in health policy research.
Document analysis is useful for understanding policy content across time and geographies, documenting processes, triangulating with interviews and other sources of data, understanding how information and ideas are presented formally, and understanding issue framing, among other purposes.
The READ (Ready materials, Extract data, Analyse data, Distil) approach provides a step-by-step guide to conducting document analysis for qualitative policy research.
The READ approach can be adapted to different purposes and types of research, two examples of which are presented in this article, with sample tools in the Supplementary Materials .

Introduction

What is document analysis?

The READ approach

Step 1. Ready your materials

Exploring the framing of diseases in Pakistani media

Types of documents that can be consulted in studies of health policy

Step 2. Extract data

Case study Documents tell part of the story in Niger

Step 3. Analyse data

Questions to ask your overall body of documents

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is czaa064f1.jpg

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is czaa064f2.jpg

Step 4. Distil your findings

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at Health Policy and Planning online.

Supplementary Material

Czaa064_supplementary_data, acknowledgements.

Conflict of interest statement . None declared.

Ethical approval. No ethical approval was required for this study.

Abdelmutti N, Hoffman-Goetz L. 2009. Risk messages about HPV, cervical cancer, and the HPV vaccine Gardasil: a content analysis of Canadian and U.S. national newspaper articles . Women & Health 49 : 422–40. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Adebiyi BO, Mukumbang FC, Beytell A-M. 2019. To what extent is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder considered in policy-related documents in South Africa? A document review . Health Research Policy and Systems 17 : [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Atkinson PA, Coffey A. 1997. Analysing documentary realities In: Silverman D (ed). Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice . London: SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Bardach E, Patashnik EM. 2015. Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving . Los Angeles: SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Bennett S, Dalglish SL, Juma PA, Rodríguez DC. 2015. Altogether now… understanding the role of international organizations in iCCM policy transfer . Health Policy and Planning 30 : ii26–35. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Berner-Rodoreda A, Bärnighausen T, Kennedy C et al. 2018. From doxastic to epistemic: a typology and critique of qualitative interview styles . Qualitative Inquiry 26 : 291–305. 1077800418810724. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Bowen GA. 2009. Document analysis as a qualitative research method . Qualitative Research Journal 9 : 27–40. [ Google Scholar ]
Bryman A. 1994. Analyzing Qualitative Data .
Buse K, Mays N, Walt G. 2005. Making Health Policy . New York: Open University Press. [ Google Scholar ]
Charmaz K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis . London: SAGE. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Claassen L, Smid T, Woudenberg F, Timmermans DRM. 2012. Media coverage on electromagnetic fields and health: content analysis of Dutch newspaper articles and websites . Health, Risk & Society 14 : 681–96. [ Google Scholar ]
Creswell JW. 2013. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Dalglish SL, Rodríguez DC, Harouna A, Surkan PJ. 2017. Knowledge and power in policy-making for child survival in Niger . Social Science & Medicine 177 : 150–7. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Dalglish SL, Surkan PJ, Diarra A, Harouna A, Bennett S. 2015. Power and pro-poor policies: the case of iCCM in Niger . Health Policy and Planning 30 : ii84–94. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Entman RM. 1993. Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm . Journal of Communication 43 : 51–8. [ Google Scholar ]
Fournier G, Djermakoye IA. 1975. Village health teams in Niger (Maradi Department) In: Newell KW (ed). Health by the People . Geneva: WHO. [ Google Scholar ]
Gurung G, Derrett S, Gauld R. 2020. The role and functions of community health councils in New Zealand’s health system: a document analysis . The New Zealand Medical Journal 133 : 70–82. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Harvey L. 1990. Critical Social Research . London: Unwin Hyman. [ Google Scholar ]
Harvey SA. 2018. Observe before you leap: why observation provides critical insights for formative research and intervention design that you’ll never get from focus groups, interviews, or KAP surveys . Global Health: Science and Practice 6 : 299–316. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Institut National de la Statistique. 2010. Rapport National sur les Progrès vers l'atteinte des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement. Niamey, Niger: INS. [ Google Scholar ]
Kamarulzaman A. 2013. Fighting the HIV epidemic in the Islamic world . Lancet 381 : 2058–60. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Katchmarchi AB, Taliaferro AR, Kipfer HJ. 2018. A document analysis of drowning prevention education resources in the United States . International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 25 : 78–84. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Krippendorff K. 2004. Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology . SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Marten R. 2019. How states exerted power to create the Millennium Development Goals and how this shaped the global health agenda: lessons for the sustainable development goals and the future of global health . Global Public Health 14 : 584–99. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Maxwell JA. 2005. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach , 2 nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. [ Google Scholar ]
Mayring P. 2004. Qualitative Content Analysis . In: Flick U, von Kardorff E, Steinke I (eds). A Companion to Qualitative Research SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Ministère de la Santé Publique. 2010. Enquête nationale sur la survie des enfants de 0 à 59 mois et la mortalité au Niger 2010. Niamey, Niger: MSP. [ Google Scholar ]
Mogalakwe M. 2009. The documentary research method—using documentary sources in social research . Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review 25 : 43–58. [ Google Scholar ]
Nelkin D. 1991. AIDS and the news media . The Milbank Quarterly 69 : 293–307. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Ouedraogo O, Doudou MH, Drabo KM et al. 2020. Policy overview of the multisectoral nutrition planning process: the progress, challenges, and lessons learned from Burkina Faso . The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 35 : 120–39. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Prior L. 2003. Using Documents in Social Research . London: SAGE. [ Google Scholar ]
Shiffman J, Stanton C, Salazar AP. 2004. The emergence of political priority for safe motherhood in Honduras . Health Policy and Planning 19 : 380–90. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Smith KC, Washington C, Welding K et al. 2017. Cigarette stick as valuable communicative real estate: a content analysis of cigarettes from 14 low-income and middle-income countries . Tobacco Control 26 : 604–7. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Strömbäck J, Dimitrova DV. 2011. Mediatization and media interventionism: a comparative analysis of Sweden and the United States . The International Journal of Press/Politics 16 : 30–49. [ Google Scholar ]
UNICEF. 2010. Maternal, Newborn & Child Surival Profile. Niamey, Niger: UNICEF . [ Google Scholar ]
Watt D. 2007. On becoming a qualitative researcher: the value of reflexivity . Qualitative Report 12 : 82–101. [ Google Scholar ]
Weber M. 2015. Bureaucracy In: Waters T, Waters D (eds). Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification . London: Palgrave MacMillan. [ Google Scholar ]
Wesley JJ. 2010. Qualitative Document Analysis in Political Science.
World Health Organization. 2006. Country Health System Fact Sheet 2006: Niger. Niamey, Niger: WHO.
Yin R. 1994. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [ Google Scholar ]

Home » Documentary Analysis – Methods, Applications and Examples

Documentary Analysis – Methods, Applications and Examples

Table of Contents

Documentary Analysis

Definition:

Documentary analysis, also referred to as document analysis , is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents. This method involves a detailed review of the documents to extract themes or patterns relevant to the research topic .

Documents used in this type of analysis can include a wide variety of materials such as text (words) and images that have been recorded without a researcher’s intervention. The domain of document analysis, therefore, includes all kinds of texts – books, newspapers, letters, study reports, diaries, and more, as well as images like maps, photographs, and films.

Documentary analysis provides valuable insight and a unique perspective on the past, contextualizing the present and providing a baseline for future studies. It is also an essential tool in case studies and when direct observation or participant observation is not possible.

The process usually involves several steps:

Sourcing : This involves identifying the document or source, its origin, and the context in which it was created.
Contextualizing : This involves understanding the social, economic, political, and cultural circumstances during the time the document was created.
Interrogating : This involves asking a series of questions to help understand the document better. For example, who is the author? What is the purpose of the document? Who is the intended audience?
Making inferences : This involves understanding what the document says (either directly or indirectly) about the topic under study.
Checking for reliability and validity : Just like other research methods, documentary analysis also involves checking for the validity and reliability of the documents being analyzed.

Documentary Analysis Methods

Documentary analysis as a qualitative research method involves a systematic process. Here are the main steps you would generally follow:

Defining the Research Question

Before you start any research , you need a clear and focused research question . This will guide your decision on what documents you need to analyze and what you’re looking for within them.

Selecting the Documents

Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start to select the relevant documents. These can be a wide range of materials – books, newspapers, letters, official reports, diaries, transcripts of speeches, archival materials, websites, social media posts, and more. They can be primary sources (directly from the time/place/person you are studying) or secondary sources (analyses created by others).

Reading and Interpreting the Documents

You need to closely read the selected documents to identify the themes and patterns that relate to your research question. This might involve content analysis (looking at what is explicitly stated) and discourse analysis (looking at what is implicitly stated or implied). You need to understand the context in which the document was created, the author’s purpose, and the audience’s perspective.

Coding and Categorizing the Data

After the initial reading, the data (text) can be broken down into smaller parts or “codes.” These codes can then be categorized based on their similarities and differences. This process of coding helps in organizing the data and identifying patterns or themes.

Analyzing the Data

Once the data is organized, it can be analyzed to make sense of it. This can involve comparing the data with existing theories, examining relationships between categories, or explaining the data in relation to the research question.

Validating the Findings

The researcher needs to ensure that the findings are accurate and credible. This might involve triangulating the data (comparing it with other sources or types of data), considering alternative explanations, or seeking feedback from others.

Reporting the Findings

The final step is to report the findings in a clear, structured way. This should include a description of the methods used, the findings, and the researcher’s interpretations and conclusions.

Applications of Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis is widely used across a variety of fields and disciplines due to its flexible and comprehensive nature. Here are some specific applications:

Historical Research

Documentary analysis is a fundamental method in historical research. Historians use documents to reconstruct past events, understand historical contexts, and interpret the motivations and actions of historical figures. Documents analyzed may include personal letters, diaries, official records, newspaper articles, photographs, and more.

Social Science Research

Sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists use documentary analysis to understand social phenomena, cultural practices, political events, and more. This might involve analyzing government policies, organizational records, media reports, social media posts, and other documents.

Legal Research

In law, documentary analysis is used in case analysis and statutory interpretation. Legal practitioners and scholars analyze court decisions, statutes, regulations, and other legal documents.

Business and Market Research

Companies often analyze documents to gather business intelligence, understand market trends, and make strategic decisions. This might involve analyzing competitor reports, industry news, market research studies, and more.

Media and Communication Studies

Scholars in these fields might analyze media content (e.g., news reports, advertisements, social media posts) to understand media narratives, public opinion, and communication practices.

Literary and Film Studies

In these fields, the “documents” might be novels, poems, films, or scripts. Scholars analyze these texts to interpret their meaning, understand their cultural context, and critique their form and content.

Educational Research

Educational researchers may analyze curricula, textbooks, lesson plans, and other educational documents to understand educational practices and policies.

Health Research

Health researchers may analyze medical records, health policies, clinical guidelines, and other documents to study health behaviors, healthcare delivery, and health outcomes.

Examples of Documentary Analysis

Some Examples of Documentary Analysis might be:

Example 1 : A historian studying the causes of World War I might analyze diplomatic correspondence, government records, newspaper articles, and personal diaries from the period leading up to the war.
Example 2 : A policy analyst trying to understand the impact of a new public health policy might analyze the policy document itself, as well as related government reports, statements from public health officials, and news media coverage of the policy.
Example 3 : A market researcher studying consumer trends might analyze social media posts, customer reviews, industry reports, and news articles related to the market they’re studying.
Example 4 : An education researcher might analyze curriculum documents, textbooks, and lesson plans to understand how a particular subject is being taught in schools. They might also analyze policy documents to understand the broader educational policy context.
Example 5 : A criminologist studying hate crimes might analyze police reports, court records, news reports, and social media posts to understand patterns in hate crimes, as well as societal and institutional responses to them.
Example 6 : A journalist writing a feature article on homelessness might analyze government reports on homelessness, policy documents related to housing and social services, news articles on homelessness, and social media posts from people experiencing homelessness.
Example 7 : A literary critic studying a particular author might analyze their novels, letters, interviews, and reviews of their work to gain insight into their themes, writing style, influences, and reception.

When to use Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis can be used in a variety of research contexts, including but not limited to:

When direct access to research subjects is limited : If you are unable to conduct interviews or observations due to geographical, logistical, or ethical constraints, documentary analysis can provide an alternative source of data.
When studying the past : Documents can provide a valuable window into historical events, cultures, and perspectives. This is particularly useful when the people involved in these events are no longer available for interviews or when physical evidence is lacking.
When corroborating other sources of data : If you have collected data through interviews, surveys, or observations, analyzing documents can provide additional evidence to support or challenge your findings. This process of triangulation can enhance the validity of your research.
When seeking to understand the context : Documents can provide background information that helps situate your research within a broader social, cultural, historical, or institutional context. This can be important for interpreting your other data and for making your research relevant to a wider audience.
When the documents are the focus of the research : In some cases, the documents themselves might be the subject of your research. For example, you might be studying how a particular topic is represented in the media, how an author’s work has evolved over time, or how a government policy was developed.
When resources are limited : Compared to methods like experiments or large-scale surveys, documentary analysis can often be conducted with relatively limited resources. It can be a particularly useful method for students, independent researchers, and others who are working with tight budgets.
When providing an audit trail for future researchers : Documents provide a record of events, decisions, or conditions at specific points in time. They can serve as an audit trail for future researchers who want to understand the circumstances surrounding a particular event or period.

Purpose of Documentary Analysis

The purpose of documentary analysis in research can be multifold. Here are some key reasons why a researcher might choose to use this method:

Understanding Context : Documents can provide rich contextual information about the period, environment, or culture under investigation. This can be especially useful for historical research, where the context is often key to understanding the events or trends being studied.
Direct Source of Data : Documents can serve as primary sources of data. For instance, a letter from a historical figure can give unique insights into their thoughts, feelings, and motivations. A company’s annual report can offer firsthand information about its performance and strategy.
Corroboration and Verification : Documentary analysis can be used to validate and cross-verify findings derived from other research methods. For example, if interviews suggest a particular outcome, relevant documents can be reviewed to confirm the accuracy of this finding.
Substituting for Other Methods : When access to the field or subjects is not possible due to various constraints (geographical, logistical, or ethical), documentary analysis can serve as an alternative to methods like observation or interviews.
Unobtrusive Method : Unlike some other research methods, documentary analysis doesn’t require interaction with subjects, and therefore doesn’t risk altering the behavior of those subjects.
Longitudinal Analysis : Documents can be used to study change over time. For example, a researcher might analyze census data from multiple decades to study demographic changes.
Providing Rich, Qualitative Data : Documents often provide qualitative data that can help researchers understand complex issues in depth. For example, a policy document might reveal not just the details of the policy, but also the underlying beliefs and attitudes that shaped it.

Advantages of Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis offers several advantages as a research method:

Unobtrusive : As a non-reactive method, documentary analysis does not require direct interaction with human subjects, which means that the research doesn’t affect or influence the subjects’ behavior.
Rich Historical and Contextual Data : Documents can provide a wealth of historical and contextual information. They allow researchers to examine events and perspectives from the past, even from periods long before modern research methods were established.
Efficiency and Accessibility : Many documents are readily accessible, especially with the proliferation of digital archives and databases. This accessibility can often make documentary analysis a more efficient method than others that require data collection from human subjects.
Cost-Effective : Compared to other methods, documentary analysis can be relatively inexpensive. It generally requires fewer resources than conducting experiments, surveys, or fieldwork.
Permanent Record : Documents provide a permanent record that can be reviewed multiple times. This allows for repeated analysis and verification of the data.
Versatility : A wide variety of documents can be analyzed, from historical texts to contemporary digital content, providing flexibility and applicability to a broad range of research questions and fields.
Ability to Cross-Verify (Triangulate) Data : Documentary analysis can be used alongside other methods as a means of triangulating data, thus adding validity and reliability to the research.

Limitations of Documentary Analysis

While documentary analysis offers several benefits as a research method, it also has its limitations. It’s important to keep these in mind when deciding to use documentary analysis and when interpreting your findings:

Authenticity : Not all documents are genuine, and sometimes it can be challenging to verify the authenticity of a document, particularly for historical research.
Bias and Subjectivity : All documents are products of their time and their authors. They may reflect personal, cultural, political, or institutional biases, and these biases can affect the information they contain and how it is presented.
Incomplete or Missing Information : Documents may not provide all the information you need for your research. There may be gaps in the record, or crucial information may have been omitted, intentionally or unintentionally.
Access and Availability : Not all documents are readily available for analysis. Some may be restricted due to privacy, confidentiality, or security considerations. Others may be difficult to locate or access, particularly historical documents that haven’t been digitized.
Interpretation : Interpreting documents, particularly historical ones, can be challenging. You need to understand the context in which the document was created, including the social, cultural, political, and personal factors that might have influenced its content.
Time-Consuming : While documentary analysis can be cost-effective, it can also be time-consuming, especially if you have a large number of documents to analyze or if the documents are lengthy or complex.
Lack of Control Over Data : Unlike methods where the researcher collects the data themselves (e.g., through experiments or surveys), with documentary analysis, you have no control over what data is available. You are reliant on what others have chosen to record and preserve.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

Cluster Analysis – Types, Methods and Examples

Discriminant Analysis – Methods, Types and...

MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) –...

ANOVA (Analysis of variance) – Formulas, Types...

Graphical Methods – Types, Examples and Guide

Substantive Framework – Types, Methods and...

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

About Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
Secondhand Smoke
E-cigarettes (Vapes)
Menthol Tobacco Products
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR)
About Surveys
Other Tobacco Products
Smoking and Tobacco Use Features
Patient Care Settings and Smoking Cessation
Patient Care
Funding Opportunity Announcements
State and Community Work
National and State Tobacco Control Program
Multimedia and Tools
Tobacco - Health Equity
Tobacco - Surgeon General's Reports
State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System
Global Tobacco Control

E-Cigarette Use Among Youth

What to know.

E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth. No tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, are safe, especially for children, teens, and young adults. Learn more about e-cigarette use among youth.

In the United States, youth use e-cigarettes, or vapes, more than any other tobacco product. 1
No tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, are safe, especially for children, teens, and young adults. 2
Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine can harm the parts of an adolescent's brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. 2
E-cigarette marketing, the availability of flavored products, social influences, and the effects of nicotine can influence youth to start or continue vaping. 3 4
Most middle and high school students who vape want to quit. 5
Many people have an important role in protecting youth from vaping including parents and caregivers, educators and school administrators, health care providers, and community partners.
States and local communities can implement evidence-based policies, programs, and services to reduce youth vaping.

E-cigarette use among U.S. youth

In 2023, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among middle and high school students in the United States. In 2023: 6

550,000 (4.6%) middle school students.
1.56 million (10.0%) high school students.
Among students who had ever used e-cigarettes, 46.7% reported current e-cigarette use.
1 in 4 (25.2%) used an e-cigarette every day.
1 in 3 (34.7%) used an e-cigarette on at least 20 of the last 30 days.
9 in 10 (89.4%) used flavored e-cigarettes.
Most often used disposable e-cigarettes (60.7%) followed by e-cigarettes with prefilled or refillable pods or cartridges (16.1%).
Most commonly reported using the following brands: Elf Bar, Esco Bars, Vuse, JUUL, and Mr. Fog.

Most middle and high school students who vape want to quit and have tried to quit. 5 In 2020:

63.9% of students who currently used e-cigarettes reported wanting to quit.
67.4% of students who currently used e-cigarettes reported trying to quit in the last year.

Most tobacco use, including vaping, starts and is established during adolescence. There are many factors associated with youth tobacco product use . These include:

Tobacco advertising that targets youth.
Product accessibility.
Availability of flavored products.
Social influences.
Adolescent brain sensitivity to nicotine.

Some groups of middle and high school students use e-cigarettes at a higher percentage than others. For example, in 2023: 6

More females than males reported current e-cigarette use.
Non-Hispanic multiracial students: 20.8%.
Non-Hispanic White students: 18.4%.
Hispanic or Latino students: 18.2%.
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native students: 15.4%.
Non-Hispanic Black or African American students: 12.9%.

Many young people who vape also use other tobacco products, including cigarettes and cigars. 7 This is called dual use. In 2020: 8

About one in three high school students (36.8%) who vaped also used other tobacco products.
One in two middle school students (49.0%) who vaped also used other tobacco products.

E-cigarettes can also be used to deliver other substances, including cannabis. In 2016, nearly one in three (30.6%) of U.S. middle and high school students who had ever used an e-cigarette reported using marijuana in the device. 9

Park-Lee E, Ren C, Cooper M, Cornelius M, Jamal A, Cullen KA. Tobacco product use among middle and high school students—United States, 2022 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;71:1429–1435.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. E-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2016. Accessed Feb 14, 2024.
Apelberg BJ, Corey CG, Hoffman AC, et al. Symptoms of tobacco dependence among middle and high school tobacco users: results from the 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey . Am J Prev Med. 2014;47(Suppl 1):S4–14.
Gentzke AS, Wang TW, Cornelius M, et al. Tobacco product use and associated factors among middle and high school students—National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021 . MMWR Surveill Summ. 2022;71(No. SS-5):1–29.
Zhang L, Gentzke A, Trivers KF, VanFrank B. Tobacco cessation behaviors among U.S. middle and high school students, 2020 . J Adolesc Health. 2022;70(1):147–154.
Birdsey J, Cornelius M, Jamal A, et al. Tobacco product use among U.S. middle and high school students—National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2023 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023;72:1173–1182.
Wang TW, Gentzke AS, Creamer MR, et al. Tobacco product use and associated factors among middle and high school students—United States, 2019 . MMWR Surveill Summ. 2019;68(No. SS-12):1–22.
Wang TW, Gentzke AS, Neff LJ, et al. Characteristics of e-cigarette use behaviors among US youth, 2020 . JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(6):e2111336.
Trivers KF, Phillips E, Gentzke AS, Tynan MA, Neff LJ. Prevalence of cannabis use in electronic cigarettes among U.S. youth . JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172(11):1097–1099.

Smoking and Tobacco Use

Commercial tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.

For Everyone

Health care providers, public health.

IMAGES

Documentary Research Examples
FREE 11+ Documentary Research Templates in PDF
Documentary Film Analysis Sample
Documentary Review
Documentary Research
Movie Review Outline

VIDEO

Choosing a Documentary Topic
Introduction to documentary research
Keyword Research & PDF submission task
New quantum computers
The Making of 'Rocky' documentary [Director's Commentary]
ICSSR PDF 2023-24| Post Doctoral Fellowship| PDF Application Form| Social Science Research|

COMMENTS

(PDF) Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method
This article examines the function of documents as a data source in qualitative research and discusses document analysis procedure in the context of actual research experiences. Targeted to ...
Conducting a Qualitative Document Analysis
Unfortunately, the literature on documentary research is scant (Tight, 2019). In this paper, I offer information designed to close the gap in the literature on conducting a qualitative document analysis and discuss the advantages and limitations of using pre-existing texts as a source of data. I also offer strategies for selecting documents and ...
(PDF) Documentary Research Method: New Dimensions
The documentary. research method is used in investigating and cat egorizing physical sources, most commonly written. documents, whether in the private or public domain (Payne and Payne 2004). This ...
PDF DOCUMENTS AND DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH
ties and advantages associated with undertaking documentary research. It then discusses the use of documentary research as the main approach or as part (i.e. alongside other approaches or techniques) of a research project, and the purpose and usage of documents. Understanding something of the nature and variety of documents is key to being able to
PDF Qualitative Research Journal
In relation to other qualitative research methods, document analysis has both advantages and limitations. Let us look first at the advantages. Efficient method: Document analysis is less time-consuming and therefore more efficient than other research methods. It requires data selection, instead of data collection.
PDF Policy Document Analysis: A Practical Educational Leadership Tool and a
Advantages of documentary analysis. As a research method documentary analysis recommends itself to many qu-alitative researchers as straightforward, efficient, cost-effective and manageable. Its major advantage is the availability of documents, usually at little or no cost to the researcher. By working with documentary data rather than data ...
Document Analysis
The origins of document analysis as a social science research method can be traced back to Goode and Hatt (), who recommended that scholars screen, count, and code documents content and use it as appropriate evidence.Later, Glaser and Strauss argued that documents should be considered in social investigation similar to "anthropologist's informant or a sociologist's interviewee" (p. 163).
Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach
Document analysis (also called document review) is one of the most commonly used methods in health policy research; it is nearly impossible to conduct policy research without it. Writing in early 20th century, Weber (2015) identified the importance of formal, written documents as a key characteristic of the bureaucracies by which modern ...
Documentary Analysis Within a Realist Evaluation: Recommendations From
However, a recent review discovered a lack of common understanding of the term, heterogeneous perspectives and diverse reference literature ... As part of a wider, theory-driven research programme, the documentary analysis provided an understanding of formal, organisational structures and processes. ... (sj-pdf-1-ijq-10.1177_16094069211047818 ...
PDF SSOAR
SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository - SSOAR
(PDF) Reviews and Documentary Research Methods in a
1. Reviews and Documentary Research Methods i n a. Scientific Article: Brief Reports. Dr Wilfredo Molina Wills. DDS, MSc,MShr, PHD. Researcher at the University Latina of Panamá. Abstract. There ...
PDF Documentary analysis
Documentary analysis. You may be expected to analyse documents as part of an assignment for a module, or as part of an independent research project like a dissertation. In the case of an assignment, you might be given only a part of a document. Similarly, in the case of an independent research project you may sample parts of documents.
PDF 1
It is a matter of questioning the subject in all its dimensions, formulating it in a short sentence, selecting important concepts and looking for synonyms. This step allows you to set the issue, identify documentary needs and select the key concepts/words in order to question your sources. 1 - Define the topic.
Moving images, Moving Methods: Advancing Documentary Film for
This article describes and advances the methodological process of using documentary film as a strategy for qualitative inquiry. Insights are drawn from a multimedia study that explored Inuit-caribou relationships in Labrador, Canada, through the co-production of community-based, research-oriented, participatory documentary film work.
Document Review as a Qualitative Research Data Collection Method for
DOI: 10.4135/9781473957435 Corpus ID: 63132407; Document Review as a Qualitative Research Data Collection Method for Teacher Research @inproceedings{Bretschneider2017DocumentRA, title={Document Review as a Qualitative Research Data Collection Method for Teacher Research}, author={Pamela J. Bretschneider and Stefanie Cirilli and Tracey Jones and Shannon Lynch and Natalie Wilson}, year={2017 ...
"Conducting a Qualitative Document Analysis" by Hani Morgan
Document analysis has been an underused approach to qualitative research. This approach can be valuable for various reasons. When used to analyze pre-existing texts, this method allows researchers to conduct studies they might otherwise not be able to complete. Some researchers may not have the resources or time needed to do field research. Although videoconferencing technology and other types ...
PDF The Use of Documentary Research Methods in Social Research
A document is an artefact which has as its central feature an inscribed text (Scott 1990). Simply put, a document is a written text. Documents are produced by individuals and groups in the course of their everyday practices and are geared exclusively for their own immediate practical needs (Scott op cit.).
Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach
Document analysis (also called document review) is one of the most commonly used methods in health policy research; it is nearly impossible to conduct policy research without it. Writing in early 20th century, Weber (2015) identified the importance of formal, written documents as a key characteristic of the bureaucracies by which modern ...
Documentary Analysis
Documentary Analysis. Definition: Documentary analysis, also referred to as document analysis, is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents.This method involves a detailed review of the documents to extract themes or patterns relevant to the research topic.. Documents used in this type of analysis can include a wide variety of materials such as text (words) and images that ...
PDF Evaluation Briefs No 18
data gleaned from your document reviews. You may want to include on the form the type of document you are reviewing; a way to reference each document; and information that answers each applicable evaluation question. You will use the form to help you compile and analyze your evaluation findings. What are the advantages of document review?
Conducting a Qualitative Document Analysis
Request full-text PDF. To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author. ... The document review helped with the public health policy analysis to understand ...
PDF Documentary Movie Reviews
In our non-traditional writing guide, we ask you questions that allow your writing to take. shape rather than forcing strict guidelines upon you. Keeping in mind that all writing standards. are shaped and constantly changed by society, we understand the frustration when the. "standard" form of a genre just does not fit what you need to write.
The application of starch-based edible film in food preservation: a
Starch has been a hot topic in the field of current research because of its low cost, wide source and good film forming property. However, a comprehensive review in this field is still lacking. Starch-based films offer a promising alternative for sustainable packaging in the food industry.
(PDF) The Use of Documentary Research Methods in Social Research
documentary methods refers to the analysis of documents that contain infor -. mation about the phenomenon we wish to study (Bailey 1994). Payne and. Payne (2004) describe the documentary method as ...
E-Cigarette Use Among Youth
Overview. In the United States, youth use e-cigarettes, or vapes, more than any other tobacco product. 1. No tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, are safe, especially for children, teens, and young adults. 2. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine can harm the parts of an adolescent's brain that control ...

Document Analysis

Cite this chapter

Access this chapter

Similar content being viewed by others

Qualitative Text Analysis: A Systematic Approach

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis: A Guide for Beginners

Qualitative Content Analysis: Theoretical Background and Procedures

Additional Reading

Online Resources

Author information

Corresponding author

Editor information

Rights and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Download citation

Share this chapter

Article Contents

Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach

Step 1. Ready your materials

Step 2. Extract data

Step 3. Analyse data

Step 4. Distil your findings

Supplementary data

Affiliations

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach

Hina Khalid

Shannon A McMahon

Associated Data

Key Messages

Introduction

What is document analysis?

The READ approach

Step 1. Ready your materials

Step 2. Extract data

Step 3. Analyse data

Step 4. Distil your findings

Supplementary Data

Supplementary Material

Documentary Analysis – Methods, Applications and Examples

Documentary Analysis

Documentary Analysis Methods

Defining the Research Question

Selecting the Documents

Reading and Interpreting the Documents

Coding and Categorizing the Data

Analyzing the Data

Validating the Findings

Reporting the Findings

Applications of Documentary Analysis

Examples of Documentary Analysis

When to use Documentary Analysis

Purpose of Documentary Analysis

Advantages of Documentary Analysis

Limitations of Documentary Analysis

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

You may also like

Cluster Analysis – Types, Methods and Examples

Discriminant Analysis – Methods, Types and...

MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) –...

ANOVA (Analysis of variance) – Formulas, Types...

Graphical Methods – Types, Examples and Guide

Substantive Framework – Types, Methods and...

E-Cigarette Use Among Youth

E-cigarette use among U.S. youth

Smoking and Tobacco Use

For Everyone

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS