Documentary research in the social sciences, by Malcolm Tight [Book review]

Abstract

Documentary research is ubiquitous within the social sciences. Most social research, whether qualitative or quantitative, involves documents, coupled with practices with those documents, during its unfolding. Endemic within the social sciences, documentary research “differs from other forms of research in that the objects of research (the data) exist already (in the form of documents). However, the processes involved in carrying out documentary research are analogous to, and should be just as rigorous as, those employed in other forms of social research” (Tight, 2019, p. 19). There are, in fact, many forms of social research and practices that depend heavily or exclusively on documentary research, such as library and archival science, historical research, policy research and analysis, literature and systematic reviews, secondary data analysis, and meta-analyses. [excerpt]