Using Documents
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Some understanding of the use of documentary and related sources is highly relevant in three main ways. First, they form a major source of data in social research. This type of source is often played down, perhaps because, since it is shared with a number of other disciplines, it may not seem quite so distinctive of the social sciences as data generated through questionnaires, surveys or experiments. However, social researchers have, in fact, built extensively on the existence of such sources as government reports, official and unofficial records, private papers, and statistical collections. As with the other forms of information gathering discussed in this book, these sources have both advantages and limitations, and they can be used well or badly. Secondly, the use of existing sources comes in at various stages of the research process (in so far, that is, as these stages are separable). One phase is that of the preliminary ‘literature search’. This usually comes near the start of any research endeavour and so is not highlighted in this chapter, which is concerned primarily with the phase of ‘data collection and construction’. However, there is frequently some overlap between these phases, if only because existing sources are not only a source of data for producing research findings in the first place, but are also commonly used for their criticism, or for further
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