Documentary research is a type of research that uses primary sources, that is, data and information that have not yet been treated scientifically or analytically. Documentary research has specific objectives and can be a rich complement to bibliographic research.
The analyzed documents can be current or old, and can be used for contextualization historical, cultural, social and economic of a place or group of people, at a given time of the story. For this reason, it is a type of research that is widely used in the social and human sciences.
Documentary research allows for qualitative analysis of a given phenomenon, but it is also It is possible to perform quantitative analysis, when analyzing databases with numerical information, by example.
The sources of document research
Documentary research uses primary data, that is, data in its original source. This means that there was no analysis of the information.
Let's assume that you want to analyze the evolution of public health services offered in your municipality over the last few years. For this, you will consult the reports, laws, opinions, minutes and any other type of record of the city hall and competent bodies - these are examples of primary sources.
One of the very important precautions when doing document research is the source reliability. For the research results to be satisfactory and consistent with reality, it is essential that the information used is true.
The types of documents used in document research vary, they can be reports, tables, photos, videos, letters, speeches, etc. When collecting all documents that can be used in a survey, the volume of data can be high, therefore, it is necessary to establish what the objectives are in analyzing such documents and filtering what is more important.
Purpose of a desk research
Documentary research is widely used in social and human sciences because it is a technique that seeks, through the interpretation of data and information, understand a reality or phenomenon. The researcher, when establishing a research problem, that is, a question that he intends to answer, will use documents to find answers.
The challenge of document research lies in the researcher's analytical capacity to understand and interpret data in a coherent manner and, from its analysis, reach significant conclusions that can contribute to answer the initial questions of the research.
Stages of a document research
Documentary research basically consists of three steps: a pre-analysis, organization of documents and analysis of results.
| Pre-analysis | Definition of objectives and sources to be used and creation of hypotheses |
|---|---|
| Organization | Organization and classification of documents according to categories |
| Analyze | Interpretation of data and conclusions |
Document research steps
at the stage of pre-analysis, the researcher will define the objectives of the documentary research, that is, which questions he intends to answer based on data analysis. At this stage, it is possible to develop hypotheses to be confirmed or discarded throughout the research.
the phase of organization is intended to facilitate the interpretation of data, especially when the volume of information is high. At this point, it is interesting to define categories that are relevant to the objectives of the work and even create documentary sheets to record the findings about each material analyzed.
With all the sources organized and sorted, it's time to make the information analysis. Data interpretations will confirm or reject the defined hypotheses and contribute to the solution of the research problem.
Although very important, document analysis alone can have limited results. Associating documentary research with bibliographic research, for example, is essential for the results obtained from the analysis of the documents, be compared with similar phenomena already studied by others researchers.
Difference between documentary research and bibliographic research
Documentary research differs from bibliographic research by the type of research source. Documentary research analyzes documents such as government data, reports and publications by public or private bodies, statistics, etc. In this case, the information has not yet been analyzed by a researcher, that is, they are primary sources.
Through documentary research, we seek to analyze a phenomenon in a given time and space.
The bibliographical research is based on academic works, such as scientific articles, theses and dissertations. These are topics that have already been studied and about which some answers have already been obtained, therefore they are secondary sources. When using this type of research, one seeks to solve a problem based on the results already obtained by other researchers.
Bibliographic research is important for understanding the theories already developed on a given subject.
See also the meaning of bibliographic research, types of research and how to make the methodology for the TCC.
