Research methods — documentary, empirical and survey method

A court can be asked to accept a Law Commission report built on a nationwide survey, an NGO study built on interviews, or a historian's argument built entirely on old records and registers. Each rests on a different research method, and each earns a different kind and weight of trust. Knowing what documentary, empirical and survey methods actually involve helps you weigh evidence rather than accept it on the strength of its confidence alone.

In two minutes

Documentary, empirical and survey methods are three broad approaches to gathering social research data — documentary method works from existing records and texts, empirical method is grounded directly in observed fact and firsthand data, and survey method systematically collects information from a defined sample of people, usually through a questionnaire or interview.

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