Documentary Study

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
A major source of data is the
analysis of documents and
written materials that contain
information about the
phenomena we wish to study.
Document Study

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
However, solicitation of
documents specifically for
research purpose is relatively
rare, because if the subject is
present it is deemed preferable
to conduct a survey, experiment,
or observational study.
Document Study

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
1. In accessible Subjects
2. Longitudinal Analysis
3. Sample Size
4. Low Cost
5. High quality
Advantages of Document Study
It allows research on subjects does not have physical access
and there are no alternative data collection methods.
The researcher cannot go back in time to observe or survey.
Survey of old people may be used but it has some errors.
There are no problems in drawing a big number of samples
to have much more faith in results.
Inexpensive compared to large scale survey especially when
the documents are gathered from specific location.
When the documents are written by skilled professionals
will be valuable more than emailed questionnaire.

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
1. Bias
2. Selective Survival
3. Incompleteness
4. Lack of Availability
5. Limited to Verbal Behavior
6. Lack of Standard Format
7. Coding Difficulties
Disadvantages of Document Study

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
Types of Document
Study
Unstructured
Personal Documents
Non Quantitative
Structured
Content Analysis
Quantitative

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
• The basic goal of Content
Analysis is to take a verbal,
non-quantitative document
and transform it into
quantitative data.
• The Results of Content
Analysis can generally be
presented in tables containing
frequencies and percentages.
Content Analysis

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UD 614 - Urban Design
Research Methods
Lecture (7)
Non-Survey Research Methods
Content Analysis Five Steps
1
• Draw a sample of documents.
2
• Define the content of categories.
3
• Define the recording unit.
4
• Define the context unit.
5
• Define the system of enumeration.

9. Reference:
• Bailey, K., (1987), “Methods of Social Research”, 3rd ed., The Free Press,
NewYork.