Research Methods and Applications for Student Affairs

Chapter SixReviewing Documents

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Understand the purpose and role of document review.
• Differentiate between the major types of document review.
• Read document review results in journal articles and reports.
• Evaluate document review results based on data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Apply interpretations of document review methods to student affairs practice.

Document review involves examining existing information, inclusive of documents, records, or artifacts in text, visual, or mixed formats. In addition to analyzing words or images, researchers also are concerned with the presentation of materials, which can include authorship, context, medium, and format. Document ...