Documentation as Evidence

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Documentation can be categorized as written, audio, or visual. Written documentation may include media or government reports; minutes, policies, or other procedural documents; letters; memos; and diaries. Documentation may also be auditory, consisting of interviews, videos, and radio and television scripts. Visual artifacts include photographs; maps; and material resources such as tools, instruments, and everyday utensils.

Documentation can be further classified according to accessibility and origins. Open documentation is accessible to the general public, usually through archival repositories or publications. Open documents may include correspondence, minutes of meetings, reports, and committee papers. In some cases, however, repositories may restrict conditions of access. Information from medical and personnel records is often protected by restricted access because they can present the researcher with ethical concerns. “Restricted” designations often require researchers to use pseudonyms or to aggregate findings to maintain individuals' privacy. [Page 321]Closed documentation is usually accessible to only a small number of people who tend to be the originators of the material. This category pertains particularly to nonarchived items residing in familial collections.

Documentation can be categorized as official, personal, or popular culture with respect to origins. Official documents are generally produced by organizations for communications or record-keeping purposes. The most commonly recognized of these are research and discussion papers published by the organization as well as day-to-day correspondence (memos, letters, files). These are usually easily accessible because they tend to be archived in repositories approximately two decades after their creation. For items that have not yet reached the 20-year mark, researchers are required to apply to the organization of origin for access under freedom of information legislation.

Personal documentation includes items generated for personal reasons (letters, diaries, family albums and genealogies). Such evidence is among the most difficult to obtain because it is privately owned. Popular culture documents are generally used for commercial purposes, including television and radio programming, such as commercials, photographs, and other objects. Obtaining access to these items requires compliance with relevant copyright laws. One of the key considerations when working with popular culture is to limit the vastness of the materials available to ensure they are manageable yet still representative.

For qualitative researchers, there are many advantages to collecting documentation as evidence. Most important, documentation enables the researcher to examine phenomena in naturally occurring, contextualized settings. Documentation can be transported and/or copied, facilitating analysis and the production of enduring records. One of the difficulties of undertaking research in which data are generated (e.g., surveys and experiments) is the potential impact of the researcher on a study's participants. Researchers working with existing (pre-study) documentation avoid the possibility of overly influencing a study's participants.

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