Qualitative research methodology for document analysis and case studies

¶ … collecting data to answer the research questions and achieve the research objectives. Qualitative and quantitative techniques are the major method to collect data for a research purpose; however, qualitative research is the method of inquiry to answer the research question using the tools such as document analysis, case studies and interview.

This study will use a qualitative research as the method of data collection using the document analysis tool and case studies. A document analysis is a form of qualitative research that focuses on a systematic reviewing and evaluating of document using an analytical method to extract information pertaining to the research objective. Using the document analysis, the researcher will evaluate and interpret the data to enhance a research understanding and develops an empirical knowledge from the analysis.

In essence, document can contain text, and image. However, the study will collect a rich and quality document from academic journals, academic books, research articles, and government and private publications. In essence, the researcher will collect these data from quality academic database such as Science Direct, Sage Publication, Emerald Insight and EBSCOhost Research Databases. These online databases contain rich and quality peer-reviewed journal and articles that can be used to complete the proposal.

The study compares the qualitative and quantitative research to enhance a greater understanding on the motive behind collecting data using a qualitative research.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

This study will use the qualitative research to compete the proposal, which involves the combination of document analysis and case studies for the method of data collection. The goal of qualitative research is to assist a researcher in immersing in the phenomenon to achieve a research objective. In essence, qualitative research uses interview, document analysis, observation and case studies to enhance a greater understanding about a research. The strength of qualitative research is its ability to deliver a complex description of research issue. Moreover, the qualitative research assists in gaining understanding of a specific social phenomenon and context. Other strength of qualitative research is that it assists the researcher to use open-minded questions to probe into the phenomenon. Using this strategy, the study is able to collect rich and explanatory data concerning the research study.

Contrarily, quantitative research uses number and statistical method to test the hypothesis. The quantitative research uses the survey method for data collection and uses different statistical tools for data analysis. The strength of quantitative research is that it assists in validating the theories to enhance a greater understanding of how a phenomenon occurs. Moreover, the quantitative research can be used to test hypothesis. The data collection and analysis using the quantitative technique is relatively quick and is ideal for a researcher with a limited budget. Moreover, a study using a quantitative research is independent of researcher influence because of its statistical significant involved.

Despite the benefits to be derived from the quantitative research, the shortcoming of quantitative research is that the research category might not reflect the research focus. Moreover, the knowledge produced using quantitative research might be too abstract to deliver a direct application to specific context.

The identified shortcomings of the quantitative research make this study to use the qualitative technique to complete this research. In essence, the qualitative research will assist in conducting a cross analysis and comparison of the case studies and document collected to complete the studies. Moreover, the qualitative research will assist in delivering a rich and detailed phenomenal suited for the study. Additionally, the qualitative research will assist in collecting data from the natural settings, which will assist in meeting the stakeholders' needs. Despite the benefits to be derived from qualitative research, the qualitative is more time consuming than quantitative research because the researcher will need to transcribe and coding the data after they have been collected. All these processes consume time.

Evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative research reveals that qualitative research will be appropriate for this study as a method of data collection. Typically, quantitative research will not be appropriate as a method of data collection for this study. Using the document analysis as a tool for the qualitative research, the study will be able to evaluate large volume of data and extract meaningful concepts from the data that will assist in answering the following research question:

"What changes that can be employed from the existing legal regimes which may improve the incentive of making the law more effective in preserving peace?"

Glenn. (2009) points out that "document analysis involves skimming (superficial examination), reading (thorough examination), and interpretation. This iterative process combines elements of content analysis and thematic analysis. Content analysis is the process of organizing information into categories related to the central questions of the research." (p 32).

In essence, the researcher will also use the thematic analysis by carefully reviewing and re-reading the data. The researcher will review the data collected and uncover themes emerged from the data.

Moreover, the study will use the case studies approach as a method of data collection. The case studies involve the analysis of several cases unique to this study and cases will be selected based on their relevance to the study and their quality. Case studies use the real life context to investigate the phenomenon, the study will select cases based on their relevance to the research studies, and knowledge derived from the case will assist in answering the research questions. The rationales for choosing the document analysis and case studies as methods of data collection are as follows:

First, the document analysis will be used with the combination of case studies as a strategy for triangulation. Using the case studies and document analysis, the researcher will draw evidences that will provide the research credibility. Based on the analysis of data collected from different methods, the research will be able to reduce impact of bias in the research thereby providing credibility, and validity of the research findings.

One of the benefits of using document analysis and case studies is that they are cost effective and consume lesser time than other research methods. In essence, other researchers have already collected the data, and what remains to be done with the data is the evaluation and analysis of the document.

Availability is the other benefit of the document analysis and case studies. In essence, the researcher will be able to access large volume of data from the online academic database that contains million of quality research articles that will assist in completing this study. Moreover, the researcher will be able to access the large volume of document from the government publications that are readily available in the government database.

Despite the benefits to be derived from the document analysis and case studies, care must taken when selecting the documents for the analysis. While online academic databases contain quality data to complete the research, however, these databases may also contain articles that are irrelevant to the study. Thus, the researcher should use keywords relevant to the research in order to extract relevant and quality data to complete the study. Moreover, the researcher should focus on the peer-reviewed articles that have already been reviewed and evaluated by the experts in the field before being accepted for the publication.