Application of the document analysis method in the social sciences

Abstract

The subject of the article is the operational method for data collection –the method of document analysis, its techniques and instruments, above all, the code of terms and codes and the record form without which there is no application of this method in scientific research.The aim of this article is to present the results of many years of research by the author on the method of document content analysis with a focus on the problems of defining, origin, development and types of document content analysis methods, instruments of this method, their role and functions in scientificresearch and the relationship of the instruments of this method to other parts of the scientific idea of the research project.Hypothesis: The method of document content analysis is an operational scientific method for data collection because it meets theessential and sufficient conditions related to the subject of knowledge –the content side of science, the way of knowledge –the methodological side of science and the truthfulness of knowledge –the essential side of science.Conclusions: The research results in this paper have fully confirmed the initial hypothetical assumption that the method of document content analysis meets the essential and sufficient conditions related to the subject, manner and truthfulness of knowledge obtained by consistent application of this method in scientific research. This confirms the knowledge about the unacceptable, artificial division of this operational scientific method for data collection into qualitative –non –frequency and quantitative –frequency analysis technique. The research has shown that these two techniques of document content analysis methods form a dialectical unity, that there is no strict division between them and that they are essentially two aspects, ie two approaches to document analysis that complement and combine each other in research. In scientific research, quantitative analysis is an extended form of qualitative analysis, because quantity appears as an expression and as an statement of a certain quality. Keywords: document analysis method, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, code of terms, code of codes, record form.