Conventional texts on research methods research have a tendency to provide acontextual prescriptive accounts of how research should be carried out. The authors of this paper have recently compiled an edited collection of accounts of how qualitative research was carried out in a variety of social...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to outline the development of academic research in the discipline of accounting, paying particular attention to the important contribution made by qualitative research projects. Design/methodology/approach – Provision of a historical trajectory based on...

1. Introduction -- 2. Philosophical underpinnings -- 3. Components of text in documents -- 4. Collection and compilation of text in documentary research -- 5. Examples of published studies using documentary evidence -- 6. Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendix: Sources of documents -- Index.