Table 2.

Questions to ask your overall body of documents

When analysing individual documents: Is the document complete? Is this a finished document, or a draft? What is the purpose of the document? Who is its target audience? Under which circumstances was the document produced? Under which circumstances is it consumed? Who created the document? Aside from the listed authors, what other contributors were likely involved in its creation? What could be the ‘agenda’ of the document’s creators? Are there other versions of the document? Why? How might they differ? Are there internal contradictions within the document (e.g. differing rationales or framings)? Is the document credible? Do you have any questions about its accuracy, good faith, balance, selective reasoning, etc.? What sources are cited (or not cited)? What kind of evidence does it use?

When analysing the overall body of documents:   How complete is the set of documents? What is missing? Which documents were easy to find? Which were harder to find? Which proved impossible to find? Why might this be the case? Which voices are represented in the overall body of documents? Which are not? How do the documents compare in terms of content? How do they compare in terms of style, format, length and ‘look’? How about in terms of formality and tone? What visual information can you find in the documents (charts and graphs, pictures, etc.)? How are the same issues discussed in different ways across documents? Do the documents ‘speak to each other’? Do they reference each other, or respond to each other’s arguments or propositions? Are they responding to other documents not included in the review? How are documents similar or different across different topic areas, types of document or governance levels (e.g. global, national, sub-national)? How does the information from documents compare to data from other data sources (e.g. interviews, focus groups, observation, quantitative analyses)?