The potential of archival methods in industrial relations, sociology of work, management and HRM research: a case study of the relationship between temporary employment agencies and the state in the UK during the 1980s

Figures & data

Table 1. Archival methods in papers in selected journals in sociology of work, industrial relations, management and HRM, 1990–1999, and 2010–2019.

Journal	Number of original articles (and proportion of all published papers in journal) using archival methods 1990–1999	Number of original articles (and proportion of all published papers in journal) using archival methods 2010–2019	N (Total papers published in journal) (1990–1999)	N (Total papers published in journal) (2010–2019)
Work, Employment and Society	21 (9%)	37 (7%)	226	528
Work and Occupations	12 (7%)	8 (5%)	172	160
British Journal of Industrial Relations	14 (5%)	29 (9%)	269	341
Journal of Industrial Relations	25 (10%)	27 (8%)	262	349
Journal of Management Studies	28 (8%)	34 (7%)	330	473
Academy of Management Journal	13 (3%)	23 (3%)	402	732
Human Resource Management Journal	9 (5%)	19 (6%)	189* (1994–1999 only)	308
Human Resource Management	11 (4%)	27 (5%)	275	499

Notes: Content analysis of published original articles, compiled via searches of full text, titles and abstracts on Journal homepages, ProQuest and Web of Science. To identify papers using archival methods, searches used terms ‘archiv*, ‘historical’ and ‘documentary’, with inspection of full-text of papers returned to confirm whether archival methods and data were used. Paper classified as using archival methods if any or all of the research strategy involved the analysis of archival documents.