Types of social science publications

This section covers:

Social science reports

Government reports are available to the public in many areas related to the social sciences. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes reports on a variety of topics informed by its data collection and analysis. These cover straight reporting of statistics (eg the Australian economy and population), as well as broader topics (eg the gap in health and education outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people versus the Australian population as a whole).

High-quality reports on social science topics:

  • provide reliable and important data on topics that affect Australian life, and extrapolate qualitative conclusions from quantitative information; these reports are strongly grounded in quantitative data
  • collect data from diverse sources and synthesise the data into a thematic whole to form new ideas
  • contain careful definitions, including concrete terms (eg a child in need of protection, current partner) as well as abstract terms (eg fear, elder abuse)
  • cite diverse references and sources for data, from the author’s own organisation, other organisations, academic studies and international sources
  • describe the steps needed to deal with the issues identified by the report.

See Books and reports for more information on writing and structuring such publications. See also Journal publications and laboratory reports for information on structuring a document to report experimental findings. The format and presentation of laboratory reports to be written by psychology students are set by the American Psychological Association.

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Journal publications and essays for social science

Academic essays in the social sciences follow the typical structure for this kind of document: an introduction, followed by the body of the paper that expounds the arguments with examples and/or numerical data, a conclusion, and a reference list.

High-level structures for social sciences essays include varied evaluative and analytical structures, such as:

  • compare and contrast
  • cause and effect
  • problem and solution.

Organising principles within these structures include:

  • a chronological or developmental structure (ordered by the time when the events occurred)
  • a chain structure (making each point in order, and dealing with it in full before moving to the next point – for example, identifying a problem and a solution, then moving to the next problem and its solution, and so forth)
  • a block structure (making points in 2 blocks – all of the problems, then all of the solutions; or all of the causes, then all of the effects).

See Journal articles for more information on developing such publications.

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Social science case studies

One important vehicle for social sciences writing is the case study. This is an in-depth analysis of a ‘case’ subject over a defined period of time. A case can include a person, group, community, defined event or specific period.

The subjects of case studies are proxies for a larger population and allow the writer to illustrate ideas through the vehicle of a story. The assumption that they can be generalised to the larger population can be a weakness of the case study approach, and the writing must deal with this.

Case studies can use both qualitative and quantitative evidence. Several cases can be combined to layer the analysis (eg several students from one class, studied as individuals and as a whole unit).

See Accurate language for more information about evidence types.

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