Online Qualitative Data Sources for Federal Regulatory Policy Studies

Abstract

Although policy studies frequently focus on legislation, researchers should not overlook the importance of regulations in their analyses. This article introduces policy researchers to a variety of online data sources available for studying federal regulatory policy. Sources range from electronic versions of federal periodicals to online repositories of public comments to more interactive Internet resources, all of which provide rich data for understanding regulatory policy. This article also explores how qualitative methodologists have conceptualized online research methods and provides a template for an online data source research protocol that may be useful for policy researchers. Finally, this article uses the U.S. Department of Education’s Borrower Defense Rule as an application case to illustrate how to make use of online data sources in regulatory policy studies.