The Study hired Response Analysis Corporation to survey academic historians, genealogists, legal scholars, paid and volunteer staffs at historic sites and museums, and public historians about their training, research conditions, libraries, and preferred sources.
Researchers rely on editorial scholarship to expand the horizons of their own work.
Editions emanate from many institutions and individuals and make up a significant portion of current historical publishing. Within historical societies and agencies around the country, directors of publications affirm their commitment to the production of editions. The survey's data defined contexts within which researchers of history turn to edited and published sources. According to all variety of researchers responding to the Historical Documents Study's survey, the difficulties and cost of traveling to the sources posed the greatest obstacle to their research. Because they often could not travel, they relied on books, journals, microfilms, delivered through interlibrary loan or electronic systems, to access primary sources.