For certain fields in liberal arts (History, English, Philosophy, and other Humanities research fields), data may be thought of as primary source material, contrasted by the secondary sources that typically provide an analysis on either historical items or written works. In some cases, that may look more quantitative, but other components of this data may include written works that researchers analyze or even an examination of objects in the realm of historical research. In any case, data is as practical in these fields as for those in the hard sciences.
One of the most common forms of data found in these disciplines in qualitative data. Researchers in these fields often look to examine texts and try to find common themes. A process known as coding allows researchers to identify trends or themes from that type of data, such as examining the prevalence of certain words in a large document or synthesizing commonalities in multiple texts (i.e., open-ended survey questions or an author's collection of writings). Below are a few resources for analyzing qualitative data, starting with free and open-sourced resources:
Here are some additional software options that require a paid license to use:
Much of liberal arts data often involves directly studying people. Whether this looks at the prevalence of spoken languages to religious or political habits, data in these fields can often look at information that is sensitive to certain groups of people. Likewise, marginalized communities often receive negative consequences when data collected from their communities is mismanaged, collected in spite of cultural boundaries, or utilized for further oppression Researchers must take careful consideration when working with personal data in any of these fields to avoid misrepresentation or other unethical breaches.