research skills historians

Develop your skills as an historian

Top tips to develop your skills.

1) Read books & journal articles

Read, think, write and talk about whatever you find interesting about the past.

Work out what you think about what you read. For instance, ask yourself: what is the author’s argument? Is it convincing? Why (or why not)? What evidence does the author use to make their argument? What is missing from their approach to the past? What else do historians need to find out? What primary sources would enable historians to understand this topic better?

You might find history books that inspire you by asking your history teacher for recommendations, visiting your local public library, or finding out about books that have just been published in history podcasts or newspaper book reviews. You can also look at:

Access to Research - provides free access to many academic journal articles, so that you can search for the latest research on whatever aspect of history interests you. - https://accesstoresearch.org.uk/search

JSTOR - a searchable digital library of journal articles and books. If your school or local library doesn’t have access, you can normally register for an individual researcher account to read 6 free articles per month. - https://www.jstor.org/

Write about your ideas and talk with other people about whatever you find interesting.

Apply these same critical skills to everything you watch, listen to, or visit.

2) Listen to history podcasts

• Faculty of History Recordings
• BBC podcasts - Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’, ‘The Long View’, ‘Document’; BBC World Service ‘Witness’; Radio 3 ‘Free Thinking’, all available via BBC Sounds.
• BBC History Extra podcasts: http://www.historyextra.com/podcasts
• Historical Association podcasts: https://www.history.org.uk/podcasts
• Royal Historical Society podcasts: https://royalhistsoc.org/category/podcasts/
• Gresham College lectures: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch
• TED talks: https://www.ted.com/
• Intelligence Squared debates: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/watch-and-listen/
• Malcolm Gladwell ‘Revisionist History’ podcasts: http://revisionisthistory.com/about

3) Visit museums, archives, or other historic sites

• Museums, archives and galleries: https://museumcrush.org/
• BBC Arts https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts
• British Library primary sources and resources: https://www.bl.uk/learning/online-resources
• National Archives primary sources and resources: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/

4) Engage with the news

• ‘The Conversation’ - academic research relevant to news stories: https://theconversation.com/uk
• The Guardian ‘The long read’ - in-depth reporting: https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/the-long-read
• History & Policy - connections between history and current policy-making: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/  

5) Take part in outreach activities   

• Oxford University outreach events – free events for which students or teachers can apply: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/increasing-access
• Oxplore: the Home of Big Questions – explore ideas and debates online with researchers at Oxford University: https://oxplore.org/

Primary Source Exercises

These exercises allow you to explore the primary sources that shape Oxford historians’ latest research and teaching. We have also suggested online resources that enable you to develop your own interests in the past and to do original historical research. These research skills will also help you to feel confident when reading a primary source in the History Admissions Test or as part of an interview.

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research

• Zachary Schrag

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The essential handbook for doing historical research in the twenty-first century

• Skills for Scholars

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The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian’s craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries. Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through all phases of historical research, from narrowing a topic and locating sources to taking notes, crafting a narrative, and connecting one’s work to existing scholarship. He shows how researchers extract knowledge from the widest range of sources, such as government documents, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, images, interviews, and datasets. He demonstrates how to use archives and libraries, read sources critically, present claims supported by evidence, tell compelling stories, and much more. Featuring a wealth of examples that illustrate the methods used by seasoned experts, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research reveals that, however varied the subject matter and sources, historians share basic tools in the quest to understand people and the choices they made.

• Offers practical step-by-step guidance on how to do historical research, taking readers from initial questions to final publication
• Connects new digital technologies to the traditional skills of the historian
• Draws on hundreds of examples from a broad range of historical topics and approaches
• Shares tips for researchers at every skill level

Skills for Scholars: The new tools of the trade

Awards and recognition.

• Winner of the James Harvey Robinson Prize, American Historical Association
• A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

• Introduction: History Is for Everyone
• History Is the Study of People and the Choices They Made
• History Is a Means to Understand Today’s World
• History Combines Storytelling and Analysis
• History Is an Ongoing Debate
• Autobiography
• Everything Has a History
• Narrative Expansion
• From the Source
• Public History
• Research Agenda
• Factual Questions
• Interpretive Questions
• Opposing Forces
• Internal Contradictions
• Competing Priorities
• Determining Factors
• Hidden or Contested Meanings
• Before and After
• Dialectics Create Questions, Not Answers
• Copy Other Works
• History Big and Small
• Pick Your People
• Add and Subtract
• Narrative versus Thematic Schemes
• The Balky Time Machine
• Local and Regional
• Transnational and Global
• Comparative
• What Is New about Your Approach?
• Are You Working in a Specific Theoretical Tradition?
• What Have Others Written?
• Are Others Working on It?
• What Might Your Critics Say?
• Primary versus Secondary Sources
• Balancing Your Use of Secondary Sources
• Sets of Sources
• Sources as Records of the Powerful
• No Source Speaks for Itself
• Languages and Specialized Reading
• Choose Sources That You Love
• Workaday Documents
• Specialized Periodicals
• Criminal Investigations and Trials
• Official Reports
• Letters and Petitions
• Institutional Records
• Scholarship
• Motion Pictures and Recordings
• Buildings and Plans
• The Working Bibliography
• The Open Web
• Limits of the Open Web
• Bibliographic Databases
• Full-Text Databases
• Oral History
• What Is an Archive?
• Archives and Access
• Read the Finding Aid
• Follow the Rules
• Work with Archivists
• Types of Cameras
• How Much to Shoot?
• Managing Expectations
• Duck, Duck, Goose
• Credibility
• Avoid Catastrophe
• Complete Tasks—Ideally Just Once, and in the Right Order
• Maintain Momentum
• Kinds of Software
• Word Processors
• Means of Entry
• A Good Day’s Work
• Word Count Is Your Friend
• Managing Research Assistants
• Research Diary
• When to Stop
• Note-Taking as Mining
• Note-Taking as Assembly
• Identify the Source, So You Can Go Back and Consult if Needed
• Distinguish Others’ Words and Ideas from Your Own
• Allow Sorting and Retrieval of Related Pieces of Information
• Provide the Right Level of Detail
• Notebooks and Index Cards
• Word Processors for Note-Taking
• Plain Text and Markdown
• Reference Managers
• Note-Taking Apps
• Relational Databases
• Spreadsheets
• Glossaries and Alphabetical Lists
• Image Catalogs
• Other Specialized Formats
• The Working Draft
• Variants: The Ten- and Thirty-Page Papers
• Thesis Statement
• Historiography
• Sections as Independent Essays
• Topic Sentences
• Answering Questions
• Invisible Bullet Points
• The Perils of Policy Prescriptions
• A Model (T) Outline
• Flexibility
• Protagonists
• Antagonists
• Bit Players
• The Shape of the Story
• The Controlling Idea
• Alchemy: Turning Sources to Stories
• Turning Points
• Counterfactuals
• Point of View
• Symbolic Details
• Combinations
• Speculation
• Is Your Jargon Really Necessary?
• Defining Terms
• Word Choice as Analysis
• Period Vocabulary or Anachronism?
• Integrate Images into Your Story
• Put Numbers in Context
• Summarize Data in Tables and Graphs
• Why We Cite
• Citation Styles
• Active Verbs
• People as Subjects
• Signposting
• First Person
• Putting It Aside
• Reverse Outlining
• Auditing Your Word Budget
• Writing for the Ear
• Conferences
• Social Media
• Coauthorship
• Tough, Fair, and Encouraging
• Manuscript and Book Reviews
• Journal Articles
• Book chapters
• Websites and Social Media
• Museums and Historic Sites
• Press Appearances and Op-Eds
• Law and Policy
• Graphic History, Movies, and Broadway Musicals
• Acknowledgments

"This volume is a complete and sophisticated addition to any scholar’s library and a boon to the curious layperson. . . . [A] major achievement."— Choice Reviews

"This book is quite simply a gem. . . . Schrag’s accessible style and comprehensive treatment of the field make this book a valuable resource."—Alan Sears, Canadian Journal of History

"A tour de force that will help all of us be more capable historians. This wholly readable, delightful book is packed with good advice that will benefit seasoned scholars and novice researchers alike."—Nancy Weiss Malkiel, author of "Keep the Damned Women Out": The Struggle for Coeducation

"An essential and overdue contribution. Schrag's guide offers a lucid breakdown of what historians do and provides plenty of examples."—Jessica Mack, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

"Extraordinarily useful. If there is another book that takes apart as many elements of the historian's craft the way that Schrag does and provides so many examples, I am not aware of it."—James Goodman, author of But Where Is the Lamb?

"This is an engaging guide to being a good historian and all that entails."—Diana Seave Greenwald, Assistant Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

"Impressive and engaging. Schrag gracefully incorporates the voices of dozens, if not hundreds, of fellow historians. This gives the book a welcome conversational feeling, as if the reader were overhearing a lively discussion among friendly historians."—Sarah Dry, author of Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole

"This is a breathtaking book—wide-ranging, wonderfully written, and extremely useful. Every page brims with fascinating, well-chosen illustrations of creative research, writing, and reasoning that teach and inspire."—Amy C. Offner, author of Sorting Out the Mixed Economy

historyprofessor.org website, maintained by Zachary M. Schrag, Professor of History at George Mason University

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• Researching

The historical research process explained

Researching for a History assessment piece can often be the most daunting part of the subject. However, it needn't be. Research is a systematic process that, if followed step-by-step, will become a logical and efficient part of your work. Below are links to the nine stages of good research, providing explanations and examples for each one.

• Key Inquiry Question
• Background Research
• Sub-questions
• Source Research
• Organise Quotes
• Topic Sentences
• Draft Writing
• Final Draft

Other potential research stages:

• Research Rationale
• Critical Summary of Research

Overview of the research process

Below is a pictorial explanation about how the research process works to create a hypothesis from the results of question-driven research. As you follow the research steps, each section of the diagram is completed. 

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• Digitising Philippine Flora
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• In the Shadow of the Tree: The Diagrammatics of Relatedness as Scientific, Scholarly and Popular Practice
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• FlyBase: Communicating Drosophila Genetics on Paper and Online, 1970–2000
• The Lost Museums of Cambridge Science, 1865–1936
• From Hansa to Lufthansa: Transportation Technologies and the Mobility of Knowledge in Germanic Lands and Beyond, 1300–2018
• Medical Publishers, Obscenity Law and the Business of Sexual Knowledge in Victorian Britain
• Kinds of Intelligence
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• The Vesalius Census
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• Investigating Fake Scientific Instruments in the Whipple Museum Collection
• Before HIV: Homosex and Venereal Disease, c.1939–1984
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Tools and techniques for historical research

• About the Department
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If you are just starting out in HPS, this will be the first time for many years – perhaps ever – that you have done substantial library or museum based research. The number of general studies may seem overwhelming, yet digging out specific material relevant to your topic may seem like finding needles in a haystack. Before turning to the specific entries that make up this guide, there are a few general points that apply more widely.

Planning your research

Because good research and good writing go hand in hand, probably the single most important key to successful research is having a good topic. For that, all you need at the beginning are two things: (a) a problem that you are genuinely interested in and (b) a specific issue, controversy, technique, instrument, person, etc. that is likely to offer a fruitful way forward for exploring your problem. In the early stages, it's often a good idea to be general about (a) and very specific about (b). So you might be interested in why people decide to become doctors, and decide to look at the early career of a single practitioner from the early nineteenth century, when the evidence for this kind of question happens to be unusually good. You can get lots of advice from people in the Department about places to look for topics, especially if you combine this with reading in areas of potential interest. Remember that you're more likely to get good advice if you're able to mesh your interests with something that a potential supervisor knows about. HPS is such a broad field that it's impossible for any department to cover all aspects of it with an equal degree of expertise. It can be reassuring to know that your topic will evolve as your research develops, although it is vital that you establish some basic parameters relatively quickly. Otherwise you will end up doing the research for two, three or even four research papers or dissertations, when all you need is the material for one.

Before beginning detailed work, it's obviously a good idea to read some of the secondary literature surrounding your subject. The more general books are listed on the reading lists for the Part II lecture courses, and some of the specialist literature is listed in these research guides. This doesn't need to involve an exhaustive search, at least not at this stage, but you do need to master the fundamentals of what's been done if you're going to be in a position to judge the relevance of anything you find. If there are lectures being offered in your topic, make sure to attend them; and if they are offered later in the year, try to see if you can obtain a preliminary bibliography from the lecturer.

After that, it's usually a good idea to immerse yourself in your main primary sources as soon as possible. If you are studying a museum object, this is the time to look at it closely; if you're writing about a debate, get together the main papers relevant to it and give them a close read; if you're writing about a specific experiment, look at the published papers, the laboratory notebook, and the relevant letters. Don't spend hours in the early stages of research ferreting out hard-to-find details, unless you're absolutely positive that they are of central importance to the viability of your topic. Start to get a feel for the material you have, and the questions that might be explored further. Make an outline of the main topics that you hope to cover, organized along what you see as the most interesting themes (and remember, 'background' is not usually an interesting theme on its own).

At this stage, research can go in many different directions. At some point, you'll want to read more about the techniques other historians have used for exploring similar questions. Most fields have an established repertoire of ways of approaching problems, and you need to know what these are, especially if you decide to reject them. One of the advantages of an interdisciplinary field like HPS is that you are exposed to different and often conflicting ways of tackling similar questions. Remember that this is true within history itself, and you need to be aware of alternatives. This may well involve looking further afield, at classic books or articles that are not specifically on 'your' subject. For example, it may be that you could find some helpful ideas for a study of modern scientific portraiture in a book on the eighteenth century. The best books dealing with educational maps may not be on the astronomical ones you are studying, but on ones used for teaching classical geography. See where the inspiration for works you admire comes from, and have a look at the sources they have used. This will help you develop the kind of focussed questions that make for a successful piece of work.

As you develop an outline and begin to think through your topic in more detail, you'll be in good position to plan possible lines of research. Don't try to find out everything about your topic: pick those aspects that are likely to prove most fruitful for the direction your essay seems to be heading. For example, it may be worth spending a long time searching for biographical details about a person if their career and life are central to your analysis; but in many other cases, such issues may not be very important. If your interest is in the reception of a work, it is likely to be more fruitful to learn a lot about a few commentaries or reviews (where they appeared, who wrote them, and so forth) than to gather in randomly all the comments you can find.

Follow up hints in other people's footnotes. Works that are otherwise dull or outdated in approach are sometimes based on very solid research. One secondary reference to a crucial letter or newspaper article can save you hours of mindless trawling, and lead you straight to the information you need. Moreover, good historians often signal questions or sources that they think would be worth investigating further.

Remember that the best history almost always depends on developing new approaches and interpretations, not on knowing about a secret archive no one has used before. If you give your work time to develop, and combine research with writing, you will discover new sources, and (better still) a fresh importance for material that has supposedly been known for a long time. As you become familiar with your topic, you are likely to find that evidence you dug out at the beginning of your project is much more significant than you thought it was. In historical research, the most important evidence often isn't sitting there on the surface – it's something you need to dig out through close reading and an understanding of the situation in which the document you are studying was written, or in which the object was produced. This is especially true of instruments, paintings and other non-textual sources.

Some standard reference works

Your research should become more focussed as time goes on. Don't just gather randomly: you should always have at least some idea of why you are looking for something, and what you might hope to find. Make guesses, follow up hunches, see if an idea you have has the possibility to work out. At the beginning, it can be valuable to learn the full range of what is available, but eventually you should be following up specific issues, a bit like a detective tracing the clues to a mystery. It is at this stage of research, which is often best done in conjunction with writing up sections of your project, that knowing where to find answers to specific questions is most useful. There is nothing more disheartening than spending a week to find a crucial fact, only to discover that it's been sitting on the shelf next to you all term. The Whipple has a wide variety of guides, biographical dictionaries and bibliographies, so spend a few minutes early on looking at the reference shelves.

Every major country has a national biographical dictionary (the new version of the British one is the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available 2004 online). For better-known scientists, a good place to start is Charles C. Gillispie (ed.) Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970–1980). There are more specialized dictionaries for every scientific field, from entomology to astronomy. The University Library has a huge selection of biographical sources; ask your supervisor about the best ones for your purpose.

Preliminary searching for book titles and other bibliographical information is now often best done online, and every historian should know how to use the British Library's online search facility; COPAC (the UK national library database); and WorldCat (an international database). All of these are accessible through the HPS Whipple Library website (under 'other catalogues'). At the time of writing, the University Library is remains one of the few libraries of its size to have many of its records not available online, so remember that you have to check the green guard-book catalogues (and the supplementary catalogues) for most items published before 1977. It is hoped that this situation will be rectified soon. There are also numerous bibliographies for individual sciences and subjects, together with catalogues of relevant manuscripts. Most of these are listed elsewhere in this guide.

As questions arise, you will want to be able to access books and articles by other historians that touch upon your subject. There are many sources for this listed elsewhere in this guide, but you should definitely know about the Isis Current Bibliography and The Wellcome Bibliography for the History of Medicine . Both are available online, the former through the RLG History of Science, Technology and Medicine database, the latter through the website of the Wellcome Library.

Libraries and museums

Finally, a word in praise of libraries and museums. As the comments above make clear, the internet is invaluable for searching for specific pieces of information. If you need a bibliographical reference or a general reading list from a course at another university, it is an excellent place to begin. If you are looking for the source of an unidentified quotation, typing it into Google (or an appropriate database held by the University Library) will often turn up the source in seconds. Many academic journals are now online, as are the texts of many books, though not always in a paginated or citable form.

For almost all historical topics, however, libraries filled with printed books and journals will remain the principal tools for research, just as museums will continue to be essential to any work dealing with the material culture of past science. The reason for this is simple: what is on the internet is the result of decisions by people in the past decade, while libraries and museums are the product of a continuous history of collecting over several thousand years. Cambridge has some of the best collections for the history of science anywhere. Despite what is often said, this is not because of the famous manuscripts or showpiece books (these are mostly available in other ways), but because of the depth and range of its collections across the whole field. The Whipple Library is small and friendly, and has an unparalleled selection of secondary works selected over many years – don't just go for specific titles you've found in the catalogue, try browsing around, and ask the librarians for help if you can't see what you are looking for. Explore the Whipple Museum and talk to the curator and the staff. There are rich troves of material in these departmental collections, on topics ranging from phrenology and microscopy to the early development of pocket calculators. Become familiar with what the University Library has to offer: it is large and sometimes idiosyncratic, but worth getting to know well if you are at all serious about research. It is a fantastic instrument for studying the human past – the historian's equivalent of CERN or the Hubble Telescope. And all you need to get in is a student ID.

Further reading

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. William, The Craft of Research , 2nd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2003).

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Historians research, analyze, interpret, and write about the past by studying historical documents and sources.

Historians typically do the following:

• Gather historical data from various sources, including archives, books, and artifacts
• Analyze and interpret historical information to determine its authenticity and significance
• Trace historical developments in a particular field
• Engage with the public through educational programs and presentations
• Archive or preserve materials and artifacts in museums, visitor centers, and historic sites
• Provide advice or guidance on historical topics and preservation issues
• Write reports, articles, and books on findings and theories

Historians conduct research and analysis for governments, businesses, individuals, nonprofits, historical associations, and other organizations. They use a variety of sources in their work, including government and institutional records, newspapers, photographs, interviews, films, and unpublished manuscripts, such as personal diaries, letters, and other primary source documents. They also may process, catalog, and archive these documents and artifacts.

Many historians present and interpret history in order to inform or build upon public knowledge of past events. They often trace and build a historical profile of a particular person, area, idea, organization, or event. Once their research is complete, they present their findings through articles, books, reports, exhibits, websites, and educational programs.

In government, some historians conduct research to provide information on specific events or groups. Many write about the history of a particular government agency, activity, or program, such as a military operation or space missions. For example, they may research the people and events related to Operation Desert Storm.

In historical associations, historians may work with archivists, curators, and museum workers to preserve artifacts and explain the historical significance of a wide variety of subjects, such as historic buildings, religious groups, and battlegrounds. Workers with a background in history also may go into one of these occupations.

Many people with a degree in history also become high school teachers or postsecondary teachers.

Historians held about 3,300 jobs in 2021. The largest employers of historians were as follows:

Historians work in museums, archives, historical societies, and research organizations. Some work as consultants for these organizations while being employed by consulting firms, and some work as independent consultants.

Work Schedules

Most historians work full time during regular business hours. Some work independently and are able to set their own schedules. Historians who work in museums or other institutions open to the public may work evenings or weekends. Some historians may travel to collect artifacts, conduct interviews, or visit an area to better understand its culture and environment.

Historians typically need at least a master’s degree to enter the occupation. Those with a bachelor’s degree in history may qualify for some entry-level positions, but most will find jobs in different fields.

Historians typically need a master’s degree or Ph.D. to enter the occupation. Many historians have a master’s degree in history or public history. Others complete degrees in related fields, such as museum studies, historical preservation, or archival management.

In addition to coursework, most master’s programs in public history and similar fields require an internship as part of the curriculum.

Research positions in the federal government and positions in academia typically require a Ph.D. Students in history Ph.D. programs usually concentrate in a specific area of history. Possible specializations include a particular country or region, period, or field, such as social, political, or cultural history.

Candidates with a bachelor’s degree in history may qualify for entry-level positions at museums, historical associations, or other small organizations. However, most bachelor’s degree holders usually work outside of traditional historian jobs—for example, jobs in education, communications, law, business, publishing, or journalism.  

Other Experience

Many employers recommend that prospective historians complete an internship during their formal educational studies. Internships offer an opportunity for students to learn practical skills, such as handling and preserving artifacts and creating exhibits. They also give students an opportunity to apply their academic knowledge in a hands-on setting.

Historians typically have an interest in the Thinking interest area, according to the Holland Code framework. The Thinking interest area indicates a focus on researching, investigating, and increasing the understanding of natural laws.

If you are not sure whether you have a Thinking interest which might fit with a career as a historian, you can take a career test to measure your interests.

Historians should also possess the following specific qualities:

Analytical skills. Historians must be able to examine the information and data in historical sources and draw logical conclusions from them, whether the sources are written documents, visual images, or material artifacts.

Communication skills. Communication skills are important for historians because many give presentations on their historical specialty to the public. Historians also need communication skills when they interview people to collect oral histories, consult with clients, or collaborate with colleagues in the workplace.

Problem-solving skills. Historians try to answer questions about the past. They may investigate something unknown about a past idea, event, or person; decipher historical information; or identify how the past has affected the present.

Research skills. Historians must be able to examine and process information from a large number of historical documents, texts, and other sources.

Writing skills. Writing skills are essential for historians as they often present their findings in reports, articles, and books.

The median annual wage for historians was $63,940 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $37,310, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $118,380.

In May 2021, the median annual wages for historians in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Most historians work full time during standard business hours. Some work independently and are able to set their own schedules. Historians who work in museums or other institutions open to the public may work evenings or weekends. Some historians may travel to collect artifacts, conduct interviews, or visit an area to better understand its culture and environment.

Employment of historians is projected to grow 4 percent from 2021 to 2031, about as fast as the average for all occupations.

About 300 openings for historians are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. 

Organizations that employ historians, such as historical societies and government agencies, often depend on donations or public funding. Thus, employment growth will depend largely on the amount of funding available.

For more information about historians, visit

American Association for State and Local History

American Historical Association

National Council on Public History

Organization of American Historians

Where does this information come from?

The career information above is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook . This excellent resource for occupational data is published by the U.S. Department of Labor every two years. Truity periodically updates our site with information from the BLS database.

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This information is taken directly from the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truity does not editorialize the information, including changing information that our readers believe is inaccurate, because we consider the BLS to be the authority on occupational information. However, if you would like to correct a typo or other technical error, you can reach us at [email protected] .

I am not sure if this career is right for me. How can I decide?

There are many excellent tools available that will allow you to measure your interests, profile your personality, and match these traits with appropriate careers. On this site, you can take the Career Personality Profiler assessment, the Holland Code assessment, or the Photo Career Quiz .

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How to Become a History Researcher: Steps and Career Outlook

History Researcher

Researchers in all fields leverage their intellectual curiosity and analytical skills to uncover new information and share their findings with the world. History researchers are no exception, as they often have a zeal for sifting through the fragments of the historical record in order to gather details that may illuminate significant moments of the past. Individuals who pursue careers in history research can put their skills to use in a variety of professions in academia, government, military, economics, museums, and the private sector. Individuals interested in  how to become a history researcher can prepare for the role by pursuing a Master of Arts in History degree.

What Does a History Researcher Do?

History researchers study past events, people, policies, and documents to gain an in-depth understanding of their significance and impact on modern and future societies. Examining primary and secondary sources is an essential part of a history researcher’s job. They interpret and translate texts into different languages, contribute to research for textbooks, and assist museum curators and historians in preserving artifacts and documents. History researchers may work at universities and conduct specialized research on a certain topic. Areas of study can range from the impact of religion on ancient governments to American history.

History researchers begin by identifying a broad question or topic, and then search for and analyze past research studies on the same subject. After refining or narrowing their scope of study, they decide which historical research method to use. They find primary and secondary sources through university or library archives, historical societies, and public records, analyzing the accuracy of these sources and using their findings to write and publish academic papers or books.

Career Options for History Researchers

History researchers can take on many important roles in a range of private industries and government agencies. Advanced history degree programs, such as a Master of Arts in History, focus heavily on research techniques, subject matter expertise, and practical applications of findings. An advanced history degree can help individuals learn how to become history researchers and achieve success in their field. Some career options for history researchers include those in the following sections.

Research Historian

A research historian’s goal is to understand how and why important past events occurred by interpreting facts in many different contexts. The grist of the researcher’s analysis is historical evidence, which includes primary sources, such as material artifacts, documents, and recorded firsthand recollections, and secondary sources, which are often the work of other historians. Their work may be exhibited in museums, used in lectures, published in academic journals, or referenced in a variety of other media.

Museum Researcher

Museum researchers are responsible for providing artifact descriptions, authenticating historical materials, and contributing to exhibits and educational programs. Most museum researchers possess specialized knowledge in a particular field, and some focus their work on a particular type of historical record, such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, or video and audio recordings. Museum researchers may also be involved in acquiring and curating new pieces for display.

Cultural Resource Manager

Cultural resource managers are charged with not only safeguarding historically significant artifacts and materials but also memorializing the cultural heritage that they represent. The tools of the cultural preservationist’s trade include historical maps, government records, contemporary publications, oral histories, and secondary sources.

FBI Intelligence Analyst

Historians with strong technical and analytical skills may qualify for specialized careers in the intelligence community. FBI intelligence analysts collect and interpret information from many different sources to identify threats and communicate them to decision-makers. Analysts with backgrounds in historical research can advise on potential responses to these threats by drawing from their knowledge of similar events in the past. The FBI Intelligence Analyst Selection Process (IASP) tests critical thinking, writing, analytical skills, and time management—all areas of emphasis in Master of Arts in History programs.

U.S. Navy Historian

History researchers can leverage their expertise in past social and political events to support and consult government agencies. The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) employs history researchers, archivists, and other personnel who are responsible for “using the power of history and heritage to enhance the warfighting capability of the U.S. Navy,” according to the NHHC. Specifically, the agency collects and preserves materials of historical significance to the Navy, in addition to assisting in the recovery and preservation of lost Navy ships and aircraft.

University Professor

As businesses and government agencies increasingly hire historians as consultants, higher education institutions are in need of history professors to prepare the next generation of researchers, according to the Journal of Research Practice. In addition to teaching and conducting research in history departments at colleges and universities, history professors may teach courses in other departments, such as political science and public affairs.

History Researcher Salaries

History researchers earn different salaries based on their specific jobs, education level, and years of experience.

• Historian . Historians earned a median annual salary of $63,690 as of May 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Museum researcher . The BLS reports that the median annual salary for archivists, curators, and museum researchers was $49,850 as of May 2019.
• Cultural resource manager . The BLS groups cultural resource managers with anthropologists and archaeologists, and reports that individuals in these positions earned a median annual salary of $63,670 as of May 2019.
• FBI intelligence analyst . The median annual salary for FBI intelligence analysts is about $70,000, according to the compensation website PayScale.
• Navy historian . Annual salaries for navy historians range depending on the position, but a supervisory curator, for example, may earn between $96,070 and $126,062, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
• University professor . Postsecondary history professors earned a median annual salary of $75,170 as of May 2019, according to the BLS.

Steps for Becoming a History Researcher

While no standard path to become a history researcher exists, the common thread for those who work in the field is thorough academic preparation combined with real-world experience gained through internships and jobs.

Step 1: Pursue an Advanced Education

The first step in preparing to thrive as a history researcher is to lay a solid academic foundation, beginning with a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. While working through their undergraduate history coursework, aspiring researchers can build valuable career skills by taking classes in computer science, data analysis, writing, or a foreign language. A bachelor’s degree may be sufficient to qualify for some entry-level historian positions, but for most historian jobs, a master’s degree or doctorate is mandatory. Many history researchers have a Master of Arts in History degree, while some hold degrees in subjects such as museum studies, historic preservation, and archiving.

Step 2: Gain Experience

While students may learn about the day-to-day work of history researchers in internships and field assignments, there’s no substitute for the practical knowledge that comes from working in a full-time position, such as research assistant or assistant museum curator. Being immersed in the job is an effective way to evaluate various career options available to researchers while practicing hands-on skills, such as designing exhibits and processing and preserving artifacts. These roles also provide opportunities to apply broader skills developed through academic work, such as writing research reports, using technology resources, and analyzing data.

Step 3: Earn a Doctorate Degree

Researchers who wish to pursue an advanced specialization may enter a doctoral program in history, particularly if their goal is a research position in academia or with a federal government agency. Specializations typically represent a particular country or region; a period of time; or a specific subfield, such as political, cultural, or social history. Colleges and universities often fill teaching positions with people who hold a master’s degree and are pursuing a doctoral degree.

Earn a Master of Arts in History Degree

Norwich University offers an online Master of Arts in History program focused on meeting the needs of today’s historians. Norwich’s program can prepare students to think like researchers with an insatiable historical curiosity and unyielding desire to ask why. Through the 18-month program, individuals can gain in-depth knowledge of historical topics, as well as advanced writing, research, analytical, and presentation skills. The program offers four concentrations―Public History, American History, World History, and Legal and Constitutional History―allowing students to tailor their studies to their interests and goals.

Explore how Norwich’s online Master of Arts in History degree can help you learn how to become a history researcher and prepare you for a successful career in the field.

How Historians Work , National Council on Public History Career Resources , American Historical Association What Does a Historian Do? , CareerExplorer Archivists, Curators, and Museum Workers , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Anthropologists and Archeologists , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Postsecondary Teachers , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Historians , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Operations Research Analysts , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Average Intelligence Analyst Salary at Federal Bureau of Investigation , PayScale Intelligence Analysts , FBI Who We Are , Naval History and Heritage Command Supervisory Staff Curator (Museum Management) , USAJOBS Research Skills for the Future: Summary and Critique of a Comparative Study in Eight Countries , Journal of Research Practice Postsecondary Teachers , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Where Historians Work: An Interactive Database of History PhD Career Outcomes , American Historical Association Challenges for History Doctoral Programs and Students: Rising Admissions and High Attrition , American Historical Association A (Very) Brief History of the Master’s Degree , American Historical Association Master of Arts (MA), History Degree , PayScale

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History: Research training for historians

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• Keeping up-to-date

Use this page to find out about information skills resources and courses relevant to History and allied fields. These may be courses offered locally or outside Oxford, most notably the Institute of Historical Research ( more ), The British Library ( more ) or The National Archives TNA ( more ).

History students and research can make use of a wide range of information skills courses, workshops and events.

Information skills training for historians

Radcliffe Camera staff offer tailored courses and events to historians at various times of the year. They include:

• Library inductions & tours ( more on this - History Faculty Canvas)

• Finding resources for your UG thesis: Bodleian Libraries’ research skills (more on this - History Faculty Canvas)
• 1-1 sessions with the History Librarian. Students: email the History Librarian (Teaching) ; reseachers & DPhil: email the History Librarian (Research) .
• Act-on-Acceptance and Open Access briefings ( email the History Librarian (Research)

Bodleian iSkills - Workshops in Information Discovery & Scholarly Communications

This programme is designed to help you to make effective use of scholarly materials. We cover

• Information discovery and searching for scholarly materials
• Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero and Mendeley for managing references and formatting footnotes and bibliographies
• Keeping up to date with new research
• Measuring research impact
• Understanding copyright and looking after your intellectual property
• Open Access publishing and complying with funder mandates for open access
• Managing your research data

The art of deciphering handwriting: some palaeographic resources online

• English Handwriting 1500-1700: an online course
• Palaeography: reading old handwriting 1500 - 1800: A practical online tutorial
• Scottish Handwriting.com
• German script tutorial

Check out more palaeographic sources bookmarked on HFL Diigo .

Institute of Historical Research - research training

Each year they run an extensive programme of training in historical research skills for professional historians, independent researchers, and early career scholars.

Courses vary in length from one day to one term, and cover a variety of subjects from language learning to digital research practices.

The National Archives: Postgraduate archival skills training (PAST)

• Introduction to archival research (Level 1) . Aimed at 3rd year undergraduates and postgraduate students.
• Skills and methodology workshops (Level 2) . Aimed at taught postgraduates and DPhil students, covering particular topics or periods.
• Record workshops (Level 3) . Aimed at DPhil students and early career researchers

See their website for further details and sign up to their newletter to receive information about upcoming PAST sessions.

Need to brush up your Français? Have to learn Deutsch?

The University's Language Centre has a lot to offer for historians wishing to upgrade their language skills or, quite simply, start learning a language. There are a variety of regular Languages for All courses for all skill ranges.

They also have a lending library encouraging self-learning with a lot of language learning resources for 180 languages, including books and CDs, a very nice film collection and satellite television available in several languages. They also encourage online learning.

And finally, they have a successful language exchange programme which allows you to speak with native speakers.

IT Services offers a great range of courses which are useful to historians. These include managing images or using Word effectively for your dissertation.

Students and researchers also have access to Self-service learning which is a huge library of online, video based, courses covering a wide range of software and IT related topics.

1-1 with a History Librarian

Students: email the History Librarian (Teaching) ;

Reseachers & DPhil: email the History Librarian (Research) .

You can find details of Bodleian Libraries' subject specialists online for other areas.

Making Maps: self-teaching resources from the Bodleian Map Department

There are tutorials for ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS.

More assistance in learning how to find, use or create maps is available from staff in the Bodleian Library's Map Department .

Gough Maps Oxfordshire 12 (1751) from Digital.Bodleian .

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Home » Historian – Definition, Types, Work Area

Historian – Definition, Types, Work Area

Table of Contents

Definition:

Historian is a person who studies and writes about the past, with an emphasis on interpreting and understanding historical events, processes, and phenomena. Historians use a wide range of sources, such as written documents, oral histories, artifacts, and archaeological evidence, to reconstruct and analyze the past.

Their work often involves researching and analyzing primary sources, evaluating conflicting evidence, and developing arguments and theories about historical events and trends. Historians play a crucial role in helping us understand the complex social, political, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped human societies over time.

Types of Historian

Types of Historian are as follows:

• Academic Historians: These are historians who work in universities or other academic institutions. They conduct research, write scholarly articles and books, and teach courses in history. Academic historians often specialize in a particular area or time period of history.
• Public Historians: These are historians who work outside of academia and are focused on making history accessible to the public. They may work in museums, historical societies, or government agencies, and their work may involve creating exhibits, leading tours, or conducting public lectures.
• Social Historians: These are historians who study the lives of ordinary people, focusing on issues such as class, gender, race, and ethnicity. They are interested in the social, cultural, and economic forces that shape society and how they have changed over time.
• Political Historians: These are historians who focus on political events and movements, such as wars, revolutions, and political leaders. They analyze the motivations, decisions, and actions of political actors and how they have affected society and the world.
• Economic Historians : These are historians who study economic systems and how they have evolved over time. They are interested in issues such as trade, capitalism, and economic growth, and how these factors have influenced historical events.
• Environmental Historians: These are historians who study the interactions between humans and the natural environment. They are interested in issues such as climate change, deforestation, and pollution, and how these factors have affected historical events and societies.
• Oral Historians: These are historians who specialize in collecting and analyzing oral histories, or first-person accounts of historical events from people who experienced them. They use interviews and other oral sources to build a more complete picture of history from the perspective of those who lived it.
• Cultural Historians : These are historians who focus on the study of culture, including art, literature, music, religion, and other forms of expression. They analyze how cultural values and beliefs have influenced historical events and how these forms of expression have changed over time.
• Military Historians: These are historians who specialize in the study of warfare and military history. They examine the strategies, tactics, and technology used in different historical conflicts and how they have influenced the outcome of wars and the development of military technology.
• Intellectual Historians : These are historians who focus on the study of ideas and the intellectual history of societies. They analyze the evolution of ideas and theories in different fields such as philosophy, science, and politics, and how these ideas have shaped historical events.
• Gender Historians : These are historians who focus on the study of gender roles and identities throughout history. They analyze how gender has influenced historical events and how ideas about gender have changed over time.
• Digital Historians: These are historians who use digital tools and methods to research and analyze historical data. They may use data visualization, computational analysis, or other digital techniques to uncover new insights and patterns in historical data.
• Public Memory Historians : These are historians who focus on how societies remember and commemorate historical events. They analyze the ways in which different groups remember and interpret events, and how these memories influence contemporary politics and social issues.
• Global Historians: These are historians who focus on the interconnectedness of world events and how different regions and societies have influenced each other over time. They are interested in global processes such as imperialism, colonization, migration, and globalization and how these processes have shaped historical events.
• Environmental Historians: These are historians who study the relationships between humans and the natural world throughout history. They are interested in how natural resources have been used, how humans have impacted the environment, and how environmental factors have influenced historical events.
• Legal Historians: These are historians who specialize in the study of law and legal systems throughout history. They analyze how legal systems have evolved over time and how legal decisions have impacted social and political developments.
• Archaeologists: These are historians who study past societies through material remains such as artifacts, structures, and landscapes. They use methods such as excavation, analysis of artifacts, and remote sensing to reconstruct the lives and activities of past societies.
• Religious Historians: These are historians who focus on the study of religion throughout history. They analyze how different religious traditions have influenced historical events and how religious beliefs and practices have changed over time.
• Oral Tradition Historians: These are historians who specialize in the study of oral traditions and folklore. They analyze how stories, legends, and myths have been transmitted over time and how they reflect the beliefs and values of different societies.
• Medical Historians: These are historians who focus on the study of medicine and health throughout history. They analyze the development of medical practices and how they have been influenced by social, cultural, and political factors. They also examine the impact of disease and public health issues on historical events and societies.

Historian Examples

There are many examples of historians who have made significant contributions to the study and understanding of history. Here are just a few examples:

• Herodotus (c. 484 – 425 BCE): Known as the “Father of History,” Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who wrote a comprehensive account of the Greco-Persian Wars.
• Thucydides (c. 460 – 400 BCE): Another ancient Greek historian, Thucydides wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, a detailed account of the conflict between Athens and Sparta.
• Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406 CE): A Muslim historian and philosopher from North Africa, Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah, an influential work on the philosophy of history.
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616 CE): Although primarily known as a playwright, Shakespeare was also a historian who used historical events and figures as the basis for many of his plays.
• Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794 CE): An English historian, Gibbon wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a comprehensive account of the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Fernand Braudel (1902 – 1985 CE): A French historian, Braudel was a pioneer in the field of world history and wrote extensively on the economic, social, and cultural forces that have shaped human history.
• Howard Zinn (1922 – 2010 CE): An American historian and social activist, Zinn wrote A People’s History of the United States, which focused on the experiences of ordinary people throughout American history.
• Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976 CE): An Israeli historian, Harari is known for his best-selling books Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, which explore the history and future of humanity.

What Do Historians Do?

Here are some of the specific activities that historians engage in:

• Research : Historians spend a great deal of time conducting research on the events, people, and cultures they are interested in. They collect and analyze primary sources such as letters, diaries, newspapers, government documents, and other written materials.
• Interpretation : Once historians have gathered information, they interpret and analyze it to create a narrative or explanation of the past. They try to make sense of the information they have gathered and create a coherent story that explains why certain events happened and what their significance was.
• Writing : Historians write books, articles, and other works that present their research and interpretation of the past. They use their writing to communicate their findings to other scholars and to the general public.
• Teaching : Many historians also teach at colleges and universities, where they share their knowledge and expertise with students.
• Preservation : Historians work to preserve and protect historical artifacts and sites. They may work with museums, archives, and historical societies to ensure that important historical documents and objects are properly cared for and made available to the public.
• Consulting : Historians may also be called upon to provide their expertise in legal cases or government policy decisions that involve historical issues.

What Skills Must a Historian Have?

Historians require a broad range of skills and abilities to excel in their profession. Some of the key skills that historians need include:

• Research skills: Historians must have strong research skills to identify, locate, and analyze relevant historical sources.
• Critical thinking skills: Historians must be able to evaluate historical evidence critically, discerning the strengths and weaknesses of different sources, and identifying biases and inaccuracies.
• Analytical skills: Historians must be able to analyze complex historical data and events, discern patterns and trends, and draw meaningful conclusions.
• Communication skills: Historians must be able to communicate their findings effectively, both verbally and in writing. This includes being able to craft clear and concise arguments, present data in a compelling way, and write engaging narratives.
• Language skills: Historians may need to be proficient in multiple languages to be able to read and interpret historical sources from different regions and time periods.
• Technological skills : Historians must be able to use technology to facilitate research, analysis, and communication. This includes being proficient in digital research tools and methods, as well as using software for data analysis and visualization.
• Interdisciplinary knowledge: Historians must have a broad understanding of multiple disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology, to contextualize historical events and draw meaningful conclusions.

Where Historians Work

Historians work in a variety of settings, including:

• Universities and colleges: Many historians work in academic institutions, teaching courses on history, conducting research, and publishing scholarly works.
• Museums and archives : Historians may work in museums or archives, where they manage collections of historical artifacts, documents, and other materials, and conduct research on these collections.
• Government agencies: Historians may work for government agencies, such as the National Park Service or the Smithsonian Institution, conducting research and providing historical expertise for public programs and exhibits.
• Non-profit organizations: Historians may work for non-profit organizations, such as historical societies or preservation groups, where they conduct research, provide historical expertise, and advocate for the preservation of historical sites and artifacts.
• Private companies: Some historians may work for private companies, such as consulting firms or media outlets, where they provide historical expertise and research for various projects.
• Freelance: Some historians work as freelance writers, researchers, or consultants, providing historical expertise for a variety of clients and projects.

How to Become A Historian

To become a historian, you typically need to follow these steps:

• Obtain a bachelor’s degree: Most historians have a bachelor’s degree in history or a related field. You can also major in a related discipline, such as anthropology, archaeology, or political science, but you will likely need to take several history courses to build a solid foundation in the subject.
• Consider a graduate degree: While a bachelor’s degree is sufficient for some entry-level jobs, most historians have a graduate degree in history or a related field. A master’s degree can provide a more in-depth education in historical research and analysis, while a Ph.D. can lead to academic and research positions.
• Gain experience: While in school, try to gain experience through internships, research assistantships, or volunteer work at museums, archives, or historical societies. This can help you build practical skills and make connections in the field.
• Develop specialized expertise : As you progress in your education and career, consider developing specialized expertise in a particular area of history, such as a specific time period, region, or theme. This can help you stand out in a competitive job market and may lead to more specialized positions.
• Network: Attend conferences and events in the field to meet other historians, build relationships, and learn about job opportunities. You can also join professional organizations such as the American Historical Association or the Organization of American Historians to connect with other professionals in the field.
• Apply for jobs: Once you have completed your education and gained experience, start applying for jobs in your area of interest. Look for positions in academia, museums, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies that require historical expertise.

Famous Historians in History

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Top 12 Historian Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive job market, historians must showcase a unique set of skills on their resumes to stand out among their peers. Highlighting these top historian skills not only demonstrates your expertise in analyzing and interpreting the past but also your ability to apply critical thinking and research abilities to a variety of professional settings.

Historian Skills

• Archival Research
• Chronological Analysis
• Source Criticism
• Historiography
• Quantitative Analysis
• Qualitative Analysis
• GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
• SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)
• Nvivo (Qualitative Data Analysis Software)
• Digital Humanities
• Oral History
• Paleography

1. Archival Research

Archival research, for a historian, involves studying and analyzing primary source documents and records stored in archives to gain insights into past events, societies, and individuals.

Why It's Important

Archival research is crucial for historians as it allows direct access to original, primary sources, providing invaluable insights into past events, cultures, and perspectives that form the foundation for accurate historical analysis and interpretation.

How to Improve Archival Research Skills

Improving archival research involves a systematic approach to sourcing, analyzing, and interpreting historical documents. Here are concise strategies for historians:

Preparation : Understand your research topic thoroughly. Familiarize yourself with relevant historical contexts and historiography. Consult secondary sources to identify potential primary source archives.

Locate Archives : Use online databases and catalogs to find archives that hold relevant materials. Websites such as WorldCat , ArchiveGrid , and The National Archives can be invaluable for locating documents.

Digital Archives : Explore digital archives for remote access to documents. Examples include Europeana , Digital Public Library of America , and Internet Archive .

Networking : Engage with other historians and archivists. Professional networks and academic forums, like H-Net , can offer advice and share lesser-known archives.

Archival Visit Preparation : Before visiting an archive, contact the staff with your research interests. They can provide insights into their collections and suggest materials.

Effective Use of Time : Prioritize documents and organize your visit to make efficient use of your time in the archive. Take detailed notes and, if permitted, digital photographs of documents.

Analytical Tools : Utilize software tools for document analysis and organization. Tools like Zotero for bibliographic management and Tropy for organizing and annotating photos can be highly beneficial.

Ethical Considerations : Always adhere to the archive's rules and handle documents with care. Respect copyright laws and cite all sources accurately.

Reflection and Revision : Revisit your research questions as you uncover new materials. Be open to adjusting your thesis based on the primary sources you discover.

By following these strategies, historians can enhance the efficiency and depth of their archival research, uncovering new insights and contributing meaningful scholarship to their field.

How to Display Archival Research Skills on Your Resume

2. Chronological Analysis

Chronological Analysis, in the context of history, is the method of examining events in the order they occurred over time, allowing historians to understand sequences, causal relationships, and the development of social, political, or cultural changes within a specific period.

Chronological analysis is important for historians because it allows them to understand the sequence of events, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and place historical developments in their proper context, thereby facilitating a comprehensive and accurate interpretation of the past.

How to Improve Chronological Analysis Skills

Improving chronological analysis, especially for a historian, involves enhancing the ability to understand and interpret events in their historical sequence. Here are concise steps with relevant resources:

Master Historical Context : Gain a deep understanding of the broader historical periods related to your study. This BBC History provides a wealth of resources.

Utilize Primary Sources : Dive into primary documents, artifacts, and first-hand accounts to get a sense of the original chronological flow. The Library of Congress offers an extensive collection.

Incorporate Timelines : Construct detailed timelines to visualize and better understand the sequence of events. Tiki-Toki is a tool for creating interactive timelines.

Cross-Reference Events : Compare events across different regions and cultures to understand their interconnectivity. World History Atlas is a great tool for this.

Apply Analytical Tools : Use software like Nvivo or Atlas.ti to organize and analyze data chronologically.

Engage with Historiographical Debates : Understanding different interpretations of events can provide insights into their significance and timing. JSTOR ( https://www.jstor.org ) is an excellent resource for accessing historical journals.

Continuous Learning : Stay updated with latest methodologies and theories in historical research. Websites like H-Net offer resources and connections to the historical scholarly community.

By following these steps and utilizing the linked resources, historians can significantly improve their chronological analysis skills.

How to Display Chronological Analysis Skills on Your Resume

3. Source Criticism

Source criticism is a method used by historians to evaluate and interpret the reliability, origin, purpose, and context of historical documents and sources, in order to better understand and reconstruct the past accurately.

Source criticism is crucial for historians as it enables them to assess the reliability, authenticity, and bias of historical documents and accounts, thereby ensuring the accuracy and objectivity of their interpretations and reconstructions of past events.

How to Improve Source Criticism Skills

To improve source criticism as a historian, follow these concise steps:

Understand the Types of Sources : Familiarize yourself with primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Each has a different value and reliability. The National Archives provides a clear explanation.

Evaluate Authorship and Purpose : Assess who created the source and why. Understanding the author's background and intention helps in determining bias or perspective. The Library of Congress offers guides for analyzing various sources.

Check for Authenticity and Accuracy : Verify the authenticity of a source and cross-check facts with other credible sources. The Internet Archive can be a valuable tool for finding historical documents.

Consider the Historical Context : Place the source within its historical context to understand its significance and potential biases. Fordham University’s Internet History Sourcebooks provide a wide range of historical texts within context.

Analyze the Form and Content : Look at the structure, language, and what is (and isn't) included in the source to uncover more about its reliability and perspective. Purdue OWL offers guidance on evaluating sources of information.

By following these steps and utilizing these resources, historians can significantly improve their source criticism skills.

How to Display Source Criticism Skills on Your Resume

4. Historiography

Historiography refers to the study of how history is written, including the methods, interpretations, and debates that shape our understanding of the past. It involves analyzing different historical perspectives and the development of historical narratives over time. For historians, it is the practice of critically examining and writing about history, focusing on how historical knowledge is constructed and communicated.

Historiography is important for historians because it provides a critical examination and interpretation of how history has been written, allowing them to understand the biases, methodologies, and perspectives that have shaped historical narratives. This awareness helps historians to construct more accurate and nuanced accounts of the past.

How to Improve Historiography Skills

Improving historiography involves enhancing the methods and perspectives used in historical research and writing. Here are concise tips for a historian seeking to improve their historiographical skills:

Diversify Sources : Utilize a wide range of primary and secondary sources to gain multiple perspectives. The Library of Congress offers a vast collection of primary sources.

Critical Analysis : Develop critical thinking skills to analyze sources for bias, perspective, and context. The Critical Thinking Community provides resources for improving these skills.

Engage with Historiography : Study the historiography of your topic to understand how interpretations have evolved over time. JSTOR is a great resource for accessing academic papers on historiography.

Interdisciplinary Approach : Incorporate methods and insights from other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and geography. Project MUSE offers interdisciplinary academic journals.

Effective Writing : Focus on clear, analytical writing that accurately conveys your findings and interpretations. Purdue OWL provides guides on academic writing styles and techniques.

Peer Review : Engage with peers for feedback on your work to gain new insights and identify potential biases. Academia.edu is a platform for sharing research and receiving feedback from the academic community.

Continual Learning : Stay updated with the latest research and historiographical debates in your field. Google Scholar is useful for tracking recent publications.

By integrating these approaches, historians can significantly enhance their historiographical skills and contribute more effectively to the understanding of history.

How to Display Historiography Skills on Your Resume

5. Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis, in the context of a historian, involves the systematic statistical examination of historical data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships. It quantifies historical evidence using numerical values, allowing for a more objective interpretation of past events and phenomena.

Quantitative analysis is important for historians because it enables the systematic examination of measurable and verifiable data, facilitating the identification of patterns, trends, and correlations in historical events, thereby providing a more objective and precise understanding of the past.

How to Improve Quantitative Analysis Skills

Improving quantitative analysis, especially for a historian, involves enhancing skills in statistical methods, data interpretation, and critical thinking. Here’s a concise guide:

Strengthen Statistical Knowledge : Familiarize yourself with basic statistical concepts and tools. Khan Academy offers comprehensive statistics and probability courses .

Learn Software Tools : Acquire proficiency in data analysis software like Excel, R, or SPSS. Coursera provides a useful course on Data Analysis and Statistical Inference which can be beneficial.

Practice Data Interpretation : Regularly analyze and interpret historical data sets. Practice makes perfect. The Programming Historian offers tutorials relevant to historians looking to enhance their quantitative analysis skills through practical examples.

Enhance Critical Thinking : Engage in critical analysis of statistical studies in historical contexts. This skill is vital for questioning and understanding the data you work with.

Join Workshops and Seminars : Participate in quantitative methods workshops or seminars targeted at historians. These can provide hands-on experience and networking opportunities. Keep an eye on announcements from historical associations and academic institutions.

Consult Academic Journals : Read scholarly articles focusing on quantitative analysis in history. Journals like the Journal of Interdisciplinary History often publish studies that employ quantitative methods, providing insights and examples of how to integrate these techniques into your research.

By combining these strategies, you can significantly improve your quantitative analysis skills, making your historical research more robust and insightful.

How to Display Quantitative Analysis Skills on Your Resume

6. Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis, for a historian, involves examining non-numerical data such as texts, documents, artifacts, and interviews to understand historical events, contexts, and perspectives, focusing on meanings, themes, and patterns.

Qualitative analysis is crucial for historians because it enables them to interpret and understand the complexities of human behavior, societal changes, and cultural contexts through detailed examination of primary sources, narratives, and symbols. This approach allows historians to construct meaningful explanations of past events and trends beyond mere quantitative data, enriching our comprehension of history.

How to Improve Qualitative Analysis Skills

Improving qualitative analysis, especially for historians, involves enhancing the rigor and depth of interpretive methods. Here are concise strategies with relevant resources:

Refine Research Questions : Develop focused, nuanced questions that guide your investigation. This sharpens the analysis by concentrating on specific aspects of historical phenomena. Developing Research Questions.

Diverse Sources : Utilize a wide range of primary and secondary sources to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the historical context. This diversification can introduce multiple perspectives. Using Primary Sources.

Critical Source Evaluation : Critically assess the reliability, bias, and perspective of each source. This critical approach to sources is essential for a nuanced analysis. Evaluating Historical Sources .

Thematic Coding : Organize data into themes or categories related to your research question. This helps in identifying patterns or trends in the historical narrative. Thematic Analysis .

Theoretical Framework : Apply relevant historical theories or models to interpret your findings. This framework can provide a deeper understanding of the forces at play. Choosing a Theoretical Framework .

Peer Review : Engage with peers for feedback and critique. This collaborative process can refine your analysis and expose overlooked aspects. The Importance of Peer Review.

Iterative Analysis : View your analysis as an ongoing process. Revisit and revise your interpretations as new evidence or perspectives emerge. The Iterative Process of Qualitative Research .

By applying these strategies, historians can enhance the depth, reliability, and complexity of their qualitative analyses.

How to Display Qualitative Analysis Skills on Your Resume

7. GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a digital tool that captures, stores, analyzes, and presents geographical and spatial data, enabling historians to visually analyze and interpret historical events, trends, and patterns in relation to geography.

GIS is important for historians because it provides powerful tools to visualize, analyze, and interpret spatial and temporal data, allowing them to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships in historical events, movements, and developments over time and space.

How to Improve GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Skills

Improving GIS skills, especially for historians, involves a blend of enhancing technical proficiency, integrating historical context, and leveraging the right resources. Here's a concise guide:

Enhance Technical Skills : Start with mastering GIS software like ArcGIS or QGIS . Online tutorials and courses are available on platforms like Coursera and Udemy.

Historical Data Analysis : Focus on incorporating historical datasets, understanding spatial relationships over time. The Old Maps Online portal can be a valuable resource for finding historical maps.

GIS Methodology for Historians : Apply GIS methodologies specific to historical research. The Programming Historian offers lessons on digital tools for historians, including GIS.

Spatial Thinking : Develop spatial thinking by studying how historical events are influenced by geography. Books and articles on historical geography can provide insights.

Networking and Collaboration : Join GIS and history forums or groups, such as H-Net , for discussions, advice, and collaborative opportunities.

Attend Workshops and Conferences : Look for workshops and conferences that focus on the intersection of GIS and history, such as those hosted by the Social Science History Association .

By following these steps, historians can significantly improve their GIS skills, enabling them to analyze and visualize historical events and patterns more effectively.

How to Display GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Skills on Your Resume

8. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a software tool used for statistical analysis, particularly useful for historians in analyzing quantitative data to uncover trends, patterns, and relationships within historical datasets.

SPSS is important for a Historian because it offers powerful statistical analysis tools that can uncover patterns, trends, and relationships within historical data, aiding in more accurate interpretations and understanding of past events and societal changes.

How to Improve SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Skills

Improving your skills in SPSS as a historian involves focusing on data management, statistical analysis, and interpretation relevant to historical research. Here are concise steps to enhance your SPSS expertise:

Learn the Basics : Start with understanding the SPSS interface, data entry, and basic functions. IBM’s official SPSS tutorials are a great starting point.

Explore Historical Data Analysis : Concentrate on statistical techniques common in historical research such as time series analysis, crosstabulation, and chi-square tests. The Programming Historian offers guides that, while not SPSS-specific, can help conceptualize analyses relevant to historians.

Advance Your Statistical Knowledge : Enhance your statistical skills with resources tailored to historians. Books like "Quantitative Methods for Historians" (available on platforms like Amazon ) can be very helpful.

Use Online Tutorials and Courses : Platforms like Coursera and Udemy offer courses on SPSS tailored to various skill levels. These can help you understand both basic functions and more complex statistical analyses.

Join SPSS Forums and Communities : Engage with other SPSS users by joining forums such as the IBM SPSS Community . Sharing experiences and solutions can provide insights specific to historical data.

Practice with Historical Datasets : Apply your skills to historical datasets. Websites like The National Archives often provide data suitable for analysis with SPSS. Practice will help you understand the nuances of applying statistical analysis to historical research.

By focusing on these areas, you can significantly improve your proficiency in SPSS for historical research, enhancing both your data analysis capabilities and the quality of your research outputs.

How to Display SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Skills on Your Resume

9. Nvivo (Qualitative Data Analysis Software)

Nvivo is a software tool designed for qualitative data analysis, enabling historians to organize, analyze, and find insights in diverse data types such as interviews, open-ended survey responses, articles, social media, and archival documents. It facilitates the coding process, helps in identifying themes and patterns, and supports the development of evidence-based conclusions, aiding historians in their research and interpretation of historical narratives.

Nvivo is important for historians as it allows for the efficient organization, analysis, and synthesis of vast amounts of qualitative data, such as historical documents, interviews, and multimedia sources. This facilitates a deeper understanding of historical contexts, trends, and narratives.

How to Improve Nvivo (Qualitative Data Analysis Software) Skills

Improving your proficiency in NVivo, particularly from a historian's perspective, involves enhancing your skills in data organization, analysis, and interpretation of historical data. Here are concise steps with relevant resources:

Master the Basics : Begin with NVivo’s own Getting Started Guide to understand the interface and basic functionalities.

Advanced Coding Techniques : Delve into more sophisticated coding strategies to manage complex historical data. The NVivo Advanced Tutorial can be immensely helpful.

Integration with Historical Sources : Learn to integrate diverse historical sources (texts, images, videos) by consulting resources on managing sources in NVivo.

Use Queries for Deep Analysis : Utilize NVivo’s query functions to explore patterns and themes within your historical data. This Queries in NVivo guide provides insights into creating and refining queries.

Visualize Data : Enhance your interpretation of historical data through NVivo’s visualization tools. The guide on Visualizations can help you present your findings effectively.

Engage with the NVivo Community : Join the NVivo Community to share insights, ask questions, and learn from other historians and researchers.

Continuous Learning : Keep updated with new features and methodologies by subscribing to the NVivo Blog, which often features expert advice and case studies.

By focusing on these areas, you can significantly improve your usage of NVivo as a tool for historical research, making your data analysis more efficient and insightful.

How to Display Nvivo (Qualitative Data Analysis Software) Skills on Your Resume

10. Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that leverages digital tools and methods to analyze, interpret, and present historical data, enabling historians to uncover new insights, visualize trends, and engage with broader audiences.

Digital Humanities is important for historians because it enhances research, analysis, and dissemination of historical information through the use of digital tools and methods, allowing for more comprehensive and innovative approaches to understanding the past.

How to Improve Digital Humanities Skills

Improving Digital Humanities, particularly for historians, involves leveraging technology to enhance research, interpretation, and dissemination of historical information. Here are key strategies:

Embrace Digital Archives : Utilize and contribute to digital archives for broader access to historical documents. Websites like Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg are valuable resources.

Data Visualization Tools : Use tools like Tableau or Gephi for visualizing historical data, making complex information accessible and engaging.

Digital Mapping : Employ GIS and mapping software like ArcGIS or StoryMapJS for spatial analysis of historical events, trends, and movements.

Text Analysis Tools : Apply text analysis tools such as Voyant Tools to examine patterns, themes, and frequencies in historical documents, providing new insights.

Collaborative Platforms : Participate in collaborative digital humanities projects or platforms like Zooniverse which offer opportunities for public engagement and crowdsourced research.

Continual Learning : Keep updated with digital humanities trends and tools through resources like Digital Humanities Now and Programming Historian .

By integrating these digital strategies, historians can enhance their research capabilities, engage with wider audiences, and contribute more effectively to the field of Digital Humanities.

How to Display Digital Humanities Skills on Your Resume

11. Oral History

Oral history is a method used by historians to gather firsthand accounts from individuals about their experiences, memories, and perceptions of historical events, through recorded interviews. This technique supplements written records, offering a more personal and diverse perspective on the past.

Oral history is crucial for historians as it provides personal, firsthand accounts of events, cultures, and experiences that may not be documented in written records, thus offering unique insights and perspectives that enrich our understanding of the past.

How to Improve Oral History Skills

Improving oral history involves enhancing both the collection and analysis of oral testimonies. Here's a concise guide:

Preparation : Deeply research your topic to formulate insightful questions. The Oral History Association offers resources on best practices.

Ethics : Obtain informed consent, ensuring interviewees understand the purpose and use of their testimony. The Oral History Society provides ethical guidelines.

Technical Quality : Use high-quality recording equipment to ensure clear audio. The British Library suggests equipment and techniques for high-quality recordings.

Interviewing Skills : Develop strong listening skills and the ability to ask follow-up questions. The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide offers tips on conducting effective interviews.

Transcription and Preservation : Accurately transcribe interviews and store them in a format that ensures long-term preservation. The Library of Congress provides guidelines on digital formats for preservation.

Analysis and Interpretation : Contextualize the oral histories within broader historical narratives, critically analyzing them for biases and perspectives. Columbia University's Oral History Master of Arts teaches methods for analyzing oral histories.

Accessibility and Sharing : Make your findings accessible to both the academic community and the public. The Digital Public Library of America offers a platform for sharing digital oral history collections.

By focusing on these aspects, historians can significantly improve the quality and impact of their oral history projects.

How to Display Oral History Skills on Your Resume

12. Paleography

Paleography is the study of ancient and historical handwriting, enabling historians to read and interpret manuscripts and documents from the past.

Paleography is crucial for historians as it enables them to decipher, read, and interpret ancient manuscripts, thus providing direct access to original sources and insights into historical contexts, cultures, and languages, enhancing the accuracy and depth of historical research and understanding.

How to Improve Paleography Skills

To improve paleography skills, a historian should:

Study Transcriptions : Start by examining transcribed documents alongside their originals. This practice helps in understanding the common forms of letters and abbreviations used in different periods. Websites like Medieval Writing offer valuable resources.

Take Online Courses : Enroll in online courses or workshops that focus on paleography. The National Archives provides an excellent introduction to reading old handwriting.

Practice Regularly : Regular transcription practice is crucial. Try to transcribe a few lines of a document every day, gradually increasing complexity. Websites like The Latin Library contain numerous texts for practice.

Learn Historical Context : Understanding the historical context of the documents you're studying can provide insights into their content and language usage. This knowledge can be gained through academic books, journals, and online history resources.

Utilize Software : Certain software, such as Adobe Photoshop, can be used to enhance difficult-to-read documents, making transcription easier. Learning basic image editing skills can be beneficial.

Join Forums and Groups : Online forums and social media groups dedicated to paleography can offer support, advice, and resources. One such forum is the Paleography and Manuscript Studies group on Facebook.

Attend Workshops and Seminars : Look for workshops, seminars, and conferences on paleography and manuscript studies. These can provide hands-on experience and networking opportunities with experts in the field.

By integrating these strategies, historians can substantially improve their paleography skills, enhancing their research capabilities and understanding of historical documents.

How to Display Paleography Skills on Your Resume

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Archive skills and tools for historians

Sean cunningham.

Not all historians choose to, or need to, use archival collections to conduct innovative and exciting research. Some historians continue to command the respect of their peers (and their publishers) at a considerable physical or intellectual distance from the unique manuscripts and papers usually associated with archival collections.

Nevertheless, many professional historians associate archival research with their rite of passage into the profession. At some point in their careers most scholars have devoted several long weeks to the systematic examination of the carefully sorted primary sources in their chosen field of study. Few historians would disagree that the refereed article, monograph or scholarly study requires a range of evidence, some of which will be extracted from documents held in archives, and used as the basis of discussion and argument.

Since the nature and format of records relative to particular subject areas and periods of history has changed little, so one might expect that the evolution of the associated archival skills of historians has been a slow process. This has probably been the case for decades, if not over centuries of historical and antiquarian study. This particular aspect of the discipline of historical study, however, is now subject to a process of great change.

Historians’ interaction with archives has been dominated by the need to identify the range of material within collections, to access relevant documents, and to interpret their contents productively. By no means does all investigation of the past require the consultation of the written word. Although diaries, letters, deeds, accounts, enrolments, depositions or notebooks might come to mind when archival collections are visualised, archives now contain film, photographs and sound collections.

These sources lend themselves to particular types of research activity limited to the recent past by nature of the widespread adoption of such technologies as archival sources. Despite the non-paper format of this material, it is still likely to be identified and accessed through printed or published guides, finding aids, indexes, lists and catalogues.

The process by which the documents were approached was traditionally explained in studies produced by archivists and administrative historians. The range and depth of this material varied, but as a body of work it was intended to provide a solid foundation upon which to build archival research skills. Thus, T. F. Tout ’s Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England ( 1 ) remains the clearest guide to how departments of crown governance worked before the 15th century.

Other guides have appeared as the range of archival sources has expanded. From Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte’s Historical Notes on the Use of the Great Seal of England ,( 2 ) to Anne Thurston’s Sources for Colonial Studies in the Public Record Office ,( 3 ) or Michael Roper’s The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660–1964 ,( 4 ) historians have sought a reliable context for the sources that they use. Institutions such as the Public Record Office (PRO)/National Archives (TNA) have also provided highly specialised handbooks, such as David Crook’s Records of the General Eyre ,( 5 ) that now serve as standard scholarly introductions to groups of sources or spheres of historical study.

Many archives also produce a range of more specific subject-based research guides, memoranda and source sheets. Others have complex introductory notes to specific document collections. These guides serve to steer historians through archival collections. They not only introduce series of documents and their interrelationships, but also offer some explanation of technical issues such as abbreviations, palaeography, archaic terminology and obsolete referencing systems. This corpus of information has been routinely accessible only through the collections in major libraries or in the archives where the documents themselves are housed. The process of background research, interpretation and consultation of original documents has in the past taken place within the scholarly environment of major libraries and archival search rooms. This activity was the essential preliminary stage in the approach of manuscript sources. However, fundamental changes are now happening to the way historians access archival collections and how they interpret archival sources.

First, archival source material is changing from paper to born-digital documents, images and website content. In areas such as the preserved public records of government activity, archives are nearing the point where paper files cease to be the main materials accessioned from government departments. In future, databases, word-processed documents, archived emails, spreadsheets and digital presentations are more likely to form the archival sources upon which core aspects of national history from the late 20th century onwards must be based.

This is a fundamental fact, and an immense departure from centuries of records management based on parchment and paper collections. TNA is taking rigorous steps to address the problems associated with the indefinite storage of, and future access to, digital government records . Contemporary historians are thus obliged to make a shift in approaches to the format of their primary sources, and future historians will have to follow.

Second, digitisation of paper and parchment documents, both as part of major projects and as the routine business of archives, is altering how archival material is utilised by historians. There is no doubt that many historians are heavily encouraged by their institutions to develop and lead research projects funded by major grant-giving bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the British Academy , the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Since many archives cannot lead on such bids because of their uncertain status as research institutions, partnership funding bids between the archival and university sectors are now common. Although this relationship has existed for decades, the rise of affordable digital technology and the opportunities of access presented by the Internet are driving new strategic relationships between historians and archivists in the formatting and accessibility of archival collections. To some extent, historians are now far more involved than before in the presentation of archival material to research audiences. Such a reduction in the distance between archival and historical research activity is very welcome, and will strengthen the basis for future collaboration between sectors.

Complex search engines, such as those developed by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities for a pioneering AHRC-funded project – the Fine Rolls of Henry III – are challenging fundamental approaches to archival research. Where sophisticated digital ontologies are mapping relationships between strands of data, the research possibilities of groups of manuscripts previously seen individually in their original format are now expanding at a bewildering rate. The successful reception of this type of hybrid catalogue/calendar/image website, which is also producing printed resources, is helping to create a standard for means of access to large volumes of data alongside images of original documents.

Digitisation of original documents by several projects has accelerated the creation of ‘virtual reading rooms’. For example, the Anglo-American legal tradition website at the University of Houston now contains over 2 million digital images of medieval and early modern English legal records from the central law courts at Westminster. These images are accessed via a no-frills website without metadata or search functionality and are arranged by the court, regnal year and law term to which they relate. In order to get the most from this resource, users still require the requisite traditional interpretative archival skills in Latin, Anglo-Norman French and palaeography, and experience of the abbreviated format of the documents created by the medieval legal system.

Without accurate reproduction of the original internal manuscript referencing structure, it also becomes harder to cite such images as if one had consulted the original . The inferred emphasis from the website owner is that the online surrogate of the document, and not its parchment original, should be cited by historians using the resource. This problem presents difficulties of its own, yet the key advance remains: for those scholars who find themselves thousands of miles from the UK National Archives at Kew, this site places the documents at their fingertips.

The Fine Rolls example above demonstrates what can be achieved when historians, archivists and technologists co-operate productively. The Anglo-American legal tradition site shows how digital technology now enables a very small number of researchers to capture vast amounts of data – in this case unadorned document images. With the right type of sustained backing from a stable institution, striking developments in access to the archival resources available to historians are now within the compass of determined individual scholars.

Technology is facilitating great leaps in the development of systems for constructing search functionality. We might be nearing the point where off-the-shelf toolkits become available for local archives and history societies to produce and maintain their own document-based websites and search databases. Since the pressure upon historians to secure financial backing for research projects means that competition for major project funding has never been fiercer, a possible route for further collaboration between historians and archivists is to grasp this affordable technology and create resources tailor-made to specific research projects or groups of sources, without the need to rely on the lottery of major grant applications.

Potential difficulties are presented by this rapid expansion in digital technology . As archives give permission for digital images of entire document series to be captured by individuals, or licensed for publication as web-based resources, it might become harder for historians to secure funding for major analytical projects if digital versions of the relevant documents already exist as part of unrelated websites.

Furthermore, although backing for the maintenance of websites and databases might seem secure at present, and might be guaranteed for the foreseeable future, there can be no absolute certainty that institutions will offer the same assurances in 100 years’ time. Regular maintenance is also necessary to make readable the format of today’s digital resources far into the future. Although the medium of print offers limited access when compared to web-based resources, it remains a format that has proved to be stable. With the end of funding for the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) in April 2008, there is no longer a central repository for the data generated by historians’ research projects.

If, as seems likely, online archival sources proliferate expansively, and remote viewing of digital document images becomes a mainstay of access to archival collections, should not some central agency co-ordinate the preservation of this digital information? Whereas AHDS stored data, there is not yet an equivalent repository for data and digital images generated by funded research projects.

There has been remarkable investment from grant giving bodies in various fields of historical research. The digital products of this support represent resources upon which the entire community of historians can draw, but at present the long-term sustainability of, and access to, these resources remains unclear. Without careful consideration and discussion between individual grant holders, universities, research councils, grant giving charities, archives and IT systems developers, datasets and digital images might become locked into obsolete software formats and rendered inaccessible as technology moves on rapidly. Historians and archivists have much work to do in order to make digital resources both sustainable and accessible in the long term.

A third broad area where historians’ archival skills must develop concerns catalogues and indexes. The arrival of unique digital records and digital surrogates of existing paper material is forcing a change in the processes through which archived documents are accessed. While developments in accessibility might allow historians to draw archival references together more productively, the main priority for archives that are producing digital images of their collections – either through licensed partnerships, or from their own resources – is to create full descriptions and comprehensive search functionality. The fuller the archival description of documents, the easier it is for historians to devote their analytical and interpretative training to unlocking the evidence that those documents contain.

The advent of born-digital records and digital surrogates has driven the development of searchable catalogues, both for documents that have been converted into digital format, and those that remain in their original form. Catalogues and indexes therefore remain the keys to accessibility. All archives are now working to improve the level of detail and contextualisation offered by the descriptions of the records that they hold.

Where online catalogue descriptions of documents are particularly full, the need to consult original papers or manuscripts diminishes. Most historians require the information contained within source material, and if that can be supplied in surrogate or comprehensively summarised form, then the need to view the physical primary source becomes less necessary (this was always the function of published calendars).

The almost incomprehensible volume of information on the Internet, and the speed with which relevant documents can be located, is also affecting the expectations of those engaged in archival research. The proliferation of online catalogues has created the mistaken assumption that all archival documents are fully described and accessible through electronic, web-based catalogues. This is not the case, since conversion and restructuring of existing lists and indexes is a complex and resource-intensive process for archives. Many decades of such activity lie ahead, even in the best resourced archives, before online catalogues come to represent a complete inventory of particular archival holdings.

This assumption does not really arise among those historians who have laboured previously with paper and manuscript lists in archival search rooms. Their skills have had to become more adaptable as the possibilities of new technologies have been embraced. For those who have entered their careers with access to online catalogues and documents as a familiar basis for their research skills, the adjustment to paper indexes found only in archives, contemporary registry systems and layered arrangements of former references can be something of a shock.

A new archival skill historians must adopt relates to the process of gaining accurate information on the completeness of online catalogues when compared to more comprehensive lists that existed in paper form. Scholars have always balanced their willingness to trawl archival collections against the level of detail contained in catalogues and indexes.

A fourth major change in the range of historians’ archival skills stems from the proliferation of activity to convert paper lists and indexes into Internet-based searchable catalogues. The most dramatic archival development of the past 15 years has been the phenomenal rate at which the Internet has permitted linked catalogues to comb through the descriptions of several collections at once. The Access to Archives (A2A) website , for example, links electronic catalogues of around 400 archives within England and Wales. The National Archives’ Global Search facility links catalogues, databases and project websites in a seamless search. Navigating these websites under a single keyword produces in seconds what, only ten years ago, would have taken months to achieve by page-turning and physical travelling between institutions.

Since no standard has yet been adopted for the structure and presentation of digital image collections, some difficulties are emerging as systems are developed for specific, rather than universal, audiences. In the recent past, publishers’ editorial conventions and the personal preferences of editors had the effect of screening certain kinds of evidence and information from printed calendars and guides. Such editions were the pre-digital equivalent of the websites and databases that are now revolutionising broad access to archival information. There are now numerous examples where search engines developed primarily for commercial and mass-market appeal often do not serve the academic historian fully.

For example, the data involved in indexing the online versions of the 1841–1901 census records, runs to tens of millions of names for each survey. Yet the search options are constructed around genealogical investigation. Historians hoping to use the English and Welsh census to facilitate possible scholarly studies of people engaged in particular trades in a town, migration, social mobility or surname distribution, will have to work hard to extract data from resources constructed for single name searching.

Many researchers seeking digital copies of documents contained in TNA’s DocumentsOnline website are also steered towards searches for individuals (although the range of core executive documents is expanding rapidly, and more flexible searches are possible with some imaginative manipulation of the search fields). Clearly, the need to generate income makes this genealogical approach an economically sustainable option. It does, however, limit the broadest utility of some digitised documents, and this trend has not benefited academic historians as well as it might have done.

Several catalogues have employed inconsistent standards to the entry of keyword data upon which searches are based. The shortcomings of the TNA’s Catalogue in this area are perhaps more prominent because of the sheer size of its database, and the fact that it is the product of several years’ worth of layered development and overlapping data entry. Searching for early wills on the DocumentsOnline site, for example, frequently requires practical knowledge of the variants of medieval and early modern spellings of personal names, since searches will only return results if the search terms match exactly the catalogued content (or its stem). This is also the case in other catalogues, where results might be missed unless alternate spellings of search terms are considered.

The skill levels historians need in order to interpret and analyse manuscripts have remained consistent throughout these developments in the format though which documents are studied. Digital catalogues have focused primarily on problems of access to manuscript collections; especially where previous arrangements have been explained as part of the process.

The skills required to interpret and analyse the contents of web versions of documents remains less well developed, since generic help is difficult to present in anything but a basic level within online resources. The onus remains with historians to acquire and extend the skills they need to extract the required evidence from relevant documents. For those historians who already possessed mastery of their documents, the digital world of access to, and presentation of, primary source material has made few new demands on their fundamental skills in administrative history, languages and diplomatic, etc.

Archivists might be forgiven for thinking that in some cases historians’ archival skills are now focused primarily upon mastering the technologies of their laptop and digital camera software in order to minimise the time they spend within search rooms. The process of understanding the content and context of the documents under investigation is becoming something that historians no longer have to attempt within archives to the same extent as they have done in the past. Although a gross generalisation, digital technology is allowing this phase of the research process to be conducted in front of a computer rather than before a manuscript or departmental file. The ability to capture hundreds of digital images in a day (in those archives that permit free use of digital cameras) has certainly altered the focus of archival researchers.

The massive transformation underway in access to archival information should not cloud the fact that the discipline of history still requires the full range of analytical and interpretative skills that have always been at the core of the best type of archival research. The format through which primary source material is accessed is certainly changing: from paper or parchment indexes and documents studied within archival search rooms, to searchable catalogues and digital images of documents viewed by computer. The content of these texts and documents remains the same, so in one sense the interpretative archival skills necessary to decipher them are unchanged. Historians’ archival energies are now directed wholeheartedly at sifting through the proliferating range of online information relevant to their field of study.

There is no doubt that the best Internet resources for historical investigation are revolutionising access to texts and documents and developing the way in which archives are used. But is there not already a danger that historians’ reliance upon digital resources is mismatched to the completeness and dependability that those resources presently offer? With most historians physically distant from major archival collections, it is easy to understand why comprehensive and accurate resources such as British History Online (BHO) have become so well used and respected within certain research communities but not all historians are so well served.

The discipline of archival research is therefore in a period of flux. The first stages of contextual research can now be carried out online. Calendars, textual summaries of documents, articles and administrative histories are accessible via websites like BHO, Google Books or JSTOR . Consultation of major collections of digital document surrogates can be conducted from any suitably equipped PC or laptop. The physical separateness of historians from archives is progressing as archival information and parts of archival collections become almost instantly accessible online. An entire range of new archival skills related to information manipulation and access are being added to traditional techniques of document interpretation.

The benefits brought by immediate universal access to sources via the Internet are raising new issues over completeness, reliability and sustainability of archival resources. Historians and archivists are at the centre of these developments, and will continue to work together closely to ensure that the discipline of history continues to benefit from the recent rise of digital online resources.

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Dr Sean Cunningham is Medieval and Early Modern Records Manager at The National Archives

The Institute of Historical Research © 2008

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Becoming a Historian Careers & Salary Outlook

Skills to acquire.

• Alternative Paths
• Career & Salary

Get Matched With Colleges

What is a historian.

The job of a historian is to find and utilize historical documents, records, newspapers, photographs, films, diaries, books, letters, and artifacts in order to describe and define the developments that occurred in the period of study over time. The historian must first gather data from a variety of sources, make hypotheses about the data gathered, and begin to form conclusions about all of these aspects of life at that particular time and place.

The study of history includes finding out about the culture, religions, belief systems, governmental, and political structures, art, ways of living, architecture, and events that occurred in a specific place and time. These findings will need to be shared or published in some manner. Publishing of historical findings may include reports, books, websites, exhibits in museums, or journals.

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Search programs, steps to becoming a historian.

A historian needs to first graduate from high school and go on to earn a history degree at a 4-year institution. Upon receiving one's bachelor's degree, the prospective historian needs to attend a graduate program in their chosen area of specialization. Some jobs as historians require the candidate to have received a Ph.D. in their specialization within history. In such a competitive field, a historian candidate must do work in the field as they proceed through their college education to gain work experience.

Step 1: Become a Great Reader

Step 2: Search for a College and Secure Financial Aid

Step 3: Earn Your Bachelor's Degree

Step 4: participate in paid work, internships, or volunteer work in the field, step 5: complete a master's degree program, step 6: complete a doctorate program (optional).

This may seem trivial, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that historians are in a highly competitive job market. There are a lot of people competing for a smaller number of positions. Historians need to be able to read historical documents and records from the time period in question and thoroughly comprehend their meaning, even when the historical documents are written in a form of English, or other language, that is not in current usage. Historians need to read between the lines to determine the truth of what was happening at a given period of time. Struggling readers will not be up to the rigor and demands of the reading load of a historian.

Great reading is achieved by reading widely. That actually begins in elementary school. Students at all grade levels should be reading every night, choosing from a variety of types of text to read. Historians also need to read a wide variety of historical texts on a wide variety of topics in order to formulate ideas about how people lived in the past.

Students who are struggling readers need to seek tutoring or other professional reading remediation in order to be able to read at their present grade level, synthesize information from a variety of sources, and come up with new ideas. This is exactly what a historian needs to do.

Step 2: Find a College and Secure Financial Aid

Research schools and universities that have highly-regarded history departments. Find colleges that appeal to your sense of history and the proper role of historians in society. With your SAT scores in hand, apply to the colleges that you have narrowed down to be the best fit for you.

If your parents have not saved enough money to put you through a full 4-year ride at the college of your choice, you will need to secure financial aid to cover the shortfall. This begins when you fills out the FAFSA, a federal government online form that allows students to apply for financial aid through their state, their college, and other sources of scholarships, grants, loans, and financial aid. If your state has a grant program, you will need to apply to that as well. Search for other sources of scholarships and grants to cover your shortfall in financial resources to cover all of the expenses for your first four years of college.

• Option 1 Since there are fewer positions for historians in a highly competitive field, you will need to keep your grades up and graduate near the top of your class. If your university has any societies that you can join as a history major, be sure to be an active member and include it on your resumes for jobs. You want to come out of your program with impeccable historical research skills that you can explain clearly and lucidly in an interview.
• Option 2 The only exception to the guidance on progressing through one's bachelor's degree is if you have your sights on becoming a history teacher in the school system. If this is the case, you must determine in advance of beginning your bachelor's degree program. In some states, you’ll need to have history as a major and be simultaneously taking teaching methods coursework. Each state is different in this regard.

Since history is a highly competitive field, prospective historians in their bachelor's degree programs need to work in volunteer, intern, or paid positions that allow them to break into the field. Potential internships might be in museums, county historical societies, historical research organizations and even living history sites, such as the State of California Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma. It may be harder to obtain paid work, but internships and volunteer work in the field are plentiful.

Williams College has a great list of nationwide internship opportunities for historian candidates.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), very few jobs for historians are available for those candidates with bachelor's degrees in history. One notable exception is becoming a museum technician. Otherwise, people with bachelor's degrees in history pursue careers in journalism, law, or business, if they do not go into public-school teaching. Most historians have a master's or doctorate in history as a minimum requirement for work in the field.

For those who choose to work as a historian at a museum, historical archives, or at a historical society, they’ll have to search for a suitable program that matches the specialization that they would like to pursue in their career, although a general master's degree in history is also available at many institutions. Specialization master's degree programs for historian candidates include programs in museum studies, preservation of historical artifacts, management of archives, and public history. Other programs that specialize focus on particular historical places or eras.

Many graduate programs will require the student to do an internship as a part of their program. It is strongly suggested that the historian candidate pursue an internship even if their program does not have this as a requirement.

Also, the American Historical Association suggests that bachelor's graduates in history ask themselves some questions to determine the focus of their graduate program. You have to determine if each potential graduate program can offer the combination of skills and information that will mean that, at the end of your program, you’ll have the skills you need in order to enter and thrive in this field. For example, some specializations of history may require you to spend time in another country learning the language to a degree of fluency.

Those students who choose to teach history at the college level, with the exception of junior colleges, will need a doctorate in history.

The other career path in history that requires a doctorate is historical research. Ph.D. candidates in history will specialize in an era, a field of history, or a place in the world. Internship experiences are again highly recommended at this level of education as well, due to the highly competitive nature of this field.

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What does a historian do.

The work of a historian depends entirely upon their specialization within the field. In general, unless they are conducting field work at a historical site, historians work indoors. They tend to work a day shift, unless they are self-employed.

Depending upon their career path, historians may be teaching history to students in a public school, community college, or university using research-based teaching methods they have learned in their classes.

Other historians are responsible for validating, maintaining, and retrieving information from historical archives. Some are responsible for examining the contents of historical archival information and making conclusions about the history of a particular place and time. Still others are responsible for setting up, creating, and maintaining museum displays of historical artifacts.

A quarter of all historians are employed by the federal government, compiling, creating, recording, and interpreting historical information for the government and the general public.

• A thorough, working knowledge of history and archeology
• Reading comprehension in order to analyze historical records, documents, and artifacts
• Writing skills in order to report one's research findings and conclusions
• Speaking and other communication skills as another means of reporting one's findings and conclusions
• Analytical skills in order to make hypotheses and come to conclusions about historical information and how it relates to how a society functioned in the past
• Research skills, such as being able to find information, make hypotheses, and draw well-founded conclusions
• Problem-solving skills in order to determine how events unfolded in a particular place and time
• Software skills such as the ability to create presentations and websites and utilize archival databases and reference software
• Archival skills such as the ability to keep records and artifacts from decay and information cataloging and retrieval skills

Alternative Paths to Become a Historian

Typically archival historians have a master's in public history or management of archives, but another viable master's degree is one in library science. This teaches the students such a similar skill set and allows for work either as a librarian or as an archival historian. There are new programs at universities that are blended programs offering both public history and library science classes for archivist historian candidates.

Another viable possibility that the Organization of American Historians suggests is that students don't necessarily need a bachelor's in history to get employment in the field. They advise that even students who received their bachelor's degrees in such fields as political science, anthropology, or English can still be admitted into a master's program in history.

Another possibility is for a historian candidate to pursue and receive their bachelor's in history, become a museum technician, and work their way up the career ladder to further and higher employment in the history field in a museum. Given the highly competitive nature of the job market over so few coveted positions, though, this path is not advisable, nor is it likely to allow one employment at higher levels within the field.

Historian Careers & Salary for Graduates

Where might you work.

One-quarter of all historians work for the federal government. Some work for public schools and colleges. They also work for historical societies, museums, research organizations, non-profit companies, or as consultants

Potential Career Paths for History Graduates

There is a great variety in the career paths of historians. They can focus upon education, research, archiving historical data, compiling and analyzing government data, or working in a museum.

Museum Technician Museum technicians work under a conservator in order to maintain, restore, or prepare museum pieces for display, research, or exhibition. They also identify and catalog artifacts.

Secondary History Teacher These educators share their love of history and a historical context with high school students.

Historian These researchers gather information from the past in order to form hypotheses and ultimately conclusions about some aspect of life in a certain place and time. They present their findings and conclusions to further our understanding of what happened in the past.

College History Professor Like most teachers, they are responsible for imparting information and knowledge to students, but these teachers also create future educators and historians with a huge impact on the field.

Archivist Archivists collect, store, catalog, and retrieve historical artifacts, documents, and data.

Museum Curator Manages and oversees the collection and exhibition of important historical displays at museums. The curator will need to be able to gather the pieces, create a theme, and oversee or create a visual presentation of the artifacts, information, photographs, videos, and documents.

Museum Conservator Conservators ensure that the artifacts on display at a museum are recorded, preserved, and restored as needed. They ensure that displays keep artifacts from decaying or degenerating.

Museum Exhibit Designer/Content Creator These historians put together artifacts, documents, and multi-media in order to tell a story in a museum display about a particular aspect of history.

Federal, State, and Local Historians These historians analyze and compile historical data and trends for federal, state, and local governments.

Historic Preservation/Architectural Historians These historians work to preserve and properly display historical buildings and other structures. They often work for historical societies or federal, state, or local governments.

Career Outlook

In general, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that the occupation of historian is going to increase at a rate of 6%, which is average among occupations. The problem is that the number of jobs for historians is not as high as the number of new workers that join the labor market with the qualifications for such careers.

Some of the careers in history will be increasing at a greater pace than the rest of the field. There is more of a demand in the museum industry, since advances in technology have created more opportunity for large changes in how museums will display their collections to the public. The same is true of the archival field. There will be more growth in the archival field for archivists than in other positions for trained historians.

Future Education to Advance Your Career

Advancement within the career path of historian depends upon one's specific career within the field. Public school and junior college history teachers can advance into administration by pursuing additional credentialing through accredited programs. College professors at 4-year institutions will want to get on the tenure track in order to have the benefits full-time and dependable employment. At some institutions, this will involve engaging in research in addition to one's teaching responsibilities.

Federal historians can move up the job ladder by receiving more training in library and archival science or museum studies. This allows them to work up to higher federal job classifications with higher pay scales. Another trend is for archivists to have additional library science training as a means of moving up the job ladder.

Museum historians can work their way up the job ladder, create more job security, or improve their pay through receiving training in the new technology that is beginning to change the entire field of museum displays and interpretation.

Find Historian Jobs Near You

Frequently asked questions, what does a historian do.

Historians study and preserve cultural history. They study, research, and analyze historical artifacts and documents.

How much do historians make?

Historians make around $63,000 annually according to Payscale.

Where do historians work?

Historians can work in archives, research organizations, museums, and historical societies.

How long does it take to become a historian?

Most historian positions require a master's degree. Some jobs can be done with a bachelor's degree such as a history teacher or a museum technician. Most people with a bachelor's history degree work in other areas such as journalism, law, or business.

What qualities should historians have?

Historians need writing skills, communication, analytical skills, research skills, and problem solving skills. Historians also need a thorough knowledge of history and archeology as well as reading and writing skills.

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• American Historical Association
• National Council on Public History
• Organization of American Historians

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The Profession

Teaching History, Doing Research: Personal Perspectives from a Secondary School Teacher

Thomas Honsa | Sep 1, 2011

The American historical community sits atop a veritable gold mine. There exists in its midst a vast, heretofore underused resource that can effectively introduce the public to stories, issues, and characters from the past that may otherwise remain overlooked. In fact, many people never deal in their lifetimes with any history authority other than a member of this too-often-overlooked group—secondary school history teachers. At a time when commentators lament Americans' historical ignorance and academics decry their apparent inability or unwillingness to realize history is an interpretation of conflicting sources rather than a mere recitation of events, public school teachers have a distinct opportunity to augment the bond between Americans and their past.

The mounting pressures on public educators—ranging from requirements of increased accountability to deployment of decreased resources—are widely reported, and many people believe this is hardly the time to burden teachers with additional professional expectations. What more can public school teachers do to make an enhanced contribution to the betterment of themselves, their students, the communities in which they work, and even the historical profession itself? There may be many answers to this question, but one that seems to combine all of these results is for teachers to conduct and publish original research.

Difficult as it might be to believe, public school teachers do have many opportunities to conduct and publish original research based on primary sources, without diminishing their time and efforts in the classroom. While the articles produced by such research may not grace the pages of the more prestigious historical journals, that need not be the secondary educator's primary goal. A teacher who spends 180 school days trying to make the past relevant and meaningful to adolescents probably develops skills necessary to popularize the local past, something many university historians tend to overlook while they conduct differently focused research.

Every community in America has its share of pioneers, eccentrics, and events that may be long forgotten, or even considered nothing more than local legend. Nevertheless, all these have left a documentary trail that a researcher can explore. Especially appropriate may be landmarks, whether long gone or still standing, that reveal broader understanding about an area's founding and growth. churches, government facilities and public attractions frequently offer ready archives, and are the kinds of places that generate natural civic interest.

The good news for public educators once they find appropriate topics is the final form of the published research findings. Since the topic may be too local or esoteric for national or even regional significance, articles must often be directed to a local audience. Many American cities and metropolitan areas have magazines that cater to limited community interests and that will consider unsolicited submissions. The City and Regional Magazine Association lists 70 such members in its directory. Many newspapers will also accept well-written articles from local professionals. Finally, there is an abundance of trade and limited-interest magazines, both traditional and online, that offer publishing opportunities to non-staff writers (for example, I have published in magazines as diverse as Florida Monthly , the Stained Glass Quarterly , and the UN Association's Interdependent ). Such publications usually limit articles to 1,500 words. This is a perfectly realistic length for the harried public school history teacher. The educator may have to string out research over the course of the school year and dedicate a portion of winter and summer breaks to writing and the often more difficult task of finding a publisher, but shorter pieces mean that this is a realistic goal.

The tools useful to secondary educators conducting research are familiar to all historians. First and foremost are local public, college, and historical records libraries. Additionally, some localities have historical societies that collect everything from personal narratives to tourism publicity campaigns to local pageant results. The internet, of course, is another great resource, especially if one can access electronic databases. The greater challenge facing secondary school researcher, however, is finding publishers.

While local newspapers and magazines are receptive to their work, the economic realities of modern media present fewer publishing opportunities. One local publisher rejected an article of mine relating the history of a failed 1950s tourist attraction. He said the story could hurt present day real estate advertising from that area. The internet can help overcome these obstacles. Web searches often reveal print and, increasingly, online publications that cater to audiences interested in particular types of architecture, subcultures, or businesses that may be historically significant in a certain area. Publishing a 1,500-word article on an obscure vaudeville theater may not be financially feasible for a traditional magazine, but may be perfectly realistic for its online counterpart.

Although payment for outside submissions is rare (but not unheard of), there are significant benefits to such efforts. First, teachers will sharpen their interviewing, data analysis, document interpretation and historical analysis skills. These are exactly the types of skills that can bring history alive for students. Such activities also help teachers answer questions like "Why do we have to learn history? " Conducting and publishing original research, even if it is a 1,000-word article in a local magazine, can give their students concrete examples of what historians do, while demonstrating to themselves and others the teachers' proficiency in the field.

Perhaps the most important benefit that comes from publishing is that public school historians can sharpen professional skills they may otherwise lack opportunities to develop. Numerous recent studies have commented on the difficulties secondary educators face in contributing to the broader historical community. In 2004, Jacquelyn Hall, then president of the Organization of American Historians, pointed out that while Americans enthusiastically visit historical sites and watch cable television programs dealing with history, too few teachers have the chance to refine the research skills that can make classroom lessons equally engaging. 1 Meanwhile, Keith Barton and Linda Levstik wrote in Social Education that conducting direct research can help teachers create more exciting open-ended lessons, "precisely the kind of activities that would result from the process of historical inquiry and interpretation." 2

My own experience lends credence to such claims. Researching and writing local history has introduced me to local figures who have helped develop a student walking tour that highlights historical architecture, relate stories from local immigrant and minority communities and examine long forgotten documents of community events. I have been able to invite my students to presentations on topics as diverse as the desegregation of the Florida National Guard and the role the 1927 silent film Skinner's Dress Suit played in local history. Some of my students have used their knowledge to create personally meaningful State History Fair projects on local topics such as the construction of spring training stadiums and significant figures in the struggle for women's rights in the community.

While not every student has eagerly embraced the study of local history, all can benefit at least indirectly from the experiences of public school historians conducting research. Researching and publishing sharpens communication skills in a manner that helps provide the constructive criticism necessary to improve student writing. Dealing with editorial revisions and strict word limits imposed by the professional editor will help teachers to recognize and value crisp, efficient composition. Poring over primary sources helps not only individual analytical skills. Teachers can draw on their own intellectual experiences to develop classroom instruments that encourage students to consider documents in a systematic, progressive way, eventually leading to valid, defensible conclusions.

One additional benefit for the public school research historian can be community recognition. Successful publishing will hardly make a teacher famous, and the majority of educators certainly dedicate themselves to their craft out of love for what they do, not from a desire for celebrity. Developing expertise in a subject of local interest, however, can lead to contacts with news reporters, tourism officials, and fellow researchers. These acquaintances enhance not only the individual teacher's reputation, but the standing of history teachers, and their schools, in general. In an era when tight budgets force a reconsideration of all subjects, especially those not subject to the notoriety that comes from standardized testing, any improvement in the visibility of historical education is welcome. Successful research improves teacher credibility not only before students, but also with their parents and other stakeholders.

Many teachers will obviously find it difficult to undertake research and publishing, for lack of time, if nothing else; so it should never be a requirement for public school employment. Such activity should, however, be encouraged by groups such as the American Historical Association and state historical societies. While expecting financial incentives or support may be unrealistic, some acknowledgement, such as public recognition or formal professional development credit, should be extended to public school historians who successfully engage in research. Rewards such as these, along with the published research itself, would be worthwhile career incentives and would also enhance the standing of history teachers in a community. The teacher-researcher's work would provide, not only for students but also for their parents and community leaders, a clearer and more concrete explanation of why we study the past. Above all, such research and the subsequent publication will demonstrate that not all lessons are found in a classroom.

Thomas Honsa teaches history at Lakewood Ranch High School in Florida's Manatee School District. He also serves as adjunct professor of history at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, and at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

1. Jacquelyn Hall, "Don't Know History: Here's Why," Boston Globe , March 20, 2004. http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/4244.html.

2. Barton, Keith C. and Levstik, Linda S. "Why Don't More History Teachers engage Students in Interpretation?" Social Education 67 no. 6 (2003): 358–361.

Tags: Resources for K-12 Educators Publishing Your Work

The American Historical Association welcomes comments in the discussion area below, at AHA Communities , and in letters to the editor . Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

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• Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election

3. America, its history and the 2024 election

Table of contents.

• Voters’ views about race and society, the impact of the legacy of slavery
• Most voters, but not all, view the nation’s diversity as a strength
• How should the country handle undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S.?
• Attitudes toward hearing other languages in public places
• Biden and Trump supporters’ views about discussing America’s historical successes, failures
• How does the U.S. compare with other countries?
• Views of women’s progress
• How much of a priority should marriage and children be?
• Abortion, IVF access and birth control
• Views of gender identity
• Voters’ attitudes toward use of gender-neutral pronouns
• Societal impact of more social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual people
• Religion and government policy
• How much influence should the Bible have on the nation’s laws, if any?
• Views on the federal government’s role in promoting Christian values
• Most voters say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral
• Is the justice system too tough on criminals, or not tough enough?
• Policing and law enforcement
• How Trump, Biden supporters view gun rights and ownership
• Views on the increasing number of guns in the U.S.
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Most American voters (72%) place a lot of importance on publicly discussing the nation’s historical successes and strengths – with nearly as many (68%) placing a similar level of importance on discussing the country’s flaws.

• Clear majorities of both Trump and Biden voters say both the positive and negative aspects of the nation’s history are important to focus on, although Trump voters are less likely than Biden voters to assign importance to discussions of historical failures and flaws.

There is also some common ground in how the coalitions view the U.S.: Clear majorities of both Biden and Trump supporters view the U.S. as a great nation.

However, Trump supporters are more likely than Biden supporters to say the nation is singularly great – that it stands above all others, rather than as one of a small number of great nations. And Biden supporters are more likely than Trump supporters (27% vs. 13%) to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.

Similar shares of Biden supporters (74%) and Trump supporters (71%) say it is at least very important to have public discussions about America’s historical successes.

Biden supporters are 18 percentage points more likely than Trump supporters to say it is extremely or very important to have public discussions about historical failures, though majorities in both coalitions say this (78% of Biden supporters, 60% of Trump supporters).

While there are some demographic differences on these questions, majorities of voters across nearly all major subgroups say it is important to discuss both successes and failures.

Race and ethnicity

Among Biden and Trump supporters, White voters are somewhat more likely than voters of other races and ethnicities who support the same candidate to say that discussing both of these topics is important.

Nearly identical shares of voters under 50 (70%) and those 50 and older (68%) say it is at least very important to discuss historical failures and flaws. Older voters are slightly more likely than younger voters to place importance on discussions of historical successes and strengths.

Voters with college degrees are more likely than voters without college degrees to view discussing both types of historical topics as important.

Biden supporters vs. Trump supporters

The shares of Biden and Trump backers who say it is extremely or very important to discuss historical successes and strengths are very similar across demographic groups. Biden supporters are consistently about 20 points more likely than Trump supporters to say it is at least very important to discuss historical failures and flaws.

About a quarter of registered voters (23%) say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world. A majority (56%) say the U.S. is one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others, while 20% say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.

Majorities of both candidates’ supporters say the U.S. is one of the greatest countries in the world, though Biden supporters are more likely to say this than Trump supporters (60% of Biden supporters vs. 53% of Trump supporters).

• Trump supporters (34%) are about three times as likely as Biden supporters (12%) to say the U.S. stands above all other countries.
• Biden supporters (27%) are about twice as likely as Trump supporters (13%) to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.

Long-standing age gaps in attitudes about how the U.S. compares with other nations

As in prior years , younger voters are far more likely than older voters to say that other countries are better than the U.S. Nearly four-in-ten voters ages 18 to 34 (39%) say this, compared with just 9% of voters 65 and older.

And the oldest group of voters are nearly three times as likely as those under 35 to say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world (32% of voters 65 and older vs. 11% of those under 35).

Supporters of both candidates differ by age on this question.

• Nearly half of Biden supporters under 35 (48%) say there are other countries that are better than the U.S. Just 11% of Biden supporters 65 and older say this. And while 20% of Biden supporters 65 and older say the U.S. stands above all other countries, just 4% of those under 35 say this.
• Trump supporters under 35 are also more likely than those 65 and older to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S. And they are less likely to say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world.

Views of how the U.S. compares with other countries have not shifted in recent years

For the most part, American voters’ views of how the country stacks up against other nations have been relatively unchanged over the last five years.

Today, 20% of voters say that other countries are better than the U.S., down from the 25% who said this last year, but nearly identical to the share of voters who said this in 2021 and 2019.

The share of voters saying the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world – 23% – remains slightly lower than the share saying this in 2021 (27%) but is nearly identical to the share who said this last year.

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More than half of Americans are following election news closely, and many are already worn out

Americans have mixed views about how the news media cover biden’s, trump’s ages, an early look at black voters’ views on biden, trump and election 2024, voters’ views of trump and biden differ sharply by religion, in tight presidential race, voters are broadly critical of both biden and trump, most popular, report materials.

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• Study Protocol
• Open access
• Published: 04 September 2023

Treatment of multiple traumatized adolescents by enhancing regulation skills and reducing trauma related symptoms: rationale, study design, and methods of randomized controlled trial (the Mars-study)

• Rik Knipschild 1 ,
• Helen Klip 1 ,
• Doenja van Leeuwaarden 1 ,
• Mariken J. R. van Onna 1 ,
• Ramon J. L. Lindauer 2 , 3 ,
• Wouter G. Staal 1 , 4 , 5 ,
• Iva A. E. Bicanic 6 &
• Ad de Jongh 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11  

BMC Psychiatry volume  23 , Article number:  644 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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There is ongoing debate regarding the treatment of severe and multiple traumatized children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many clinicians favor a phase-based treatment approach (i.e., a stabilization phase prior to trauma-focused therapy) over immediate trauma-focused psychological treatment, despite the lack of scientific evidence. Research on the effects of different treatment approaches is needed for children and adolescents with (symptoms of complex) PTSD resulting from repeated sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood.

This paper describes the rationale, study design, and methods of the MARS-study, a two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) that aims to compare the results of phase-based treatment with those of immediate trauma-focused treatment and determine whether immediate trauma-focused treatment is not worse than phase-based treatment in reducing PTSD symptoms.

Participants are individuals between 12 and 18 years who meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD due to repeated sexual abuse, physical abuse, or domestic violence during childhood. Participants will be blindly allocated to either the phase-based or immediate trauma-focused treatment condition. In the phase-based treatment condition, participants receive 12 sessions of the Dutch version of Skill Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR-A), followed by 12 sessions of EMDR therapy. In the immediate trauma-focused condition, the participants receive 12 sessions of EMDR therapy. The two groups are compared for several outcome variables before treatment, mid-treatment (only in the phase-based treatment condition), after 12 trauma-focused treatment sessions (post-treatment), and six months post-treatment (follow-up). The main parameter is the presence and severity of PTSD symptoms (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents, CAPS-CA). The secondary outcome variables are the severity of complex PTSD symptoms (Interpersonal Problems as measured by the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised, ECR-RC; Emotion Regulation as measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, DERS; Self Esteem as measured by the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, RSES), changes in anxiety and mood symptoms (Revised Anxiety and Depression Scale; RCADS), changes in posttraumatic cognitions (Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory, CPTCI), changes in general psychopathology symptoms (Child Behavior Checklist, CBCL), and Quality of Life (Youth Outcome Questionnaire, Y-OQ-30). Furthermore, parental stress (Opvoedingsvragenlijst, OBVL) and patient-therapist relationship (Feedback Informed Treatment, FIT) will be measured, whereas PTSD symptoms will be monitored in each session during both treatment conditions (Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale, CRIES-13).

Treating (symptoms of complex) PTSD in children and adolescents with a history of repeated sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood is of great importance. However, there is a lack of consensus among trauma experts regarding the optimal treatment approach. The results of the current study may have important implications for selecting effective treatment options for clinicians working with children and adolescents who experience the effects of exposure to multiple interpersonal traumatic events during childhood.

Trial registrations

The study was registered on the “National Trial Register (NTR)” with the number NTR7024. This registry was obtained from the International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP) and can be accessed through the ICTRP Search Portal ( https://trialsearch.who.int/ ).

Peer Review reports

A meta-analysis of children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events indicated that 16% developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [ 1 ]. Adolescents with PTSD re-experience traumatic events, avoid memories of the trauma, develop negative thoughts and moods, and are hypervigilant about potential threats [ 2 ]. Adolescents who have been exposed to (repeated) sexual abuse, maltreatment, and/or domestic violence are at an even higher risk of developing PTSD symptoms [ 1 ]. Beyond the core symptoms of PTSD, adolescents are prone to developing a range of additional challenges, including poor self-esteem, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and struggles with emotion regulation. Collectively, these symptoms are commonly referred to as characteristics of the ICD-11 classification Complex PTSD [ 3 , 4 ].

Although unprocessed trauma can significantly impact a child's development, several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of trauma-focused treatments, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), and Prolonged Exposure [ 5 , 6 ], in treating childhood PTSD. As a result, trauma-focused treatments are generally recommended in national guidelines for children and adolescents [ 7 ] and international guidelines from reputable organizations, such as the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies [ 8 ] and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [ 9 ]. However, it is worth noting that most studies underlying these guidelines have primarily focused on children and adolescents who developed PTSD due to a single traumatic event, leaving a knowledge gap regarding the efficacy of trauma-focused therapies for children and adolescents with Complex PTSD and a lack of consensus on the preferred treatment approaches for this population.

A position paper by the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies [ 10 ] highlighted the insufficient evidence available to support a specific treatment for Complex PTSD in children and adolescents. This dearth of evidence has sparked long-standing debate among clinicians and researchers regarding the optimal approach for treating Complex PTSD. Recognizing the potential limitations of existing evidence-based treatments for children and adolescents with Complex PTSD and severe clinical presentations, the ISTSS argues that modifications to trauma-focused treatments may be necessary to address the symptoms of Complex PTSD effectively [ 10 ]. Consequently, various phase-based treatment models have been developed for children and adolescents with Complex PTSD [ 11 , 12 ]. These models generally prioritize the enhancement of emotional and interpersonal regulation skills as well as strengthening self-esteem before embarking on trauma-focused treatment. However, it is important to note that a comprehensive body of compelling evidence supporting the efficacy of phase-based models for the treatment of Complex PTSD is lacking [ 13 ]. Critics of phase-based models state that research on adults with Complex PTSD has shown that the incorporation of regulation skills training prior to trauma-focused therapy unnecessarily prolongs therapy [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In addition, studies using trauma-focused treatment in adolescents have demonstrated promising results in the treatment of PTSD and Complex PTSD with a history of (repeated) sexual abuse and maltreatment [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], albeit with inconsistent findings and variations in the adaptation of treatment models.

Hence, the limited number of studies investigating the effectiveness of treatments for young individuals with Complex PTSD underscores the need for further research [ 10 ]. In their position paper published in 2019, the ISTSS deemed treatment recommendations premature because of current knowledge gaps. This indicates a pressing requirement for research exploring the effects of trauma-focused treatment on adolescents with (symptoms of complex) PTSD resulting from (repeated) sexual abuse, maltreatment, and/or domestic violence. To address this research gap, the present study describes an RCT aimed at investigating the differences in treatment effects between two treatment approaches (i.e., phase-based versus immediate trauma-focused) in adolescents with (symptoms of complex) PTSD resulting from a history of repeated sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood.

The primary objective of this study is to compare the results of phase-based treatment with those of immediate trauma-focused (i.e., eye movement desensitization and reprocessing; EMDR) therapy using a two-arm randomized controlled trial design. The first aim is to determine whether immediate trauma-focused treatment is not worse than phase-based treatment in reducing PTSD symptoms. If trauma-focused treatment is found to be equally effective when applied, it could lead to significant reductions in treatment duration. Second, we aim to investigate whether the phase-based therapy approach yields superior outcomes compared to the direct trauma-focused condition in terms of Complex PTSD symptoms, including emotion regulation, interpersonal problems, and self-esteem. Additionally, we will examine comorbid symptoms and dropout rates as secondary outcome measures. The third objective of the current study is to identify potential moderators and predictors of dropout or treatment responses/non-responses under both treatment conditions. We hypothesize that the presence of affect dysregulation and interpersonal problems at the beginning of therapy will be associated with poorer outcomes in the direct trauma-focused condition. Finally, we will examine the relationship between the reduction of posttraumatic stress symptoms in adolescents and a decrease in self-reported parental/caretaker stress. This objective addresses the clinical assumption that managing parental stress should be prioritized before initiating PTSD treatment in adolescents.

Study design

This study entails a single-blind, randomized controlled trial with two arms: a phase-based treatment condition (TRAP followed by EMDR) and a trauma-focused treatment condition (EMDR only). In the TRAP-EMDR condition, participants receive 12 sessions of skills training (TRAP; the Dutch adolescents version of the STAIRS protocol), followed by 12 sessions of EMDR therapy. In the other condition, the participants receive 12 EMDR sessions. The two groups will be compared for several outcome variables before treatment, immediately after 12 sessions (post-treatment), and six months post-treatment (follow-up) (see Fig.  1 ). This study will be coordinated by the Karakter Academic Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Netherlands. The study started in 2018, paused for seven months in 2020 due to COVID-19, and continued in September 2020. This study is ongoing and is expected to be completed by 2024.

Flowchart of the MARS-study

Participants

Participants are individuals between 12 and 18 years of age, meeting the criteria for PTSD (according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition), and victims of repeated sexual and/or physical abuse and/or domestic violence in childhood. Participants are recruited from different departments of Karakter, a large mental health organization for children and adolescents in the Netherlands. This applies the following inclusion criteria: (1) meeting the criteria for PTSD, assessed with the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents (CAPS-CA); (2) reporting a history of (repeated) physical and/or sexual abuse and/or domestic violence by a caretaker, family member, or person in authority; (3) the availability of a non-offending adult caregiver for the treatment, as the presence of a caregiver is part of the treatment design; (4) motivation and ability of the participant and the caregiver to attend weekly treatment sessions; (5) safe living circumstances to minimize the risk of retraumatization during the study; and (6) participants and caregivers have sufficient command of the Dutch language to participate in the treatment.

Exclusion criteria are (1) acute suicidal behavior or suicidal ideations requiring immediate hospitalization; (2) severe head trauma indicated by a score < 9 on the Glasgow Coma Scale as known from the participant’s medical history, to avoid brain dysfunction or retrograde amnesia of the traumatic event due to head injury; (3) concurrent psychotherapy during the study; (4) current severe mental disorder in the participant’s main caregiver (as evaluated by the responsible clinician), such as psychosis, severe episode of depression, or severe substance abuse, to assure the ability of the caregiver to participate in the treatment; (5) a sibling of the participant already participating in the study (to avoid the transference of treatment effects if siblings are randomized in different conditions); and (6) intellectual disabilities (IQ < 70).

Randomization

Once the informed consent form is signed and the baseline questionnaires (T0 and T1) are completed, the randomization procedure begins. Participants are randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group with a 1:1 allocation according to a computer-generated randomization schedule stratified by sex (male or female) and psychiatric diagnoses and using permuted blocks of random sizes. The block sizes will not be disclosed to ensure concealment. Participants will be randomized using randomization.com, an online randomization tool. Allocation concealment will be ensured because the person who performs randomization has no other role in the study. This person will prepare the randomization lists and seal the envelopes. The randomization code will not be released until the participant is recruited into the trial, which occurs after all baseline measurements have been completed.

To ensure allocation concealment, the steps involved in randomization, outcome measurements, and treatment are separated. Participants who meet the inclusion criteria and provide consent for participation will be randomized. Research assistants responsible for recruitment and outcome measurement will request randomization.

The recruitment of participants began in 2018 at Karakter, with a break in 2020 due to COVID-19. The recruitment is ongoing and is expected to be completed by 2024. All adolescents referred to Karakter sent a brief screening questionnaire called the Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) [ 21 ]. This self-report questionnaire asks about traumatic life events, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, or physical abuse. The research team screens the results from the CTSQ. If multiple traumatic life events are reported and the adolescent shows elevated scores on questions related to post-traumatic stress, the involved healthcare provider is contacted. The healthcare provider is informed about the MARS study and asked to consider participation in the study. The inclusion and exclusion criteria are verified by the medical staff involved with the participants. With the agreement of the healthcare provider and parents/legal guardians, the adolescent is invited to participate in a clinical structured interview (CAPS-CA).

After the CAPS-CA interview, the diagnostic results are discussed with the research team and treatment team of the MARS-study. A conclusion is drawn regarding whether the inclusion criteria for PTSD due to multiple interpersonal traumas are met. An advisory consultation will be scheduled with the participants and parents/guardians if the inclusion criteria are met. During this consultation, the participant is informed about their participation in the treatment study, informed consent is reviewed, and an information sheet about the study is provided. After the advisory consultation, the adolescents and parents/guardians have two weeks to decide whether to participate in the study. If the adolescents and their parents/guardians agree to participate, the randomization procedure is initiated, and a treatment provider is assigned within three weeks. The MARS-study requires written informed consent from both parents and adolescents. In addition, general practitioners are informed through postal letters.

Interventions

Skills training in affective and interpersonal regulation (trap; dutch version of stair-a).

In Phase I of the phase-based treatment, we use an adapted version of the Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation for Adolescents [ 12 ]. The purpose of this treatment is to address problems with affect and interpersonal regulation (as they negatively impact daily life) and to effectively utilize trauma-focused treatment. The program consists of twelve sessions, with different topics (e.g., distress tolerance, different kinds of role-plays, labelling and identifying feelings, enhancing adequate coping strategies, training self-soothing skills, etc.). All TRAP sessions have an identical format and structure: psycho-education about the rationale and goals of interventions, skills acquisition, skills application, and practice.

EMDR therapy

The protocol for EMDR therapy is an evidence-based trauma treatment aimed at resolving symptoms resulting from disturbing or unprocessed life experiences [ 22 ]. Treatment starts with recalling the traumatic memory and selecting the most disturbing part of this memory with associated dysfunctional thoughts and feelings. While concentrating on the traumatic memory, the participant’s working memory is taxed by employing eye movements for approximately 30 s. Repeatedly, the participant is asked to report what comes to mind, which may be cognitive, emotional, somatic, or imagistic experiences. After some sets of eye movements, the participant is asked to report a Subjective Unit of Disturbances (SUD) between 0 and 10, until the disturbance related to the memory reaches an SUD of zero and positive beliefs are rated strong on a VoC (Validity of Cognition, between 1 and 7). A wide array of studies support the working memory account as a mechanism that explains treatment effects. Recalling a traumatic episode depends on limited working memory resources. If a second task, taxing working memory, is executed during the recall of traumatic memory, fewer resources will be available to recall the traumatic episode. By performing both tasks simultaneously, the memory becomes less vivid and emotional and is stored in this new way. Consequently, negative cognitions lose credibility, and positive cognitions become more credible [ 23 ].

Measurements

The study parameters are listed in Table 1 . In order to collect data to answer the research questions, it will take the adolescent each time (T1, (T2), T3, T4) about 90–120 min to complete the interview and questionnaires. The total estimated burden for parents/legal guardians to complete the questionnaires will be approximately 120 min. Participants allocated to the TRAP + EMDR condition will undergo a mid-treatment assessment (T2) to investigate the effect of TRAP on both the primary and secondary outcomes.

Screening for traumatic experiences

The child trauma screening questionnaire.

The Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) [ 21 ] is a self-reported measure that contains a 14 items list of traumatic life events and a 10 items list to index post-traumatic stress symptoms of re-experiencing and hyperarousal. Each life event can be answered with yes (scored as 1) or no (scored as 0). Scores > 4 indicate positive screening for trauma symptoms. The CTSQ has been shown to have good convergent validity [ 21 ]. Internal consistency was reported, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.69.

Primary outcome

The clinician-administered ptsd scale for children and adolescents.

The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents (CAPS-CA) [ 24 ] is a structured clinical interview used to establish the diagnostic status of the DSM-IV and DSM-V criteria for PTSD. The interviewer can rate the frequency and intensity of each symptom on a five-point Likert scale. Furthermore, each symptom can be rated as present or absent, as proposed by Weathers, Ruscio, and Keane [ 25 ] to score a symptom as being present. The CAPS-CA can be reliably administered by different interviewers. The Dutch CAPS-CA showed as good internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, convergent and divergent validity, and concurrent validity as the original English version [ 26 ]. The CAPS-CA will be administered three times (T1, T3, and T4) for adolescents in the EMDR-only group and four times in the TRAP + EMDR group (T1, T2, T3, and T4). Adding the CAPS-CA at T2 in the TRAP + EMDR condition will provide information about the effects and necessity of skills training TRAP as a standalone treatment.

The adolescent dissociative experience scale

The Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) [ 27 ] is a self-report scale used to measure the frequency of dissociative experiences among adolescents. The answers to the 30 items are marked on an 11-point scale ranging from 0 (never) to 10 (always). The total A-DES score is the mean of all item scores (range, 0–10). A mean score of 4.0 (Armstrong et al., 1997) is a commonly used cut-off for pathological dissociation. The A-DES has four theoretically derived subscales: amnesia, depersonalization/derealization, absorption, imaginative involvement, and passive influence. The A-DES has good internal consistency and test–retest stability and has proven to be valid across different cultural settings. The A-DES will be administered at T1.

Demographics

Demographic information of the participants will be collected from medical files and/or intake questionnaires. The gathered information will consist of age, sex, family structure, diagnoses of the child, school functioning, and socioeconomic status (SES) of the family.

Secondary outcomes

The experiences in close relationships scale-revised child version.

The Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised Child version (ECR-RC) [ 28 ] is a self-report questionnaire on parent–child attachment that consists of 12 statements about the adolescents’ mother or father. Using a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), six items tap into attachment anxiety (e.g., ‘I worry that my father/mother does not really love me’), and six items tap into attachment avoidance (e.g., ‘I prefer not to tell my father/mother how I feel deep down’). The reliability and validity of the ECR-R–C have been demonstrated in several independent samples. In terms of reliability, the ECR-R–C showed high levels of internal consistency, and in terms of validity, the ECR-R–C subscales correlated with depressive symptoms, emotion regulation strategies, and parenting dimensions [ 29 , 30 ].

Difficulties in emotion regulation scale

Emotion dysregulation will be measured using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) [ 31 ]. The DERS is a 36-item self-report questionnaire that measures six domains of emotion regulation difficulties: non-acceptance of negative emotions, difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behaviors, difficulties in accessing effective emotion regulation strategies, impulsivity, limited emotional awareness, and limited emotional clarity. The items were rated from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Higher DERS scores indicate greater emotion regulation difficulties. The DERS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing emotional dysregulation [ 31 , 32 ].

Rosenberg self-esteem scale

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) [ 33 ] will be used to assess self-esteem. It is a widely used 10-item Likert-type scale that measures self-esteem. Items are answered on a 4-point scale, from strongly agree to strongly disagree, measuring positive and negative feelings towards the self. The Dutch version of the RSES is a one-dimensional scale with high internal consistency and congruent validity, and a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 [ 33 ].

Revised child anxiety and depression scale

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) is a 47-item youth self-report questionnaire [ 34 ] with subscales including separation anxiety disorder (SAD), social phobia (SP), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). It also yields a Total Anxiety Scale (sum of the five anxiety subscales) and a Total Internalizing Scale (sum of all six subscales). Items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (“never”) to 3 (“always”). Additionally, the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent Version (RCADS-P) similarly assesses parental reports of youth symptoms of anxiety and depression across the same six subscales.

Child post-traumatic cognitions inventory

The Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (CPTC) [ 35 ] is a self-report questionnaire that measures trauma-related cognition in children and adolescents. The questionnaire consists of 25 items that can be answered on a four-point Likert scale (range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). The English version of the CPTCI has been validated for children and adolescents aged 6–18 years. The Dutch CPTCI has good reliability and validity [ 36 ], high internal consistency (Cronbach's 0.86–0.93), and good convergent validity.

Child behavior checklist

The Dutch parent-report version of the Child Behavior Checklist 6–18 years (CBCL) assesses a wide range of children's emotional and behavioral problems, aiming to identify children at a high risk of psychiatric disorders. The CBCL/6–18 comprises 120 items assessing behavioral and emotional problems. These items are answered on a 3-point Likert-type scale (0 = not true, 1 = somewhat or sometimes true, 2 = very true or often true) by parents. The scores display eight problem scales: withdrawn (1), somatic (2), anxious (3), social (4), thought (5), attention (6), rule-breaking (7), aggressive (8), and other problems. The sum of problem scales 1, 2, and 3 forms the scale ‘internalizing behavior’; 7 and 8 form ‘externalizing behavior.’ All subscales comprise the total problem scale. Some items contribute to more than one problem scale. The CBCL assesses a broad array of potential trauma-related symptoms, including those not captured by a PTSD-specific measure. T-scores are computed from raw scores; higher scores on the syndrome scale indicate greater severity of problems. A T-score of 63 (90th percentile) demarcates the clinical range, indicating that the child requires professional assistance. The CBCL/6–18 has well-established psychometric properties in clinical, non-clinical, and cross-cultural populations [ 37 ].

Youth outcome questionnaire

To assess the therapy outcome in terms of changes in symptom level, we will use the Dutch translation of the Youth Outcome Questionnaire [ 38 ]. The Y-OQ-30 has 30 items and can be completed in 10–15 min on a 5-point Likert scale with a range of 0 (never) to 4 (always). The Y-OQ-30 has six subscales: Somatic complaints, Social Isolation, Aggression, Behaviour problems, Hyperactivity, and Depression/ Anxiety. The Y-OQ-30 is a valid and reliable test for assessing changes [ 39 ].

Parental stress questionnaire

The OBVL (“Opvoedingsvragenlijst”) is a 34-item parent report questionnaire that measures experienced parental stress [ 40 ]. The questions are answered on a 4-point scale (1 = does not apply, 2 = applies a little, 3 = applies fairly, and 4 = applies completely). Scores on the subscale of problems in the parent–child relationship range from 6 to 24, where a score of 14 or higher indicates severe problems, for which treatment is indicated. Scores on ‘parenting problems’ range from 7 to 28, with a score of 18 or higher indicating severe problems [ 41 ]. The OBVL demonstrated good reliability and validity.

Other measurements

Children's revised impact of event scale.

The Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13) [ 42 ] is a brief self-report questionnaire designed to screen for PTSD in children aged 8 years and older. It consists of 13 questions assessing posttraumatic intrusions, avoidance, and arousal. Children rated the frequency with which they had experienced each item during the past week using a four-point Likert scale (0 = not at all, 1 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 5 = often). Psychometric properties have been previously reported [ 42 ], showing that the CRIES-13 is a valid measure of posttraumatic stress. In this study, the internal consistency of the CRIES-13 was 0.89. In this study, the CRIES-13 will be used to measure posttraumatic stress symptoms between each session during the course of treatment.

Outcome rating scale and session rating scale

To collect client feedback, we will use two brief questionnaires, the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and Session Rating Scale (SRS), which can be easily administered on a regular basis during treatment [ 43 ]. This allows treatment sessions to be evaluated at any time to ascertain whether individual treatments are ‘on the right track’ to a successful outcome. The ORS is primarily focused on the client’s well-being and is administered at the beginning of the treatment session. The SRS is administered at the end of the session and deals with how the client experienced the treatment session. The outcomes of the questionnaires are reflected in a graph per interview to allow the height of the score and progress to be visualized during the sessions.

Sample size and power

This study implemented a non-inferiority trial. A non-inferiority trial is a type of clinical research study that aims to demonstrate that a (new) treatment is not worse than an existing treatment by a prespecified margin. Because the non-inferiority margin for CAPS-CA-5 scores had not yet been determined at the start of this study, we used the article published by Sloan et al. [ 44 ] to estimate the non-inferiority margin. The primary outcome was the total score on the Clinician-Administrated PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5). Non-inferiority was defined as a score of 10 points. However, the results showed that during follow-up, a non-inferiority margin of five points would have been sufficient to yield the same conclusion. Therefore, based on the article by Sloan et al. [ 44 ] and clinical reasoning, the largest clinically acceptable effect to declare non-inferiority is a change in the CAPS-CA-5 score of five points (d). Based on the study by Sloan and colleagues, the true mean difference (μ B -μ A ) between the treatments is -1.82 (after 12 weeks). In a non-published pilot study of 17 adolescents, we calculated a mean total score on the CAPS-CA-5 of 38.2 with a standard deviation of 10.4 (σ). An equal number of participants will be included in both arms of the trial (r = 1).

For the estimation of the sample size (for 80 percent power and type 1 error of 2,5 percent) the following formula is used [ 45 ].

According to this formula, 36,5 participants per arm are required. As in the previous sample size calculation, we used the baseline variables as covariates. Based on Borm et al. [ 46 ,  47 ] we estimate that the design factor will be equal to 0.75, because we assume a correlation of 0.5 between the two measurements. Hence, we would need 36.5*0.75 = 27.4 participants per group. To compensate for an unknown clustering effect and unknown psychometric properties, and given the need to compensate for an expected dropout rate, we plan to include 40% more participants (76 participants in total), so that 38 participants will be recruited per arm.

Data collection and management

Confidentiality is maintained throughout the current study. The handling of subjects’ personal data is in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (in Dutch: Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming, AVG). To maintain anonymity of all data, participants will only be identifiable by a unique code assigned to the data of their inclusion. The code list will be digitally stored on the secured drive of Karakter, which is password protected and is only accessible to researchers involved in the project. Non-anonymous data (e.g., informed consent documents) will be digitalized and stored in password-secured folders that provide restricted access. All local databases will be secured with password-protected access systems. The online electronic data capture software CASTOR EDC will be used to collect and store the questionnaire data. All paper documents are stored in a locker at Karakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Access to this storage is accessible to only a select few researchers.

Statistical analysis

Data will be analyzed using SPSS V.29.0 for Windows (SPSS Incorporated). Pretreatment group differences with respect to age, sex, ethnicity, and type of traumatic event will be assessed using independent-sample t-tests for continuous data and χ 2 tests for categorical data. Before testing, we will check all the data according to the appropriate assumptions.

To answer the primary question, a repeated-measures ANCOVA will be conducted. Baseline scores will be included as covariates, time as a categorical variable, and treatment condition as a fixed effect. The intercept will be treated as a random effect. We will examine the residuals to assess the model assumptions and goodness-of-fit. P-values will be reported to four decimal places, with P-values less than 0.001 reported as p  < 0.001. For all tests, we will use 2-sided P-values with alpha =  < 0.05 level of significance. As this is a non-inferiority trial, both intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses will be performed.

To evaluate the secondary outcomes, a repeated-measures ANCOVA will be conducted for the total score on the ECR-RC, DERS, RSES, RCADS, CPTCI, CBCL, OBVL, and Y-OQ-30. Baseline scores will be included as covariates, time as a categorical variable, and treatment condition as a fixed effect. The intercept will be treated as a random effect. We examine the residual to assess the model assumptions and goodness-of-fit. Delta-scores for pre- to post-treatment (T1 and T3) will be calculated, and an independent sample t-test will be used to compare the TRAP + EMDR and EMDR-only conditions. For the calculation of effect sizes (Cohen’s d ) for within-group effects, we will divide the difference in means between pre- and post-treatment by the standard deviation of the difference in means. P-values will be reported to four decimal places, with P-values less than 0.001 reported as p < 0.001. For all tests, we will use 2-sided P-values with alpha =  < 0.05 level of significance.

To determine PTSD symptom changes on the CRIES-13, we will analyze the data for all time points in a linear mixed model. Time, treatment condition, the interaction term time × treatment condition, and sex will be entered as fixed factors, and age as a covariate in the model. The impact of missing data on outcome measurements will be evaluated using different methods, such as Last Observation Carry Forward (LOCF) and Multiple Imputation (MI).

Adverse events

Adverse events (AE) are defined as any undesirable experience occurring to a subject during the study, whether considered related to undergoing dietary treatment. All adverse events observed by the researchers or reported by the participants will be recorded and processed according to legislation in The Netherlands. A serious adverse event (SAE) is an event that 1) results in death, 2) is life-threatening (at the time of the event), 3) requires hospitalization or prolongation of existing inpatient hospitalization, 4) results in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, 5) is a congenital anomaly or birth defect, and 6) may jeopardize the participant or may require an intervention to prevent one of the outcomes listed previously. All SAEs will be communicated to the coordinating investigator (first author), who will be responsible for reporting this information through the web portal ToetsingOnline to the accredited MREC that approved the protocol. Reporting of SAEs that are life-threatening or result in death will be reported no later than seven days after the first knowledge of SAEs in a preliminary report. The final report will be completed no later than eight days after the preliminary report. All AEs will be monitored until they diminish or reach a stable state. Follow-up may require 1) medical procedures, 2) additional tests, or 3) referral to a general physician or medical specialist. SAEs need to be reported until the end of the study in the Netherlands, as defined in the protocol.

The present paper describes the rationale, study design, and methods of the MARS-study: an RCT evaluating the effects of a phase-based treatment model compared to purely trauma-focused therapy in young individuals diagnosed with PTSD and on the possible symptoms of complex PTSD resulting from (repeated) sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood.

This study had several strengths. First, it sought to assess the effectiveness and efficacy of two widely utilized treatment models in a group of patients who are often overlooked in research owing to their complex symptomatology. To the best of our knowledge, an efficacy study of adolescents who have experienced (repeated) sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood is unprecedented. Second, although a phase-based trauma-focused model has recently been studied in adults (15–17), no similar study has been conducted in adolescents. Research on the effectiveness of trauma treatment in adolescents (symptoms of complex) PTSD is limited [ 20 ]. To our knowledge, this is the first randomized controlled trial to investigate and compare the effects of regulation skill training with those of a direct trauma-focused treatment approach in this population. Third, adding a follow-up period allows us to track the long-term effects of both treatments, which can provide valuable information about the sustainability of the treatment effects and whether there are any delayed or long-term benefits (sleeper effects) or side effects. Therefore, we can make more reliable and comprehensive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of and differences between interventions. Additionally, by adding a mid-treatment measurement, it is possible to investigate the effects of TRAP and better assess the added value of this phase-based treatment approach.

Although the proposed study has strengths, it is important to acknowledge several methodological issues that should be taken into consideration. First, the participants included in the study are those who have developed PTSD as a result of surviving (repeated) sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood. While our goal is to include individuals with Complex PTSD, the current study faces challenges due to the lack of reliable and validated instruments specifically designed to assess the complex manifestations of symptoms associated with complex trauma. Consequently, the study relies on trauma history as the primary criterion for inclusion rather than the comprehensive manifestation of complex trauma symptoms. However, as part of the secondary analyses, separate questionnaires are administered to assess domains related to Complex PTSD, including emotion regulation, interpersonal regulation, and negative self-image. Another important consideration pertains to the operationalization of the phase-based model. The concept of a 'phase-based model' can be interpreted differently, depending on various perspectives. In clinical settings, it encompasses more than one treatment protocol that focuses on skill development in regulation. For some clinicians, preparing patients for trauma-focused treatment requires a personalized approach that involves comprehensive psychoeducation, establishing a therapeutic alliance, and engaging with family members and trusted individuals. Training in regulation skills itself demands substantial time and effort from both the patient and therapist. However, it is crucial to note that the effectiveness of this approach has not been extensively studied, raising a limitation in our understanding of its impact and outcomes.

Finally, this study implemented a non-inferiority trial. A non-inferiority trial is a type of clinical research study that aims to demonstrate that a new treatment is not worse than an existing treatment by a prespecified margin. One benefit of this type of trial is that it allows for the evaluation of new treatments that may have advantages over existing treatments, such as fewer side effects or lower costs, even if they are not necessarily more effective. However, non-inferiority trials have limitations. One limitation is that they require a well-defined and clinically meaningful non-inferiority margin, which is challenging to determine. In addition, non-inferiority trials may be less likely to detect small but clinically meaningful differences between treatments, which could limit their ability to provide definitive conclusions regarding the relative effectiveness of different treatments.

Treating adolescents with (symptoms of complex) PTSD stemming from (repeated) sexual and/or physical abuse during childhood is an immensely significant endeavor. However, there is a lack of consensus among trauma experts regarding the most effective approach. The current study is specifically designed to address this gap by evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed protocol. Through this research, we aim to generate additional and novel knowledge regarding trauma treatment. The findings of this study hold potential for important implications, offering valuable insights into the field of trauma treatment for severely traumatized adolescents.

Availability of data and materials

Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. The final dataset will be available (anonymized) to other researchers at the end of the study. We will assess whether the aim of using the dataset is in conflict with our planned future publications. Otherwise, the dataset can be shared with other researchers.

Abbreviations

Adolescent Dissociative Experience Scale

Adverse Event

Child Behavior Checklist

Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents

Committee on Research involving Human Subjects

Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale

Child Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory

Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire

Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised Child version

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

International Classification of Diseases

International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies

Multiple Imputations

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Randomized Controlled Trial

Opvoedingbelastingvragenlijst

Outcome Rating Scale

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Serious Adverse Event

Socioeconomic Status

Safety Review Board

Session Rating Scale

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Training in affectieve en interpersoonlijke Regulatievaardigheden voor meervoudig getraumatiseerde Adolescenten Protocol

Skill Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation, World Health Organization

Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act

Youth Outcome Questionnaire

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kristel Bijen, Els Kors, Karien Kroeze, Harmien Koopmans, Liesbeth Wasterval and the Karakter Academy for their contribution to the preparation of the study.

The study is funded by ZonMw (grant number 63632004). The funder had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish results. All views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders.

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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Rik Knipschild, Helen Klip, Doenja van Leeuwaarden, Mariken J. R. van Onna & Wouter G. Staal

Levvel Academic Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Ramon J. L. Lindauer

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, Location AMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Wouter G. Staal

Leiden Institution for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands

National Psychotrauma Centre for Children and Youth, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Iva A. E. Bicanic

Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ad de Jongh

Psychotrauma Expertise Centre (PSYTREC), Bilthoven, Netherlands

School of Health Sciences, Salford University, Manchester, UK

Institute of Health and Society, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK

School of Psychology, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

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Contributions

RK, HK, AdJ, IB, and DvL initiated the study design. RK, HK, AdJ, IB, DvL, RL, WS, and MvO helped with the implementation. RK is the main applicant and grant holder. RK, DvL, and MvO are responsible for developing and implementing the treatments. HK provide statistical expertise, RK is conducting the primary statistical analysis. All authors contributed to the refinement of the study protocol and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rik Knipschild .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The study is conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (version 64th, October 2013) and in accordance with the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO) and other guidelines, regulations and acts. The present study is approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee East Netherlands (MREC Oost-Nederland) (number 2017–3732). The study was registered on the “Nationaal Trial Register (NTR)” with the number NTR7024. This registry was obtained from the International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP) and can be accessed on the ICTRP Search Portal ( https://trialsearch.who.int/ ).

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

RK: Receives royalties from a published book on TRAP and from training professions in TRAP.

HK: No conflict of interest.

DvL: Receives royalties from a published book on TRAP and from training professions in TRAP.

MvO: No conflict of interest.

RL: No conflict of interest.

WS: No conflict of interest.

IB: No conflict of interest.

AdJ: Receives income from published books on EMDR therapy and from training professions in EMDR.

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Knipschild, R., Klip, H., van Leeuwaarden, D. et al. Treatment of multiple traumatized adolescents by enhancing regulation skills and reducing trauma related symptoms: rationale, study design, and methods of randomized controlled trial (the Mars-study). BMC Psychiatry 23 , 644 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05073-4

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Received : 08 July 2023

Accepted : 02 August 2023

Published : 04 September 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05073-4

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