Sociologists use various quantitative and qualitative methods to study the social lives of humans, and the various formal and informal groups, organizations, and societies that structure those lives.

Sociologists read and/or produce:

• articles in peer reviewed scholarly journals reporting results of research projects.
• books can provide a broad overview of a topic (often for non-specialists), or they can provide the space for a more expanded presentation of research results or development/expansion of theoretical approaches.
• data, both quantitative and qualitative, from many sources such as censuses, surveys, and such.