“Method” and “evidence” in a methodological qualification

Method

Method means the way you establish the claim.

For example, are you:

examining primary documents?

comparing cases?

analyzing economic data?

making a logical deduction?

reconstructing motives?

inferring a causal relationship?

Different methods have different limitations.

Evidence

Evidence means the material on which the claim is based:

letters,

laws,

statistics,

speeches,

contracts,

archival documents,

contemporary newspapers,

economic records,

previous scholarship.