Smedley, Richard M., and Neil S. Coulson. "A practical guide to analysing online support forums." Qualitative research in psychology 18.1 (2021): 76-103.

As online support forums and user-generated content continue to grow, analyzing forum messages can offer valuable insights for health-related research. This article addresses the practical, ethical, and methodological challenges of using forums as a data source. It outlines the benefits of forum research, the organizational structure of forums, selection criteria, sampling approaches, data preparation, and analysis methods. The article also details the decisions researchers must make at each stage, discussing available options and ethical considerations to successfully conduct research using forum data.