The discursive use of ‘belief’ in research articles are analyzed as a contribution to the reflexive activity in belief-research, in particular regarding theoretical aspects of the notion of belief. The purpose of this paper is to create an explicitly described procedure for such an analysis, from the selection of data to categorizations of the smallest unit of analysis. The method of analysis builds on some linguistic structures, focusing in this paper on the use of adjectives and verbs in relation to ‘belief’. From the analysis of the use of ‘belief’ in eight articles a set of categories is created describing different uses of the notion of belief.