Hartley is a specialist in Russian history, in particular the comparison of Russia and the West from the seventeenth century onwards and why Russia became one of the "Great Powers" in the nineteenth century.[2][3] Much of her research has also focused on the history of Siberia and its people.[4]
Selected publications
The Study of Russian History from British Archive Sources (editor) (1986)
Guide to Documents and Manuscripts in the United Kingdom relating to Russia and the Soviet Union (1987)
Russia in the Age of the Enlightenment (editor with R. Bartlett), (1990)
Alexander I (1994)
Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire: A Comparative Study (editor with M. Branch) (1995)
Britain and Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (editor with M. Anderson et al.) (1998)
A Social History of the Russian Empire 1650-1825 (1999)[5][6]
Charles Whitworth: Diplomat in the Age of Peter the Great (2002)
Russia-1762-1815: Military Power, the State and the People (Greenwood Press, 2008)[7][8]
Russian History and Literature in the Eighteenth Century (editor), includes a piece by her on ‘The Army and Prisoners’ (2013)
^"Janet Hartley". Worldhistory.columbia.edu. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
^Marker, Gary (14 October 2017). "Review of A Social History of the Russian Empire, 1650-1825, ; The Russian Peasantry, 1600-1930: The World the Peasants Made". Social History. 26 (2): 251–253.
JSTOR4286784.