Primary & Secondary Data

• Primary data is first-hand information that has been collected by the researcher for the purpose of their study.
• Secondary data is when the researcher uses pre-existing data. The data could have been from a newspaper, diary entry or even data collected by another researcher or study.
• Primary data is collected first-hand by the researcher through surveys, interviews, or experiments, while secondary data is collected from existing sources such as books, articles, or databases.
• The advantages of using primary data collection methods include obtaining first-hand and specific information, having control over the data collection process, and the ability to tailor the data collection methods to the research objectives.
• Research which is carried out first-hand gains credibility and respect from others. This is because it is founded on authentic evidence (empirical evidence).
• Some common sources of secondary data include government reports, academic journals, books, and online databases.
• Primary data is a reliable source because the researcher can replicate the procedure to check the results.
• Primary data is more likely to be up-to-date, therefore has higher temporal validity.
• Primary data may be subjective if the researchers are conducting the research themselves, but the data should be carried out using objective methods.
• Primary data has to be gathered from scratch, which involves time consuming methods, like collecting P’s to conducting the research and carrying out procedures. It can also be more costly.
• Secondary data can save time and expense that would otherwise be spent collecting data.
• Secondary data can collect a large amount of data from a wide variety of sources, which is good for generalisation.
• With secondary data the researcher cannot personally check the authenticity of the findings so has to take the word of the original researcher. This questions the reliability of the data.
• With secondary data the researcher may have no knowledge of how the data was collected, which may affect the credibility of the source.
• Secondary data may be out-of-date, which lowers the temporal validity.
• Some disadvantages of using secondary data collection methods include potential lack of accuracy or relevance to the specific research question, limited control over the data collection process, and potential for bias or inconsistency in the data.
• A meta-analysis is essentially the study of multiple past studies. A researcher reviews previously published studies on a certain topic, then analyses the various results to find general trends across the studies.
• A meta-analysis is where researchers combine the findings from multiple studies to draw an overall conclusion.
• Meta-analysis is an objective examination of published data from many studies of the same research topic identified through a literature search.
• Meta-analyses can reveal patterns hidden in individual studies and can yield conclusions that have a high degree of reliability.