SECONDARY DATA

Secondary data is any information that has been collected or researched recently. Sources of secondary data include the internet, libraries, museums, company reports, newspaper etc. The data collected is useful as it allows the researcher to see the prevailing thoughts about his/her area of study.

SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA As is the case in primary research, secondary data can be obtained from two different research strands:

Quantitative: Census, housing, social security as well as electoral statistics and other related databases. Qualitative: Semi-structured and structured interviews, focus groups transcripts, field notes, observation records and other personal, research-related documents.

A clear benefit of using secondary data is that much of the background work needed has already been carried out, for example: literature reviews, case studies might have been carried out, published texts and statistics could have been already used elsewhere, media promotion and personal contacts have also been utilized. This wealth of background work means that secondary data generally have a pre-established degree of validity and reliability which need not be reexamined by the researcher who is re-using such data. Furthermore, secondary data can also be helpful in the research design of subsequent primary research and can provide a baseline with which the collected primary data results can be compared to. Therefore, it is always wise to begin any research activity with a review of the secondary data.

ADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS The biggest advantage of using secondary data is economics. Someone else has already collected the data, so the researcher does not have to devote money, time, energy, and other resources to this phase of research. Sometimes the

secondary data set must be purchased, but the cost is almost always certainly lower than the expense of collecting a similar data set from scratch, which usually entails salaries, travel/transportation, etc. There is also a huge savings in time. Since the data is already collected and usually cleaned and stored in electronic format, the researcher can spend most of his or time analyzing the data instead of getting the data ready for analysis.

DISADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS

A major disadvantage of using secondary data is that it may not answer the researchers specific research questions or contain specific information that the researcher would like to have. Or it may not have been collected in the geographic region desired, in the years desired, or the specific population that the researcher is interested in studying. Since the researcher did not collect the data, he or she has no control over what is contained in the data set. Often times this can limit the analysis or alter the original questions the researcher sought out to answer.