Secondary Research

12 Key excerpts on "Secondary Research"

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  eBook - PDF

  Quantitative Methods in Social Science Research

  • Stephen Gorard(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  WHY USE SECONDARY DATA? The call to make better use of existing records in social science dates back at least to the writing of Bulmer (1980) or perhaps to the 'statists' of the seventeenth century concerned to improve life chances for the very poor. In a loose sense of the term, all academics already use secondary findings in constructing their review of literature (Hakim 1982). The background to a new study, the relevance of the research questions and the importance of the findings are usually presented in relation to previous and existing work on related topics (often under the unappealing title of a 'literature review'). More recently, the drive towards creating research results with more impact has led to a demand for evidence bases (see Chapter One). The evidence in question has generally been seen as a precise and measured type of review of existing work, using a model derived from similar 'what works?' approaches in medical research. These are known as research 'syntheses' (see Finding secondary data 15 Cooper 1998). A step beyond a synthesis is a meta-analysis in which the actual results of many studies on the same topic are arithmetically combined to provide an overall answer (Glass et al. 1981, see also Chapter Eleven). The fundamental difference between all of these and a full secondary analysis as the basis for a project lies in the notion of originality. Most academic institutions lay stress on 'originality' for their students' dissertation work, and many students therefore assume that their data must be original as well. But in the same way as it is possible for a researcher to review previous work in any field and still go on to carry out original work, it is possible for a researcher to carry out a secondary data analysis and still go on to carry out original work, without necessarily collecting any further data.

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  Research Design

  Succesful Designs for Social Economics Research

  • Catherine Hakim(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2 Research reviews, meta-analysis and secondary analysis

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203354971-2

  A review of the literature and existing studies is commonly part of the ground-clearing and preparatory work undertaken in the initial stages of any empirical research. But a comprehensive research review can become a research project yielding substantive information in its own right, especially if the new techniques of meta-analysis are applied to all known studies on a particular issue. At its most basic, secondary analysis consists of re-interpreting tables and statistical evidence in existing reports, and thus overlaps with the research review. But secondary analysis also extends to major studies in their own right that collate data from a variety of sources to produce substantively new findings. Research in some social science disciplines, notably economics and geography, relies almost entirely on secondary analysis of existing data, because economists and geographers rarely carry out their own data collections, relying almost exclusively on the efforts of others – in particular the large national datasets produced by government statisticians (Griliches, 1985 ).

  Major research reviews, meta-analysis and secondary analysis are considered here together. Although they are distinct – research reviews and meta-analysis seek to consolidate knowledge on particular issues, while secondary analysis may break new ground – they all rely on existing information, and some studies combine the research review with meta-analysis (Rosenthal, 1976 ), or the research review with secondary analysis (Hakim, 1979 ; Lieberson, 1981 ; Guttentag and Secord, 1983 ), or secondary analysis with meta-analysis (Crain and Mahard, 1983 ).

  Research reviews

  Research reviews provide a synthesis of existing knowledge on a specific question, based on an assessment of all relevant empirical research that can be found. Reviews of theoretical developments, which often merge into history of ideas essays with little concern for empirical research findings, are not considered here. Good research reviews are multi-disciplinary, in that relevant studies from any social science discipline are covered, although some questions attract greater attention within particular disciplines (Lester, 1983

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  Qualitative Secondary Research

  A Step-By-Step Guide

  • Claire Largan, Theresa Morris(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  1 Introducing Qualitative Secondary Research

  This chapter supports your ability to

  • define qualitative Secondary Research
  • appreciate the range of data possible for use
  • identify key components of qualitative Secondary Research
  • check if qualitative Secondary Research is for you

  Chapter overview

  This chapter introduces you to qualitative Secondary Research and we begin this book with a clear and concise definition. We define qualitative Secondary Research as a robust form of enquiry that is systematic and analytical in its approach to the use of existing data. The key to our definition of Secondary Research is that the data you use will not have been instigated by you or you will not have been involved in its creation. Therefore, the data you use already exists in some form in a multitude of locations.

  In this chapter, we provide an overview of the processes involved in qualitative Secondary Research and we spend some time considering the vast array of data it is possible to use. This is data that exists as documents provided by people and can include personal or first-hand sources of information, as well as public and academic data and be in many forms such as social media postings, advertising images, government reports and news. Therefore, you have the potential to answer your research question(s) and/or aim(s) by drawing on the diversity of data available for use within the 21st century. We aim to show that qualitative Secondary Research offers many benefits and one of these is the ability to use a vast array of data.

  This chapter also examines some of the key research decisions you may need to make as a secondary qualitative researcher, and how making these early on can support and shape your research project. To support you in this decision making we set out the key components in qualitative Secondary Research and illustrate how these fit together to create a coherent and consistent methodology.

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  Reworking Qualitative Data

  • Janet Heaton(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  1

  What is Secondary Analysis?

    The analysis of pre-existing data in social research Functions of secondary analysis Modes of secondary analysis Conclusion Notes  

  Secondary analysis is best known as a methodology for doing research using pre-existing statistical data. Social scientists in North America and Europe have been making use of this type of data throughout the twentieth century, although it was not until 1972 that the first major text on the research strategy, Secondary Analysis of Sample Surveys: Principles, Procedures and Potentialities by Herbert H. Hyman, was published. Since then, the literature on secondary analysis of quantitative data has grown considerably as the availability and use of these data has expanded. There is now a substantial body of work exploring different aspects of the methodology, including several textbooks describing the availability of statistical data sets and how they can be used for Secondary Research purposes (see Dale et al., 1988; Hakim, 1982; Kiecolt and Nathan, 1985; Stewart and Kamins, 1993), as well as critical commentaries on the scientific, ethical and legal aspects of sharing this type of data in the social sciences (see Fienberg et al., 1985; Hedrick, 1988; Sieber, 1988, 1991; Stanley and Stanley, 1988).1 Accordingly, the terms ‘secondary analysis’, ‘secondary data’ and ‘data sharing’ have become synonymous with the re-use of statistical data sets.

  However, in recent years interest has grown in the possibility of re-using data from qualitative studies. Since the mid-1990s a number of publications have appeared on the topic written by researchers who have carried out ground-breaking secondary analyses of qualitative data (Heaton, 1998; Hinds et al., 1997; Mauthner et al., 1998; Szabo and Strang, 1997; Thompson, 2000a; Thorne, 1994, 1998), by archivists involved in the preservation of qualitative data sets for possible secondary analysis (see Corti et al., 1995; Corti and Thompson, 1998; Fink, 2000; James and Sørensen, 2000) and by academics interested in these developments (see Alderson, 1998; Hammersley, 1997a; Hood-Williams and Harrison, 1998). The extension of secondary analysis to qualitative data raises a number of questions about the nature of this research strategy. What is secondary analysis? How does the secondary analysis of qualitative data compare to that of quantitative data? And how is secondary analysis distinct from other quantitative and qualitative methodologies used in social research?

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  Postgraduate Research in Business

  A Critical Guide

  • Sarah Quinton, Teresa Smallbone(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  The aim of this chapter is to help you to learn how to identify the appropriate areas of literature for your assignments and dissertation. You can spend a lot of time read-ing and collecting secondary information that turns out to be worthless, so it is important to develop your skills to assess it in advance for its rigour and value. Secondary Data Using secondary data in your assignment or dissertation can be defined as ‘re-analysing data collected already for some other purpose’, as well as published summaries of that data. Basically, secondary information is all the data that has been collected by others but is available to you as a student of business and management. Whatever you are working on for an assignment or dissertation, you are bound to need to look at some secondary data. This chapter covers the types and relative value of different sources of secondary information, including the Internet and its uses and abuses, and when and how to use newspaper sources and trade journals, as well as the value of secondary data in general. Whether you are writing coursework or for a dissertation, one key criterion for a good piece of work is that you draw on a ‘wide range’ of secondary literature. There is no problem in finding it – the Internet gives you access to vast resources undreamed of by earlier generations of students. The problem thus rapidly comes down to what to include and what to exclude, and how to make sense of it all. Types of secondary data In an effort to make it more manageable, various authors of textbooks on research meth-ods try to distinguish different categories of secondary information. Saunders et al. (2003) distinguish three types, which they categorize as documentary, multiple source, and sur-vey data. By documentary, they mean both written documents, such as organizational records and academics’ notes, and non-written materials such as television programmes.

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  SAGE Secondary Data Analysis

  • John Goodwin(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  This is illustrated by the following quotations, in which the secondary analysis of quantitative data is defined as: . . . the study of specific problems through analysis of existing data which were originally collected for other purposes. (Lipset and Bendix, 1959. Quoted in Glaser, 1962: 71) . . . the extraction of knowledge on topics other than those which were the focus of original surveys. (Hyman, 1972: 1. Original emphasis) . . . any further analysis of an existing data set which presents interpret-ations, conclusions, or knowledge additional to, or different from, those presented in the first report on the inquiry as a whole and its main results. (Hakim, 1982: 1) 8 Using Secondary Sources and Secondary Analysis . . . [the study of] a problem by analysing data that originally were col-lected for another study with a different purpose. (Woods, 1988: 334) Likewise, it has been suggested that the secondary analysis of qualitative data involves: the use of an existing data set to find answers to a research question that differs from the question asked in the original or primary study. (Hinds et al., 1997: 408) Thus, quantitative and qualitative secondary analysis have each been con-ceptualized as methodologies for conducting free-standing studies using pre-existing data originally collected for other purposes. Although this proposition is generally accepted, it has been pointed out that this way of defining secondary analysis is limited in that it fails to acknow-ledge that some projects are actually designed to supply data for sundry sec-ondary studies (Dale et al., 1988). The data from omnibus surveys are, for example, collected and prepared for Secondary Research purposes and are not subject to primary analysis as such. To a lesser extent, the same applies to data from longitudinal studies which are designed both to address particular primary research questions and to supply long-term data for future Secondary Research.

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  The Journey to Dissertation Success

  For Construction, Property, and Architecture Students

  • Elizabeth Laycock, Tim Howarth, Paul Watson(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  5 Evaluating the existing literature

  DOI: 10.4324/9781315733562-5

  Introduction

  This chapter outlines:

  • the nature and types of secondary and primary sources of data that can be used in student research;
  • the nature of the literature review, how this may relate to student work and how to build in references to published work to show the linkages to the existing body of knowledge;
  • the clear use of citation and referencing and how to undertake this within the written work
  • guidance from virtual supervisors;
  • student reflections on using secondary data;
  • suggestions for further reading.

  Secondary approaches

  There are, fundamentally, two sources of research data (information): primary data and secondary data.

  Primary data is information collected explicitly for the research. Although it is not always appropriate to a piece of research, most students seem to think that they must include some primary data in their dissertation.

  Secondary data is information that has been generated by an individual other than the user. This usually comprises written works to which a student should refer in order to understand the existing body of knowledge. A dissertation will invariably include such data. Secondary data may also include numbers, photographs, statistics or any other data that has been collected by another individual for a purpose other than the dissertation research.

  At the BSc (Hons) degree level of research, a student can be involved with primary and secondary data collection. A dissertation may include both primary and secondary data or (less commonly) only secondary information. A summary of advantages and disadvantages is given in Table 5.1

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  Marketing Research

  A Concise Introduction

  • Bonita Kolb(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  In fact, the amount of available data is so great that researchers need to develop skills in determining what information is relevant and credible. 6.1.1 Institutions that collect secondary data Secondary data may have been collected as part of research conducted by an educa- tional institution, a government department, a trade association, social media sites or a commercial data provider. The faculties of educational institutions such as colleges and universities may conduct research that has been funded by a grant. In turn, this grant may have been received from a large corporation or government agency that needed research data on consumer preferences, or from a government agency that wanted information on social trends. If the grant was from a corporation, the data may not be available to the public. Research may also be undertaken solely as the result of profes- sorial interest. Since the goal of professors is to publish research, this kind of data will be made available to the public. Government agencies will conduct their own research to provide information to guide policy decisions. The information collected will include population demograph- ics and economic detail, all of which should be available to researchers. In addition, trade associations will conduct research on products produced by mem- bers of the association. For example, the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) gathers information on auto industry-related statistics. Therefore, primary Marketing Research 94 research on the auto industry should not be conducted without first ascertaining what secondary data are already available. A newer source of secondary data is social media. While the purpose of these sites is not to collect data, all of the comments, reviews, likes, photos and videos that discuss consumer products and trends can be treated as a source of secondary data. Finally, commercial research companies will provide data for a fee.

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  Documentary Research in the Social Sciences

  • Malcolm Tight(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  The answer to the question ‘what is secondary data?’ has already been partially addressed in the introduction. But, to be absolutely clear, primary data is data that you have collected yourself or with a team of colleagues. This is fresh, empirical data that did not exist before you collected it. Primary data should, therefore, relate directly to your research interests. Secondary data are data that have been collected by someone else (or, perhaps, by yourself some time ago, and probably for a different purpose). While they may relate closely to your research interests, they are unlikely to align precisely with them; if you had been doing the data collection, for example, you might have asked different or additional questions.

  We may also recognise other levels of data, of decreasing interest for research purposes. Thus, tertiary data may be defined as data that have been collected by someone else and then analysed by someone else (who might, or might not, be the same person), and you only have access to the findings (this is the case, for example, with meta-analyses, discussed in Chapter 7 ). You, as the researcher, are then placed at an increased distance from the original data, and the usefulness of such tertiary data is likely to be confined to an interest in what other researchers have done and why, and in drawing together their findings.

  Secondary data analysis, then, simply refers to the analysis of secondary data: ‘Secondary analysis is a research strategy which makes use of pre-existing quantitative data or pre-existing qualitative research data for the purposes of investigating new questions or verifying previous studies’ (Heaton 2004, p. 16). Heaton is right to stress that secondary data may be either quantitative or qualitative, because the assumption has often been that such data are primarily or only quantitative in nature (i.e. they are the result of large-scale, national or international surveys). Nowadays, however, increasing amounts of qualitative secondary data are also available:

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  Advertising and Public Relations Research

  • Donald W. Jugenheimer, Larry D. Kelley, Jerry Hudson, Samuel Bradley(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  For example, another division of Nielsen, measures grocery purchases. When you are developing background or context for a topic or issue, Secondary Research can be the tool to provide that information. By analyzing and collating various studies, you can provide background or add context to a situation analysis. Secondary Research is at its best when you need to find a known fact. For example, when you need to find the population of Des Moines or the number of Boy Scouts, Secondary Research is clearly the path. S UMMARY project in advertising and public relations. Before conducting primary research however, it first makes sense to determine if Secondary Research will fit the need. primary research. Even if primary research is necessary, conducting Secondary Research first will help to direct the primary research and make it much more productive. -search is a very robust area. Working with your college or university librarian can yield a tremendous amount of information and insight on any given topic. -ing into primary research is a smart use of time and resources. D ISCUSSION Q UESTIONS 1. How would you summarize the differences between primary and Secondary Research? 2. Can you think of an example of when Secondary Research would be preferable to primary research? 3. Can you think of an example of when Secondary Research would not be appropriate? I NTRODUCTION TO S ECONDARY R ESEARCH 35 4. When might Secondary Research be harmful? 5. How has the Internet changed Secondary Research? What makes a source credible? E XERCISES 1. Go to your local or college library. Determine which Secondary Research resources are available for public relations. 2. Now do the same thing for advertising. 3. How are the sources for these areas similar? How are they different? A DDITIONAL R EADING Schmidt, R. K., M. M. Smyth, and V. K. Kowalski. 2008. Lessons for a scientific literature review: Guiding the inquiry. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Williams, F., R. E.

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  Principles of Data Management and Presentation

  • Dr. John P. Hoffmann(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • University of California Press

    (Publisher)

  Under a strict definition, such a dataset is considered secondary. Yet, it could also be considered primary since the researchers collected the data and organ-ized them so they would be useful to the particular research project. In order to simplify things a bit, this type of compiled dataset is discussed in the next chapter that addresses pri-mary and linked administrative data. WHY USE SECONDARY DATA? A large and perhaps even growing tendency in the social science community is to use sec-ondary sources of data in research projects. Although it is diffi cult to find good information on the percentage of research articles in the social sciences that are based on secondary data, I looked at the last two years of a few journals in my academic field and found that about three-fourths of the articles used secondary data in one form or another. But why is this so common? There are several advantages of secondary data, including the following: • Cost. It is expensive to collect primary data. Even a modest survey of only 100 people can set researchers back several thousand dollars. Although there are some cost-effi cient ways to conduct surveys—such as by utilizing online survey software—it is typically a high-cost endeavor, not only in terms of money, but also in terms of time. Many secondary datasets may be accessed via the Internet for free; others are available after paying relatively low fees. Moreover, since the data are already available and often in pretty good shape (but this needs careful evaluation), researchers may save quite a bit of time on their projects. • Longitudinal data. Primary data collection tends to be expensive, but think about a project in which one collects data repeatedly for a number of years. This can be very expensive, even if the sample is restricted to a single community or school.

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  SAGE Qualitative Research Methods

  • Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Source: Sociological Research Online , 15(1) (2010). http://www.socresonline.org.uk/15/1/ 5.html 200 Qualitative Research Methods 1.2 Part of this argument is that the problems with re-use of data highlighted by the critics are not restricted to it: they also occur in some kinds of ‘primary’ research. In particular, what is involved in the ‘re-use’ of archived data has parallels to some forms of analysis that are normally seen as ‘primary’, for example that which occurs in research teams where one member analyses data collected by others, in historical work relying on documents that may have been used previously by other historians, or in conversation analysis, where it is common to analyse data collected by others. On top of this, Moore (2007) suggests that the notions of re-use and secondary analysis involve a false conception of data because they fail to recognise that data are reflexively constructed within research processes rather than existing independently of these. From this point of view, data cannot be first collected and analysed and then ‘ re -used’ by other researchers for the purposes of ‘ secondary ’ analysis. Indeed, data cannot even be ‘collected’ in the first place because they are always constructed , as Bateson (1984) pointed out long ago in the context of survey research. The conclusion drawn is that it is possible, and desirable, to use material that other researchers have generated; and that the process of analysis here is no different in epistemic status from that in primary research, because the data are necessarily constituted, context-ualised and recontextualised within any project. As a result, the problems of ‘fit’ and ‘context’ are no more likely to arise in research using data from an earlier study than they are in one where ‘new’ data are produced.

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