Primary research is research you conduct yourself (or hire someone to do for you.) It involves going directly to a source – usually customers and prospective customers in your target market – to ask questions and gather information. Examples of primary research are: Interviews (telephone or face-to-face)

While primary research involves active participation from the researcher themselves, secondary research involves the summary or synthesis of data and literature that has been organized and published by others. When doing secondary research, researchers use and analyze data from primary research sources.

Other examples of primary research methods include observation, interviews, focus groups or panels, surveys, and ethnography. In this class, you will probably only conduct primary research using a couple of these methods.

Primary research includes qualitative and quantitative research and can include surveys, focus groups, questionnaires, and interviews.

Data gathered through primary research is more accurate than secondary research data. In primary research, the researcher is fully involved in the data collection process and he or she takes care to collect valid data that can be easily authenticated.

Primary sources are direct from an event or original source, such as the Declaration of Independence, and secondary sources are anything written about something that isn’t the primary account of whatever the source is referencing, such as textbooks discussing the Declaration.

Secondary research is worthwhile because it is generally more cost-effective than primary research and it provides a foundation for any project. Evaluating the current landscape of available information before moving on to primary research methods can save time and money that may be better spent elsewhere.

Primary data is information collected through original or first-hand research. For example, surveys and focus group discussions. On the other hand, secondary data is information which has been collected in the past by someone else.

Sources of secondary data

• information collected through censuses or government departments like housing, social security, electoral statistics, tax records.
• internet searches or libraries.
• GPS, remote sensing.
• km progress reports.

Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, surveys, organizational records and data collected through qualitative methodologies or qualitative research. Primary data, by contrast, are collected by the investigator conducting the research.

Internal secondary data is found inside your organization, while external secondary data is information collected and stored by some person or organization outside of your organization. The difficulty in collecting secondary data depends on its method of storage and indexing.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Secondary Data

• Ease of access. The secondary data sources are very easy to access.
• Low cost or free.
• Time-saving.
• Allow you to generate new insights from previous analysis.
• Longitudinal analysis.
• Anyone can collect the data.
• A huge amount of secondary data with a wide variety of sources.

Limitations of using secondary data Official statistics may reflect the biases of those in power – limiting what you can find out. Official statistics – the way things are measured may change over time, making historical comparisons difficult (As with crime statistics, the definition of crime keeps changing.)