primary and secondary data

Question 1

primary data

Answer 1

• Original data that has been collected by the researcher specifically for the study.
• It is data that it collected first hand from the participants themselves.
• Experiments
• Questionnaires
• Observations

Question 2

secondary data

Answer 2

• Data that was collected by someone other than the person conducting the research.
• Data that already exists and has been examined.
• Journal articles, books, websites
• Government reports
• Population records
• Employee absence records within an organisation.

-Meta-analysis

Question 3

eval primary data

Answer 3

strengths/
Authenticity.
Collected with the sole purpose of being for a specific investigation.
• Designed to target the information that is required.
• High level of control.
• Less time wasted on irrelevant data.

limitations/
Time and effort
• Expensive
• Therefore, in comparison to primary data, secondary data which already exists can save the researcher time, effort and money.

Question 4

eval secondary data

Answer 4

strengths/
Less time consuming and expensive to collect.
• This means that researchers can find the information they desire with very little effort.
-This makes the collection and use of secondary data much easier when compared with primary data.

limitations/
• Concerns over accuracy.
• Variability in the quality of the data.
• Might seem ok at first but then turn out to be incomplete/outdated or just not useful.
• This means that much of the data may be of little or no value to the researchers.