PRIMARY RESEARCH AND SECONDARY RESEARCH

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What is research? Why research?

  • Research= The process of collecting information/data from varied sources

  • Purpose= To inform action, gather evidence for theories, and contribute to developing knowledge in a field of study.

  • Are divided into Primary and Secondary research methods.

  • A good research combines both primary and secondary methods

We do research in daily life too

  • Before you go to a new restaurant, you would Google to see reviews and rating from others– Secondary research

  • If convinced, you would go and try the food yourself– Primary Research

  • After eating, you would form your opinion about the restaurant and share it with your friends/write Google review- Secondary research (for others) 


Primary research (observing the source of information directly)



  • What’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative data?


Quantitative data

Qualitative data

Countable or measurable, relate to numbers

Descriptive, relate to words and language

How many, much or often

Describe certain attribute, help understand why/how

Fixed, universal, factual

Dynamic and subjective, open to interpretation 

Measure and count things

Observation and interview

Analyze use statistical analysis

Analyse by group data into themes/ categories

number-based

text-based

Statistical analysis is easier

Statistical analysis is harder

Collected using survey, observation, experiment and interview

Collected using interview, written documents and observation


  • Types of primary research

    1. Surveys

Surveys are a form of questioning that is more rigid than interviews and that involve larger groups of people. Surveys will provide a limited amount of information from a large group of people and are useful when you want to learn what a larger population thinks

  1. Interviews 

Interviews are one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions. Interviews will provide a lot of information from a small number of people and are useful when you want to get an expert or knowledgeable opinion on a subject

  1. Observations

Observations involve taking organised notes about occurrences in the world. Observations provide you insight about specific people, events, or locales and are useful when you want to learn more about an event without the biassed viewpoint of an interview.

  1. Analysis 

Analysis involves collecting data and organising it in some fashion based on criteria you develop. They are useful when you want to find some trend or pattern. A type of analysis would be to record commercials on three major television networks and analyse gender roles.

  • How to get started?

    1. Research problem

    2. Review of literature

    3. Research question 

    4. Research design

    5. Data collection

    6. Analyse and interpret

    7. Reporting 

  • Consider the following questions when beginning to think about conducting primary research:

  • What do I want to discover?

  • How do I plan on discovering it? (This is called your research methods or methodology)

  • Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey? (These people are called your subjects or participants)

  • How am I going to be able to gain access to these groups or individuals?

  • What do I expect to discover?


SECONDARY RESEARCH

  • Primary research

    • Active participation from researcher themselves

    • First hand evidence giving direct access to research topic

  • Secondary research

    • Summary/synthesis of data and literature organized and published by other researchers/authors

    • Second hand information to analyse, describe or evaluate primary source

    • Known as desk research/ library research

    • Involves synthesizing existing data that can bensourced from the internet, peer-reviewed journals, books, government archives, and libraries.

    • Printed materials & online materials


Printed materials

Online materials

Anything that has been published in print form and is widely available at

libraries and bookstores

Anything published exclusively online in a variety of digital formats

Material includes: books, textbooks, newspapers, popular and scholarly

journals, and magazines

Material includes: web pages, PDF documents, ebooks, multimedia


  • Where to look

    • Google scholar

    • Google book

    • Google

    • Online newspaper

    • Reliable websites

    • University’s library (theses/conference papers/ journal)

    • Online database

  • The CRAAP TEST

    • CURRENCY: timeliness 

      • Is the research up to date?

      • Have there been any new advancements since publication?

      • How frequently does research change in your field?

      • Was it written recently enough to be accurate?

      • Has it been revised or updated?

      • Do the links work?

    • RELEVANCE: importance

      • Is the information fact or opinion?

      • Who is the intended audience?

      • Does the information add something to your topic?

      • Have you checked other sources to make sure yours is the most relevant to your topic

    • AUTHORITY: source

      • What are the credentials of the author?

      • Is the author qualified to write on the topic?

      • How is this information published? Did it have to go through editing/p peer review?

      • Who wrote, published or publicised?

      • What makes the author an expert?

      • Are they backed by a university/ institute?

    • ACCURACY: reliability, truthfulness and correctness

      • Is the information supported by evidence?

      • Can you verify any of the claims using outside information or personal knowledge?

      • Are there typographical/spelling errors?

      • Is there supporting evidence?

      • Has the information been reviewed by experts or fact checkers?

      • What are other experts saying about it?

    • PURPOSE: reason information exists

      • Who funded the study?

      • Why was this research conducted? inform/persuade/sell/entertain??

      • Is the point of view impartial?

      • What biases can you find? What are others saying about the authors/source?

      • What is your purpose and bias?

  • How to identify a credible source

    • The information should be up to date and current

    • The source should be relevant to your research

    • The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching

    • The source the author cited should be easy to find, clear and unbiased

    • For web sources, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy


 

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