Can data be both primary and secondary?
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What does each and every research project need to get results? Data – or information – to help answer questions, understand a specific issue or test a hypothesis. Show Researchers in the health and social sciences can obtain their data by getting it directly from the subjects they’re interested in. This data they collect is called primary data. Another type of data that may help researchers is the data that has already been gathered by someone else. This is called secondary data. What are the advantages of using these two types of data? Which tends to take longer to process and which is more expensive? This column will help to explain the differences between primary and secondary data. Primary dataAn advantage of using primary data is that researchers are collecting information for the specific purposes of their study. In essence, the questions the researchers ask are tailored to elicit the data that will help them with their study. Researchers collect the data themselves, using surveys, interviews and direct observations. In the field of workplace health research, for example, direct observations may involve a researcher watching people at work. The researcher could count and code the number of times she sees practices or behaviours relevant to her interest; e.g. instances of improper lifting posture or the number of hostile or disrespectful interactions workers engage in with clients and customers over a period of time. To take another example, let’s say a research team wants to find out about workers’ experiences in return to work after a work-related injury. Part of the research may involve interviewing workers by telephone about how long they were off work and about their experiences with the return-to-work process. The workers’ answers–considered primary data–will provide the researchers with specific information about the return-to-work process; e.g. they may learn about the frequency of work accommodation offers, and the reasons some workers refused such offers. Secondary dataThere are several types of secondary data. They can include information from the national population census and other government information collected by Statistics Canada. One type of secondary data that’s used increasingly is administrative data. This term refers to data that is collected routinely as part of the day-to-day operations of an organization, institution or agency. There are any number of examples: motor vehicle registrations, hospital intake and discharge records, workers’ compensation claims records, and more. Compared to primary data, secondary data tends to be readily available and inexpensive to obtain. In addition, administrative data tends to have large samples, because the data collection is comprehensive and routine. What’s more, administrative data (and many types of secondary data) are collected over a long period. That allows researchers to detect change over time. Going back to the return-to-work study mentioned above, the researchers could also examine secondary data in addition to the information provided by their primary data (i.e. survey results). They could look at workers’ compensation lost-time claims data to determine the amount of time workers were receiving wage replacement benefits. With a combination of these two data sources, the researchers may be able to determine which factors predict a shorter work absence among injured workers. This information could then help improve return to work for other injured workers. The type of data researchers choose can depend on many things including the research question, their budget, their skills and available resources. Based on these and other factors, they may choose to use primary data, secondary data–or both. Source: At Work, Issue 82, Fall 2015: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto [This column updates a previous column describing the same term, originally published in 2008.] Watch the video for an overview of the differences between primary data and secondary data: Primary and Secondary Data Can’t see the video? Click here. Primary data is data that is collected by a researcher from first-hand sources, using methods like:
A primary source is collected directly from the original source. It is not clouded with someone else’s views or judgments. The term is used in contrast with the term secondary data. Secondary data is data gathered from studies, surveys, or experiments that have been run by other people or for other research. Examples of secondary data include:
Typically, a researcher will begin a project by working with secondary data. This allows time to formulate questions and gain an understanding of the issues being dealt with before the more costly and time consuming operation of collecting primary data. Let’s say you were researching trauma in burn survivors; You would typically begin your study by going through the literature on the subject. Data gleaned both from published papers and unpublished research notes would be secondary data. Although it isn’t primary data, it could give you invaluable information nonetheless. If you decided to go on to collect primary data, the secondary data would give you what information you need to know where to begin. If you took a trip to a trauma unit and interviewed burn survivors, the data collected in that phase of your research would be primary data. If one of your interviewees puts you in touch with a burn survivor support group, and you are given access to a database of information about the psychological state of a large group of survivors in the years following the burn incident, that would also be secondary, not primary, data. ReferencesDriscoll & Brizee. What is Primary Research? Purdue Online Write Lab. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/01/ on June 24th, 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Need help with a homework or test question? With Chegg Study, you can get step-by-step solutions to your questions from an expert in the field. Your first 30 minutes with a Chegg tutor is free! Comments? Need to post a correction? Please Contact Us. Can you use both primary and secondary data?Most research uses both primary and secondary sources. They complement each other to help you build a convincing argument. Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but secondary sources show how your work relates to existing research.
WHEN CAN primary data be secondary data?Key Differences Between Primary and Secondary Data
Primary data is a real-time data whereas secondary data is one which relates to the past. Primary data is collected for addressing the problem at hand while secondary data is collected for purposes other than the problem at hand.
Is primary data and secondary data are same?Primary data refers to the first hand data gathered by the researcher himself. Secondary data means data collected by someone else earlier. Surveys, observations, experiments, questionnaire, personal interview, etc.
What is primary and secondary data called?Researchers in the health and social sciences can obtain their data by getting it directly from the subjects they're interested in. This data they collect is called primary data. Another type of data that may help researchers is the data that has already been gathered by someone else. This is called secondary data.
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