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- What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples
What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples
Published on January 20, 2023 by Tegan George . Revised on January 12, 2024.
Secondary research is a research method that uses data that was collected by someone else. In other words, whenever you conduct research using data that already exists, you are conducting secondary research. On the other hand, any type of research that you undertake yourself is called primary research .
Secondary research can be qualitative or quantitative in nature. It often uses data gathered from published peer-reviewed papers, meta-analyses, or government or private sector databases and datasets.
Table of contents
When to use secondary research, types of secondary research, examples of secondary research, advantages and disadvantages of secondary research, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.
Secondary research is a very common research method, used in lieu of collecting your own primary data. It is often used in research designs or as a way to start your research process if you plan to conduct primary research later on.
Since it is often inexpensive or free to access, secondary research is a low-stakes way to determine if further primary research is needed, as gaps in secondary research are a strong indication that primary research is necessary. For this reason, while secondary research can theoretically be exploratory or explanatory in nature, it is usually explanatory: aiming to explain the causes and consequences of a well-defined problem.
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Secondary research can take many forms, but the most common types are:
Statistical analysis
Literature reviews, case studies, content analysis.
There is ample data available online from a variety of sources, often in the form of datasets. These datasets are often open-source or downloadable at a low cost, and are ideal for conducting statistical analyses such as hypothesis testing or regression analysis .
Credible sources for existing data include:
- The government
- Government agencies
- Non-governmental organizations
- Educational institutions
- Businesses or consultancies
- Libraries or archives
- Newspapers, academic journals, or magazines
A literature review is a survey of preexisting scholarly sources on your topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant themes, debates, and gaps in the research you analyze. You can later apply these to your own work, or use them as a jumping-off point to conduct primary research of your own.
Structured much like a regular academic paper (with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion), a literature review is a great way to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.
A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. It is usually qualitative in nature and can focus on a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. A case study is a great way to utilize existing research to gain concrete, contextual, and in-depth knowledge about your real-world subject.
You can choose to focus on just one complex case, exploring a single subject in great detail, or examine multiple cases if you’d prefer to compare different aspects of your topic. Preexisting interviews , observational studies , or other sources of primary data make for great case studies.
Content analysis is a research method that studies patterns in recorded communication by utilizing existing texts. It can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature, depending on whether you choose to analyze countable or measurable patterns, or more interpretive ones. Content analysis is popular in communication studies, but it is also widely used in historical analysis, anthropology, and psychology to make more semantic qualitative inferences.
Secondary research is a broad research approach that can be pursued any way you’d like. Here are a few examples of different ways you can use secondary research to explore your research topic .
Secondary research is a very common research approach, but has distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of secondary research
Advantages include:
- Secondary data is very easy to source and readily available .
- It is also often free or accessible through your educational institution’s library or network, making it much cheaper to conduct than primary research .
- As you are relying on research that already exists, conducting secondary research is much less time consuming than primary research. Since your timeline is so much shorter, your research can be ready to publish sooner.
- Using data from others allows you to show reproducibility and replicability , bolstering prior research and situating your own work within your field.
Disadvantages of secondary research
Disadvantages include:
- Ease of access does not signify credibility . It’s important to be aware that secondary research is not always reliable , and can often be out of date. It’s critical to analyze any data you’re thinking of using prior to getting started, using a method like the CRAAP test .
- Secondary research often relies on primary research already conducted. If this original research is biased in any way, those research biases could creep into the secondary results.
Many researchers using the same secondary research to form similar conclusions can also take away from the uniqueness and reliability of your research. Many datasets become “kitchen-sink” models, where too many variables are added in an attempt to draw increasingly niche conclusions from overused data . Data cleansing may be necessary to test the quality of the research.
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See an example
If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
- Normal distribution
- Degrees of freedom
- Null hypothesis
- Discourse analysis
- Control groups
- Mixed methods research
- Non-probability sampling
- Quantitative research
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Research bias
- Rosenthal effect
- Implicit bias
- Cognitive bias
- Selection bias
- Negativity bias
- Status quo bias
A systematic review is secondary research because it uses existing research. You don’t collect new data yourself.
The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .
- If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts and meanings, use qualitative methods .
- If you want to analyze a large amount of readily-available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how it is generated, collect primary data.
- If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.
Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.
Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses . Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.
Sources in this article
We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.
George, T. (2024, January 12). What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/secondary-research/
Largan, C., & Morris, T. M. (2019). Qualitative Secondary Research: A Step-By-Step Guide (1st ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Peloquin, D., DiMaio, M., Bierer, B., & Barnes, M. (2020). Disruptive and avoidable: GDPR challenges to secondary research uses of data. European Journal of Human Genetics , 28 (6), 697–705. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-020-0596-x
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4 Chapter 5 Secondary Research
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students must be able to:
- Explain the concept of secondary research
- Highlight the key benefits and limitations of secondary research
- Evaluate different sources of secondary data
What is Secondary Research?
In situations where the researcher has not been involved in the data gathering process (primary research), one may have to rely on existing information and data to arrive at specific research conclusions or outcomes. Secondary research, also known as desk research, is a research method that involves the use of information previously collected for another research purpose.
In this chapter, we are going to explain what secondary research is, how it works, and share some examples of it in practice.
Marketing textbook © 2022 Western Sydney University taken by Sally Tsoutas Western Sydney University Photographer is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Sources of secondary data.
The two main sources of secondary data are:
- Internal sources
- External sources
Internal sources of secondary data exist within the organization. There could be reports, previous research findings, or old documents which may still be used to understand a particular phenomenon. This information may only be available to the organization’s members and could be a valuable asset.
External sources of secondary data lie outside the organization and refer to information held at the public library, government departments, council offices, various associations as well as in newspapers or journal articles.
Benefits of using Secondary Data
It is only logical for researchers to look for secondary information thoroughly before investing their time and resources in collecting primary data. In academic research, scholars are not permitted to move to the next stage till they demonstrate they have undertaken a review of all previous studies. Suppose a researcher would like to examine the characteristics of a migrant population in the Western Sydney region. The following pieces of information are already available in various reports generated from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ census data:
- Birthplace of residents
- Language spoken at home by residents
- Family size
- Income levels
- Level of education
By accessing such readily available secondary data, the researcher is able to save time, money, and effort. When the data comes from a reputable source, it further adds to the researchers’ credibility of identifying a trustworthy source of information.
Evaluation of Secondary Data
[1] Assessing secondary data is important. It may not always be available free of cost. The following factors must be considered as these relate to the reliability and validity of research results, such as whether:
- the source is trusted
- the sample characteristics, time of collection, and response rate (if relevant) of the data are appropriate
- the methods of data collection are appropriate and acceptable in your discipline
- the data were collected in a consistent way
- any data coding or modification is appropriate and sufficient
- the documentation of the original study in which the data were collected is detailed enough for you to assess its quality
- there is enough information in the metadata or data to properly cite the original source.
In addition to the above-mentioned points, some practical issues which need to be evaluated include the cost of accessing and the time frame involved in getting access to the data is relevant.
The infographic Secondary Sources created by Shonn M. Haren, 2015 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence [2]
Table 2: differences between primary and secondary research.
- Griffith University n.d., Research data: get started, viewed 28 February 2022,<https://libraryguides.griffith.edu.au/finddata>. ↵
- Shonnmaren n.d., Secondary sources, viewed 28 February 2020, Wikimedia Commons, <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Secondary_Sources.png> ↵
- Qualtrics XM n.d., S econdary research: definition, methods and examples , viewed 28 February 2022, <https://www.qualtrics.com/au/experience-management/research/secondary-research/#:~:text=Unlike%20primary%20research%2C%20secondary%20research,secondary%20research%20have%20their%20places>. ↵
About the author
name: Aila Khan
institution: Western Sydney University
Chapter 5 Secondary Research Copyright © by Aila Khan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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In simple terms, secondary data is every. dataset not obtained by the author, or "the analysis. of data gathered b y someone else" (Boslaugh, 2007:IX) to be more sp ecific. Secondary data may ...
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. 1. 2. Secondary data is usually defined in opposition to primary data. The latter is directly obtained. from first-hand sources ...
Secondary analysis of qualitative data is a topic unto itself and is not discussed in this volume. The interested reader is referred to references such as James and Sorenson (2000) and Heaton (2004). The choice of primary or secondary data need not be an either/or ques-tion. Most researchers in epidemiology and public health will work with both ...
Setting a research aim is important regardless of whether the data is from a primary or secondary source ... This article provides a guideline for a new secondary qualitative data research methodology that draws on a range of existing methods and adds a procedural structure for a complete analysis from the beginning to end, to help remove ...
Secondary analysis is a research methodology by which researchers use pre-existing data in order to investigate new questions or for the verification of the findings of previous works (Heaton, 2019).
the downfalls of secondary data analysis, particularly in the setting of forced migration research when using online, publicly accessible data. Step 1. Formulation of Research Questions. Setting a research aim is important regardless of whether the data is from a primary or secondary source (Taylor & Ussher, 2001).
previously collected for secondary research purposes (and again without in volving any other independent parties). Later, in section 4.1,1 show which sources of data have been re-used in ex isting studies, but first I look at which modes of secondary analysis have been promoted and developed internationally to date. 3. Development of the ...
Specifically, using secondary data in mixed methods can help you: (1) examine the poten-tially untapped possibilities to expand knowledge and understanding of a topic, (2) gauge the depth of a topic so you know how to proceed quantitatively, and. (3) gauge the breadth of a topic, so you know how to proceed qualitatively.
Most studies of animal cognition involve primary data analysis; it was difficult to identify any that were based on meta-analysis; secondary data analysis based on published data has been used effectively, and examples are given from the research of John Gibbon on scalar timing theory.
ethical problems. Though commentary about qualitative secondary data analysis has increased, little is known about the current state of qualitative secondary data analysis or how researchers are conducting secondary data analysis with qualitative data. This critical interpretive synthesis examined research articles (n¼71) published between
Secondary research is a research method that uses data that was collected by someone else. In other words, whenever you conduct research using data that already exists, you are conducting secondary research. On the other hand, any type of research that you undertake yourself is called primary research. Example: Secondary research.
Secondary data can range from large, publicly available data sources (e.g., U.S. Census data) to smaller, privately-owned data sources (e.g., local social service agency data for the client population). Whether they take the form of publicly available data points, papers, artifacts, or electronic documents, secondary data are valuable in health ...
context. Secondary research is also the closest thing to an all-purpose market research tool, because virtually every project makes some use of secondary data and almost any decision stage may incorporate some kind of secondary research. As a general rule, relatively speaking secondary research also is the cheapest and quickest form of market ...
Example: Many student research projects involve secondary analysis of data that belongs to, or was initially collected by, their faculty advisor or another investigator. If the student is provided with a de- identified, non-coded data set, the use of the data does not constitute research with human subjects because there is no interaction with any individual and no identifiable private ...
Secondary Research. First-hand research to collect data. May require a lot of time. The research collects existing, published data. Requires less time. Creates raw data that the researcher owns. The researcher has no control over data method or ownership. Relevant to the goals of the research. May not be relevant to the goals of the research.
SDA involves investigations where data collected for a previous study is analyzed - either by the same researcher(s) or different researcher(s) - to explore new questions or use different analysis strategies that were not a part of the primary analysis (Szabo and Strang, 1997).For research involving quantitative data, SDA, and the process of sharing data for the purpose of SDA, has become ...
Types of secondary data are as follows: Published data: Published data refers to data that has been published in books, magazines, newspapers, and other print media. Examples include statistical reports, market research reports, and scholarly articles. Government data: Government data refers to data collected by government agencies and departments.
This paper asserts thatsecondary data analysis is a viable method to utilize in the process of inquiry when a systematic procedure is followed and presents an illustrative research application utilizing secondary data analysis in library and information science research. Expand. 581. PDF.
SOURCES OF DA TA A ND THEIR EVA LUA TION METHODOLOGY. 14.1 INTRODUCTION. The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been defined and. research design/ plan chalked out. While ...
Meeting the expectation for scholarly productivity can be challenging for nursing faculty, especially in the absence of grant or other funding. Secondary data analysis is one strategy to address this challenge. The use of existing data to test new hypotheses or answer new research questions has several advantages.
of secondary data is now common and widespread, but not as much in Iberoamerican countries. In this editorial, we will focus more specifically on the use and opportunities in employing secondary data. Cite it like this: Martins, F., Cunha, J., & Serra, F. (2018). Secondary Data in Research - Uses and Opportunities. PODIUM Sport,
Sometimes secondary research is referred to as community assessment, needs assessment, or situation analysis, but we use the term to mean: (1) collecting hard data that already exists about a community or communities targeted for your study; and (2) taking an initial look at communities' experiences with OST programs.
Secondary research methods involve the analysis of data that already exists or has already been created. This is in contrast to primary research, which is based on principles of the scientific method (Driscoll, 2011) where researchers learn more about the world by collecting measurable data first-hand. In recent years, the use of secondary ...