Secondary Data: Meaning and list of various sources

The ultimate guide to Secondary Data: What it includes, various types and their importance.

What is Secondary Data?

When looking for data to answer their research question(s) or meet their objectives, students are increasingly expected to consider undertaking further analysis of the data that were collected initially for some other purposes.

Such data are known as secondary data.

Read more on data collection methods and the complete research process here.

Brief Introduction

These could include:

• Payroll details, copies of letters, minutes of meetings and business transactions such as sales queries and purchases
• Quality daily newspapers contain a wealth of data, including reports about take over bids, and companies share prices;
• Government departments undertake surveys and publish official statistics covering social, demographic and economic topics;
• Social media sites host web pages for particular interest groups; including those set up by organisations, storing them alongside other data group members;

Secondary data include both Qualitative as well as Quantitative data. Secondary data you analyse further can be Raw data or compiled data, big data.

• Raw data, there has been little if any processing;
• Compiled data, that have received some form of selection or summarising;

Secondary Data can be used for Descriptory and Explanatory Research.

Most frequent in case study or survey research strategy but it can also be used with other research strategies.

Advantages of Secondary Data

• Fewer resource requirements – more time and effort for the analysis
• Unobtrusive – benefit for sensitive situations
• Allows longitudinal studies
• Provides comparative and contextual data – triangulation
• Can result in unforeseen discoveries
• Permanence of data

Disadvantages of Secondary Data

• May have been collected for a purpose that doesn’t match your need (different methods)
• Access may be difficult or costly
• Unsuitable aggregations and definitions
• No real control over data quality
• Initial purpose may have affected how the data is presented

Types of Secondary Data

Document

• Text
  Examples: Organisations’ databases. Organisations’ communications such as emails, letters, memos. Tweets. Blogs. Reports and minutes of committees. Magazines. Newspapers. Diaries. Interview. Transcripts
• Non-text
  Examples: Media accounts including television and radio. Voice recordings. Video recordings. Images including photographs. Web images

Survey

• Censuses
  Examples: Governments’ Censuses: Census of population, Census of employment
• Continuous and regular surveys
  Examples: Government: Family Spending, Labour Market Trends. Organisation: BMRB International’s Target Group Index, Employee attitude surveys
• Ad hoc surveys
  Examples: Governments surveys. Organisation surveys. Academics’ surveys

Multiple source

• Snap shot
  Examples: Data compiled in: Financial Times, country reports, Government publications. Books. Journals. Big data sets
• Longitudinal
  Examples: Data compiled in: Industry statistics and reports. Government publications. European Union publications. Newspaper reports. Books. Journals. Big data sets

Document Secondary Data

• Data that endures in a physical format
• Documentary research is widely used as part of within-company action research project or a case study for a particular company.
• Issues: locating, evaluating
• Are your documents secondary data (=created for a purpose which is not your research) or are they (=statistics, research papers) where you simply find your secondary data?
• Increasingly available online, they include both text and non text materials;
• Text materials include: Notices; Correspondence; Minutes of meetings; Reports to shareholders; Diaries, transcripts of speeches and conversations, Administrative and public records
• Non-Text materials include: Voice; Video recording; Picture; Drawings; Films

Survey-Based Secondary Data

• Questionnaires that have already been analysed for their original purpose
• Censuses, Such data easily accessible in compiled form, and are widely used by other organisations and individual researchers –Consensus is usually carried out by governments, compulsory participation;
• Continuous/regular surveys, Due to sensitive nature of such surveys data is usually difficult to obtain. This type of survey are repeated over time;
• Ad hoc surveys, (one off surveys) and are far more specific in their subject matter; They include data from questionnaire that have been undertaken by independent researchers as well as interviews undertaken by organisations and governments.

Multiple Source Secondary Data

• Based on documentary or survey-based or an amalgam of the two before researcher is accessing the data.
• Europe’s 15,000 largest companies
• Share price listings
• Time series – longitudinal data
• Cohort Studies – difficult given the need to maintaining contact with the same group

Establishing and locating Secondary Data

Establish what sort of data you require.

• Search your literature review;
• Newspaper reports, web-based materials /blogs;
• Indexes and catalogues;

Locate the precise location of that data.

• Access through library;
• Within organisation – access issue;
• On-line blogs; Blogster, Blogit, Facebook pages of organisations;

Sources for Secondary Data

• World Bank
• OCED: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• IMF: International Monetary System
• UN: United Nations
• FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• ILO: International Labour Organization
• WTO (World Trade Organization): “Documents and resources” provides access to the official documents of the WTO’s councils and committees as well as to a range of other resources, such as trade statistics, economic research, WTO publications, videos, audio and photos.

US Data: Find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, design data visualizations, develop applications, and more.

EU/UK related sources

• Eurostat: This is the statistical office of the European Union (located in Luxembourg) set up to provide high quality statistics for Europe. Find statistics for questions such as is unemployment up or down? how many women go to work? are there more CO2 emissions compared to ten years ago? how is a EU country’s economy performing compared to other EU Member States?
• UK data archive www.data-archive.ac.uk: It includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data.
• Office for National Statistics
• British Household Panel Survey
• British Social Attitudes www.natcen.ac.uk/series/british-social-attitudes
• International Social Survey Programme www.issp.org

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Build upon a wide range of content for a thorough research.

Other links for Country and Industry Information

• Weforum.org: Global economic forum and industry insights
• Mckinsey Industry insights
• Bain Industry insights
• Gartner Technology insights
• Deloitte Industry insights
• Transparency: World corruption index

Issues When Collecting Secondary Data

Validity

Have the measures used in the data match those that you need? (e.g you need weekly data and you have got monthly data);

Coverage

Does the data cover the population you need to access and the time period you need? (e.g. you need breakdown of salaries full time and part time)

Reliability

What is the source of the data and what methodology was used? issue with blogs, emails and memos, how analysis is being made

Measurement bias

Was there any intentional distortion of data? Was there any change in the way in which data were collected ?

Assessing Secondary Data

Overall suitability of data to research question(s) and objectives
Measurement validity Coverage including unmeasured variables (If not suitable, then do not proceed)

Precise suitability of data for analysis Reliability and validity Measurement bias (If not suitable, then do not proceed)

Assessment of costs and benefits (If costs outweigh benefits, do not proceed)