Secondary Data

Question 1

what is secondary data

Answer 1

information collected previously by someone else other than the researcher

Question 2

in terms of amount how is secondary data useful

Answer 2

huge amount of data available coming from large scale studies or gov databases - provides access to extensive and representative datasets that may not be feasible for individual researchers to collect

Question 3

why might it be limited

Answer 3

limited to what is available

Question 4

negative: lack of control

Answer 4

researcher has no control over how the data was originally collected - may have inaccuracies, biases or missing info

Question 5

neg/pos: ethics

Answer 5

neg: access to certain secondary data may be restricted due to confidentiality agreements and privacy concerns - limits availability for research
pos: ethically safe as data has already been collected - ethical concerns may have already been addressed by original researchers