Research Methods

Secondary research

Secondary research uses research and data that has already been carried out. It is sometimes referred to as desk research. It is a good starting point for any type of research as it enables you see who the key researchers are in the field, to analyse what research has already been undertaken and identify any gaps. 

You may only need to carry out secondary research for your assessment or you may need to use secondary research as a starting point, before undertaking your own primary research.

Primary research involves gathering data which has not been collected before. Methods to collect it can include interviews, focus groups, controlled trials and case studies. Secondary research often comments on and analyses this primary research.

"Just as in primary research, secondary research designs can be either quantitative, qualitative, or a mixture of both strategies of inquiry" (Manu and Akotia, 2021, p. 4).

Literature reviews are a form of secondary research. Before conducting any research it is important to understand the context of your topic/research area by carrying out a thorough review of the literature. This helps to:

• inform and direct research more effectively

• demonstrate command of your subject, theories and terminology

• broaden and deepen your knowledge and appreciation of the research field

• demonstrate where your research sits within existing work

• signpost areas of research requiring further inquiry, gaps in knowledge, potential counter arguments to develop, alternative research methodologies, and raw data or archival sources for revaluating

Guidance for conducting a search for, and writing up, a literature review is available on the skills guides:

• Doing a Literature Search for your dissertation or project

• Writing a Literature Review

Secondary research projects

Secondary research for your major project will likely include a literature review.

• If you are conducting primary research, the literature review may written up as a background chapter before you conduct your primary research. 
• If you are doing a secondary research project, you might still require a background chapter (which informs your research) but this will also be followed by further secondary research, to produce results and findings distinct from the background chapter (to avoid repetition).

Secondary research methods:

As the criteria and guidance will differ for each School, it is important that you check the guidance which you have been given for your assessment and speak with your supervisor if anything is unclear.

Aveyard and Bradbury-Jones (2019) identified more than 35 terms to describe different types of literature reviews (which are a common secondary research method). Some examples of the different types of literature review are included below.

Systematic reviews:

• A systematic review is a structured literature review that involves identifying all of the relevant research, using a rigorous search strategy, in order to answer a focused research question. 
• Systematic reviews assess the quality of the research and provide a summary and synthesis of all relevant available research on the topic.
• In the hierarchy of evidence, systematic reviews are generally considered one of the strongest.
• A systematic review can include:
  • reviews of quantitative research
  • reviews of qualitative and quantitative studies
  • quantitative meta-analysis 
  • qualitative meta-synthesis
• "A meta-analysis is the combination of data from several independent primary studies that address the same question to produce a single estimate like the effect of treatment or risk factor." (Gopalakrishnan and Ganeshkumar, 2013, p.10)
• Meta-synthesis involves bringing the findings from multiple qualitative research studies together and combining "the themes, concepts, or metaphors from each study" (Murray and Stanley, 2015, p. 175) to create a new understanding.
• The Prisma (The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) website provides  a checklist for the different sections of a systematic review report: https://www.prisma-statement.org/
• The systematic review guide guide is aimed a PhD/Researcher students. However, students on other levels of study may find parts of the guide helpful too.

Scoping reviews:

• Scoping reviews aim to identify and assess available research on a specific topic (which can include ongoing research). They are not intended to inform clinical guidance but can be used as a precursor to a systematic review. 
• "Scoping reviews are used to identify knowledge gaps, set research agendas, and identify implications for decision-making." (Tricco et al., 2016, p.1)
• "A scoping review aims to provide a descriptive summary of the sources of evidence without necessarily assessing the quality of the sources. Therefore, assessing the quality and risk of bias of the included studies is not required, however, some researchers choose to do so. Importantly, scoping reviews should be conducted systematically and transparently and be reproducible." (Rodger, Admani, and Thomas, 2024, p.1)

Rapid reviews:

• A rapid review is a streamlined version of a systematic review designed to produce evidence summaries quickly.  
• "While rapid reviews aim to maintain the core principles of systematic reviews, such as transparency, reproducibility, and minimizing bias, they make certain trade-offs to expedite the process." (Devane et al., 2024, p. 2). 
• The increased speed of producing the rapid review is achieved by simplifying processes such as literature searching, screening, and data extraction. 
• Drawbacks can include an increased risk of publication bias due to the reduced searching, limited time for critical appraisal and reduced opportunity for peer review and scrutiny (Kaltenthaler et al., 2016, p. 2). 

Narrative reviews:

• A narrative review is also know as a traditional literature review. They are useful for providing the background to, or overview for, a topic.
• They "do not offer an evidence-based synthesis for focused questions, nor do they offer definitive guideline statements. All types of narrative reviews offer interpretations that are open to critique and will vary depending on the author team or context of the review." (Sukhera, 2022, p. 416).
• "The narrative review documents, analyzes, and draws conclusions about what is known about a particular topic. Its purpose is to produce a position on the state of that knowledge" (Lawrence and McEvoy, 2022, p.3).
• Specific types of narrative review include state-of-the-art, critical, and integrative reviews.

Literature reviews are not the only form of secondary research, your dissertation could involve researching a specific theory which is then applied to a chosen topic, or you could be asked to analyse case studies.

Using grounded theory with secondary data:

• Grounded theory is used to create explanatory theory from data which has been collected, i.e. theories are grounded in (developed from) the data.
• "Grounded theory data analysis strategies can be used with different types of data, including secondary data." (Whiteside, Mills and McCalman, 2012, p.1) Enabling you to develop new theories or expand on the existing ones by exploring patterns and meanings within existing data sets.

Analysing case studies:

• When analysing case studies, you could focus on one case study which is analysed in depth, or you could examine more than one in order to compare and contrast the important aspects of your research question.
• "Good case studies often begin with a predicament that is poorly comprehended and is inadequately explained or traditionally rationalised by numerous conflicting accounts. Therefore, the aim is to comprehend an existent problem and to use the acquired understandings to develop new theoretical outlooks or explanations." (Papachroni and Lochrie, 2015, p. 81).

The Library provides access to a wide range of resources which can be used to search for primary and secondary sources.

Subject databases

You can search the subject databases for peer reviewed primary research or review articles and conference papers (and more). The databases cover a range of subject areas.

The full list of databases is available via the A-Z list: https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/az/databases 

The subject guides can be useful to direct you to the most helpful databases for your subject area: https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/subject_libguides

Grey literature

The majority of grey literature is ‘primary’ literature (the original writings on a subject) but usually has not been peer-reviewed. Therefore, you will need to use your own judgement as to the literature’s validity. Some sources of grey literature can be found in the helpsheet and link below.

Digitised sources

Digitised primary sources can be found within newspaper and periodical titles such as, The Times, Art and Architecture Archive, British Cartoon Archive, British Museum Images, Calendar of State Papers and House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. 

More specialist primary sources, including news videos from Northern Ireland from the 60s and 70s, Church of England records, trial accounts from the Old Bailey criminal court, can also be found via the library's databases. 

For more information go to Finding Digital Media, Newspapers, Official Documents & Statistics

Data collections

When a researcher collects data from their primary research (from methods such as surveys, experiments, observations), that data can be considered a primary source, as it's the original, uninterpreted evidence.

Some data sets can be accessed via open access repositories:

• Data Repositories (Open Access Directory)

• TU Research Data Repository

Critical thinking and critical appraisal are key skills which can help evaluate research There are skills guides which provide support for this:

• Critical Thinking

• Critical Appraisal

A useful checklist for critical evaluation is to ask yourself:

• What? What type of source is it (is it peer reviewed)? What approach has been taken to produce the results?

• Who? Who wrote or produced the source? Who is the target audience? Does the author have an agenda/bias?

• When? When was it published or last updated? Is the information still accurate?

• How? How was it written? Is it based on evidence rather than emotions? How was the data gathered and analysed - are they recognised research methods for the subject area?

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