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 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.
Searching for both primary and secondary sources can help to ensure that you are up to date with what research has already been carried out in your area of interest and to identify the key researchers in the field.
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.
Gopalakrishnan and Ganeshkumar (2013, p. 10) explain the difference between primary and secondary research:
"Primary research is collecting data directly from patients or population, while secondary research is the analysis of data already collected through primary research. A review is an article that summarizes a number of primary studies and may draw conclusions on the topic of interest which can be traditional (unsystematic) or systematic".
As secondary data has already been collected by someone else for their research purposes, it may not cover all of the areas of interest for your research topic. This research will need to be analysed alongside other research sources and data in the same subject area in order to confirm, dispute or discuss the findings in a wider context.
"Secondary source data, as the name infers, provides second-hand information. The data come ‘pre-packaged’, their form and content reflecting the fact that they have been produced by someone other than the researcher and will not have been produced specifically for the purpose of the research project. The data, none the less, will have some relevance for the research in terms of the information they contain, and the task for the researcher is to extract that information and re-use it in the context of his/her own research project." (Denscombe, 2021, p. 268)
In the video below Dr. Benedict Wheeler (Senior Research Fellow at the European Center for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School) discusses secondary data analysis. Secondary data was used for his research on how the environment affects health and well-being and utilising this secondary data gave access to a larger data set.
As with all research, an important part of the process is to critically evaluate any sources you use. There are tools to help with this in the Being Critical section of the guide.
Louise Corti, from the UK Data Archive, discusses using secondary data in the video below. The importance of evaluating secondary research is discussed - this is to ensure the data is appropriate for your research and to investigate how the data was collected.
Advantages:
Disadvantages
The videos below include some insights from academics regarding the importance of literature reviews.
| Malcolm Williams, Professor and Director of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, discusses how to build upon previous research by conducting a thorough literature review. | Professor Geoff Payne discusses research design and how the literature review can help determine what research methods to use as well as help to further plan your project. |
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For some dissertations/major projects there might only be a literature review (discussed above). For others there could be a literature review followed by primary research and for others the literature review might be followed by further secondary research.
You may be asked to write a literature review which will form a background chapter to give context to your project and provide the necessary history for the research topic. However, you may then also be expected to produce the rest of your project using additional secondary research methods, which will need to produce results and findings which are distinct from the background chapter to avoid repetition.
Remember, 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. This may be in Blackboard and you can also check with your supervisor.
Although this type of secondary research will go beyond a literature review, it will still rely on research which has already been undertaken. And, "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).
Your secondary research may use the literature review to focus on a specific theme, which is then discussed further in the main project. Or it may use an alternative approach. Some examples are included below. Remember to speak with your supervisor if you are struggling to define these areas.
Some approaches of how to conduct secondary research include:
The bibliometric analysis often uses the data from a citation source such as Scopus or Web of Science.
(Adapted from: Grant and Booth, 2009, cited in Sarhan and Manu, 2021, p. 72)
In general, the main stages for conducting secondary research for your dissertation or major project will include:
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Choosing a research question:
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Creating a plan:
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Searching:
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Reading and evaluating the research:
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Writing it up:
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Click on the image below to access the reading list which includes resources used in this guide as well as some additional useful resources.
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