Why Good Researchers Prefer Primary Data Over Secondary Data?

Primary and secondary data collection methods are both important and serve the purpose of researchers. Both of these data collection methods bring their utility for the researches. However, the primary data and secondary data are both have their advantages and disadvantages. Based on these promises and challenges, some researchers prefer primary data over secondary data. Thus, this article explores the advantages of the primary data, which make it a preference for some researchers.

Primary data is original which is collected by a researcher for a specific purpose. Primary data depicts the current needs of the researcher. If you are collecting primary data, you can directly obtain this data from the subjects. Primary data of dissertation proposal writing service company allows the researchers to analyse this data which gives significant insights. On the other hand, researchers obtain secondary data from the already established databases instead of directly taking it from the subjects. There are several benefits of primary data which intrigues researchers to use primary data instead of secondary data. The following section highlights a few advantages of primary data.

1. Accuracy

When it comes to primary data, representativeness is one of the vital aspects. The ability of the sample to present the group, community and people, it claims to present is called the representativeness of a sample. Representativeness becomes even more important when it comes to primary data. As the primary data is collected directly from the respondents/subjects; therefore, a researcher attempts to achieve the representativeness of the sample. As in primary data, a researcher is directly responsible for the data collection; therefore, the sample should be able to represent the population.

As a researcher involves directly in the primary data collection, it ensures the accuracy of the data. Sometimes, in comparison, the secondary data may not be a good representation of the population. The accuracy of primary data enables the researchers to draw consistent conclusions. Researchers ensure the accuracy of primary data by studying previous studies. It gives them ideas as well as allows a practical approach to data collection. It means that primary data focuses on gathering unaltered information. Moreover, genuine information from primary data collection proves to be more reliable.

2. Depth of Information

Secondary data do not allow in-depth information collection. In comparison, primary data is important in this regard. As the researchers are usually present at the scene while collecting primary data, it makes the respondent more aware of the nature of the questions. As the researcher develops the questions or the data collection instrument, it helps them communicate the instrument's core purpose to the respondents. Thus, in such a way, it is possible to retrieve a necessary depth of the subject through respondents of the study. When a researcher directly records the data from the respondents, different aspects of information can be achieved. In this manner, a researcher can observe the respondents' feelings, emotions, thoughts, and words.

3. Usefulness of Information

The information gathered from primary data becomes more useful in comparison to the secondary data. As a researcher collects primary data, it leads to new dimensions of knowledge on the subject. Besides, the secondary data becomes static after some time and it does not bring newness into the results. When coursework writing services firm’s sociologists identify what primary data entails on the subject under study, it becomes useful for them. Sometimes, the newness in the primary data reveals significant different dimensions on a particular subject that do not match the static nature of the secondary data. In this manner, new and more relevant results can be expected from a study using primary data instead of secondary data (Hox and Boeije, 2005).

4. Identification of Bias

A bias in the research study indicates that the results deviate from the expectations or statistical noise in the findings. Every research aims at exploring a particular hypothesis or a research question. When research involves primary data collection practices, he understands the situations while collecting data very well. The researcher becomes aware of the kind of bias that is brought into the research study. By identifying this bias, the researcher may have better control over the study. It can allow the researcher even to rectify the mistakes and reduce the bias as much as possible. In some situations, this awareness about the bias in the study indicates that the researcher can identify if the bias can be rectified or the data collection needs to be changed (Rich, 2011).

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5. Personal Experience

One of the important reasons researchers choose primary data over secondary is the personal experience attached to the primary data collection. When a researcher engages in the primary data collection, he gets to experience in person the way the subjects respond to the questions. A direct experience is what makes it most appealing for the researchers. For a researcher, his research study is not a piece of writing but an experience enhanced with directly involving the subjects in the study for primary data.

6. Achieving Results

A personalised experience in collecting results makes the primary data collection more special and practical. The results retrieved from the primary data are considered authentic by the researchers. Besides, the breakthroughs in real-world problems, whether it is the field of physics, biology or chemistry, are derived by primary data. In addition, all scientific discoveries are contributions by the primary data.

This article discusses the advantages of primary data. Researchers around the world believe in these benefits and consider primary data better than secondary data. It is important to understand that primary data is the first choice of every researcher unless circumstances do not allow the researcher to opt for primary data. Therefore, choosing a data collection method, researchers always consider two aspects, i.e., the time and the resources. In terms of convenience, researchers can go for secondary data, but researchers opt for primary data for improved validity and authenticity.

References

Rich, M., 2011. Student research in a web 2 world: Learning to use new technology to gather primary data. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 9(1), pp.pp78-86.

Hox, J.J. and Boeije, H.R., 2005. Data collection, primary versus secondary.