Secondary Research

Secondary research is the answering of questions from existing sources. Some sources of secondary research often used are census data, health data, industry studies, research reports of various kinds.

You should look for all the secondary research you can find. The internet is an excellent source of exising data, but with every other source, data from the internet needs to be analyzed critically.

Using existing data may be tricky. Sources may be old or out of date. The research may be not specific to the area you're interested in studying or to the questions you are asking. You may not be able to tell how the data were collected, what methodology was used, and so on. You may not know how well the study was carried out. The research may be too time-consuming or expensive to analyze. But before you go doing your own research, check out what's available until you've satisfied yourself that what's out there won't serve you at least initially.

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