A blog on the use of secondary data in social scientific research.

"Secondary analysis involves the re-use of pre-existing qualitative data derived from previous research studies. These data include material such as semi-structured interviews, responses to open-ended questions in questionnaires, field notes and research diaries." (Heaton 2004:1)

The use of secondary data in social scientific research is popular amongst many social scientists as  there are many benefits to the researcher. These include high-quality data can be obtained, data is available on a large scale, allows for comparative research; therefore the researcher can easily identify patterns, trends and shifts in the data. Another advantage of using secondary data is that most of the data is available to the public for free; therefore not putting the researcher at expense. Secondary analysis is usually used for two main purposes; firstly they can be used to investigate new or additional research questions; alternatively they can be used to verify the findings of previous research (Heaton 2004). This shows that secondary data in social scientific research is versatile and can be used in various ways. 

Despite the numerous advantages of using secondary data in social scientific research, there are also numerous disadvantages. For example, some of the data may be dated and therefore inaccurate as times have changed as Gillies and Edwards (2005) warn that utilization of qualitative datasets generated in the past: requires more than a simple historical comparison of data. The focus of ... studies shift over time, limiting the contextual commensurability  between different historically and culturally specific data sets and generating numerous conceptual and methodological questions...relevant themes and accounts are likely to be embedded within a range of topic areas that were previously ascendant. There are also ethical concerns, such as participant consent, this can be an issue as the participant may not have agreed to be used within the research being carried out. There are also other general weaknesses to using secondary data in social scientific research, for example the researcher cannot add questions if they wish, also there may be scepticism surrounding the quality of the research the conditions in which the research was carried out. Another big problem with using secondary data is it requires the use of the "sociological imagination" (Mills 1959) , this is the idea that there are stories and reasons behind the data, however the researcher cannot access this.


Reference List

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York, Oxford University Press.

Gillies and Edwards (2005) Secondary analysis in exploring family and social change:addressing the issue of context Vol. 6, no1. Art 44

Heaton, J (2004) Secondary analysis of Qualitative data: an overview Historical social research, Vol 33-2008- No. 3, 33-45