Performing Secondary Research
When conducting primary research, you gather and create new data. With secondary research, you utilize established, published data created by another author(s). While it may seem a bit “simpler” to use secondary research, there are many aspects to consider when choosing and incorporating these sources. You must make choices about the source’s validity, biases, author and publication credibility, and information quality.
In today’s complex information landscape, just about anything that contains information can be considered a potential secondary source. For example, most know about books, websites, journals, and newspapers. However, other possible sources include research reports, conference papers, field notes, photographs, websites, and television programs. With so many sources available, the question usually is not whether sources exist for your project, but which ones will best meet your information needs? Categorizing a source helps you understand the kind of information it contains, which is a clue to whether it might meet your information needs and where to look for it and similar sources.
A source can be categorized by whether it contains quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (descriptive) information or both; whether the source is objective (factual) or persuasive (opinion); whether the source is a scholarly, professional, or popular publication; and the source’s format. As you may already be able to tell, sources can be in more than one category at the same time because the categories are not mutually exclusive.
Quantitative or Qualitative
Information from a secondary source can be quantitative or qualitative, which is a key way to categorize sources. Some sources contain either quantitative information or qualitative information, but sources often contain both. Quantitative information involves a measurable quantity—numbers are used. Some examples are length, mass, temperature, and time. Quantitative information is often called data but can be things other than numbers. Qualitative information involves a descriptive judgment using concept words instead of numbers, such as descriptions of a situation and interview data. For example, if you were researching how to improve your local library, quantitative information could include government documents with statistics on current usage and advertisements for library activities at similar libraries. Qualitative information could be published case studies on library use or a local newspaper story with interviews of library patrons.
Fact or Opinion
An author’s purpose can influence the kind of information they choose to include in a source. Think about why the author produced a source, because that reason dictated the kind of information they include. Depending on that purpose, the author may have chosen to include factual, analytical, and objective information. Or, it may have suited their purpose to include subjective, and therefore less factual and analytical, information. The author’s reason for producing the source also determines whether they included multiple perspectives or just their own. For example, a blogger may review a movie based on personal opinion (e.g., they liked the action scenes or thought the main actor was dreamy), while a professional movie critic would approach their review differently (e.g., scene composition, musical score, and other quantifiable elements).
Popular, Professional, and/or Scholarly
We can also categorize information by the expertise level of its intended audience. Considering how “expert” one has to be to understand the information can indicate whether the source has sufficient credibility and thoroughness. There are varying degrees of expertise:
- Popular: Popular newspaper and magazine articles (The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone) are meant for a large general audience, are generally affordable, and are easy to purchase or free. They are written by staff writers or reporters, and are often about news, opinions, background information, and entertainment. They are visually attractive with catchy titles, artwork, and advertisements, but no footnotes or references. They are published by commercial publishers and content is approved by an editor.
- Professional: Professional magazine articles (Plastic Surgical Nursing and Music Teacher) are meant for people in a particular profession. Staff writers or other professionals write at a level and with language understood by those in the profession. They are about trends and news from the targeted field, book reviews, and case studies. Articles are often less than 10 pages and may contain footnotes and references. These are usually published by professional associations and commercial publishers, and like popular publications, are published after approval from an editor.
- Scholarly: Scholarly journal articles (Plant Science and Education and Child Psychology) are meant for scholars, students, and the general public who want a deeper understanding of a topic. Researchers and scholars write these articles to present new knowledge and further understanding of their field. They contain findings of research projects, data and analytics, and case studies. They are often long (over 10 pages) and include footnotes and references, and are usually published by universities, professional associations, and commercial publishers. Content is approved by peer review or the journal’s editor.
Combined Purposes
Sometimes authors have combined purposes, as when a marketer decides he can sell more smart phones with an informative sales video that also entertaining. Authors often have multiple purposes in most scholarly writing. For example, scholarly authors want to inform and educate their audiences, but they also want to persuade the reader that what they report and/or postulate is a true description of a situation, event, or phenomenon, or a valid argument that their audience must take a particular action. In this blend of purposes, the intent to educate and inform is considered to trump the intent to persuade.
Intent Matters
Author intent matters in how useful their information can be to your research, depending on which information need you are trying to meet. For instance, when you look for sources that will help you answer a research question or evidence for your answer, you will want the author’s main purpose to be to inform or educate. With that intent, they are likely to use facts where possible, multiple perspectives, little subjective information, and seemingly unbiased, objective language that cites where they got the information. This kind of source will lend credibility to your argument.
Common Secondary Research Types
Some secondary sources could include the following:
- Books: usually a substantial amount of information, published at one time and requiring great effort on the part of the author and a publisher
- Magazines/Journals: published frequently, containing articles related to some general or specific professional research interest; edited
- Newspapers: daily or weekly publication of events of social, political and lifestyle interest
- Websites: digital items, each consisting of multiple pages produced by someone with technical skills (Or can pay someone with technical skills.)
- Articles: distinct, short, written pieces that might contain photos and are generally timely (Timeliness is when something is of interest to readers at the point of publication or something the writer is thinking about or researching at a given point of time.)
- Conference papers: written form of papers delivered at a professional or research-related conference (Authors are generally practicing professionals or scholars in the field.)
- Blogs: frequently updated websites that do not necessarily require extensive technical skills and can be published by virtually anyone for no cost to themselves other than the time they devote to content creation (Usually marked by postings that indicate the date they were written.)
- Documentaries: visual works such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner (Often consists of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration.)
- Online videos: short videos produced by anybody, with a lot of money or a little money, about anything for the world to see (Common sites for these are YouTube and Vimeo.)
- Podcasts: digital audio files, produced by anyone and about anything, and are available for downloading (Often by subscription.)
Media Attributions
- Private: Figure 10: Secondary Research Categories
