Primary data is collected by you for some purpose. It is you who decided to collect everything you need for a particular project. No one else gave it you, nor previously formatted it. You know the origin of the data, the original, and no one is there to be paid for the trouble made to collect and gather the data. But it is time-consuming, and timely expensive for you to gather the data. That is one demerit being considered. It is your decision what to collect, not others'. So you have to be careful. Also on the other hand, if others collect it for you, you have to have good communication with them in order what to collect, nor confusions to be made about what is needed. Also, time-consuming and expensive, very careful and thorough. Primary - here you are certain you are taking high-quality and secure/private data, on the other hand - secondary - you have to be careful not to be lied about the confidentiality, high-quality nor security and legally bounded rules regarding holding the data, etc. Merits of taking the secondary data and not collecting them: no time lost on your side, others did it for you and are ensuring you that those are high-quality, safe to use/legal, no law violations, everything-you-need data, so that you can use immediately. It is not expensive for you in that way. You are the second-hand for the data, which has its own advantages and consequences. Other demerit is time being lost, if data is insufficiently good, of high-quality, of what was needed for the purpose or the goal of the project or assignment in the first place, etc. Or not enough in amount and/or scope, etc.
Primary and secondary forms of data are classified on the basis of who has collected the data. Primary data is data personally collected by the investigator. It is raw data that has been collected firsthand by the researcher, using techniques such as experiments, questionnaires, interviews, and surveys. Secondary data, on the other hand, is that which has been collected by a different person but is used by a researcher in a given study to answer certain questions. It is information that has already been collected, even analyzed, by another person and availed for public use via publications, journal articles, the internet or other reliable media.
Advantages of primary data
Has a high degree of accuracy since the data is directly matched to the topic of study. The researcher is involved in the data collection process, hence is able to collect data that directly answer the questions of interest.
Primary data is more current than secondary data.
Should there be a need to, additional data that answers emerging questions may be collected within the period of study.
Disadvantages of primary data
It can be an expensive method of data collection, in terms of time, effort and other resources. For instance, the method of data collection must be properly designed so that the collected data is representative of the population, in cases where sampling is done. This requires time, effort and money to achieve. Note that the larger the sample used, the more expensive is the process.
Accuracy can be reduced in data collection methods such as surveys or interviews, when respondents fail to give accurate answers, perhaps due to poor design of the questions, or time issues or even a desire to give responses that are socially acceptable.
There is a need for trained personnel who can appropriately use study guidelines during data collection in order to achieve required results.
Advantages of secondary data
It is cheaper and faster to use.
It helps to save on resources used in primary data collection, such as time, effort and money.
Disadvantages of secondary data
Data accuracy and reliability is lowered since data specific to a different study is tailor-made to answer questions for a given study. Studies may have environmental or other differences that make comparison difficult.
Secondary data may not be as recent as primary data.
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