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Desk Research 101: Definition, Methods, and Examples

Parvathi vijayamohan.

2 March 2023

Table Of Contents

If you ever had to do a research study or a survey at some point, you would have started with desk research .

There’s another, more technical name for it – secondary research. To rewind a bit, there are two types of research: primary , where you go out and study things first-hand, and secondary , where you explore what others have done.

But what is desk research? How do you do it, and use it? This article will help you:

• Understand what is desk-based research
• Explore 3 examples of desk research
• Make note of 6 common desk research methods
• Uncover the advantages of desk research

What is desk research?

Desk research can be defined as a type of market/product research, where you collect data at your desk (metaphorically speaking) from existing sources to get initial ideas about your research topic.

Desk research or secondary research is an essential process from a business’s point of view. After all, secondary data sources are such an easy way to get information about their industry, trends, competitors, and customers.

Types of secondary data sources

#1. Internal secondary data: This consists of data from within the researcher’s company. Examples include:

• Company reports and presentations
• Case studies
• Podcasts, vlogs and blogs
• Press releases
• Websites and social media
• Company databases and data sets

#2. External secondary data: Researchers collect this from outside their respective firms. Examples include:

• Digital and print publications
• Domain-specific publications and periodicals
• Online research communities, like  ResearchGate
• Industry speeches and conference presentations
• Research papers

What are examples of desk research in action?

#1. testing product-audience match.

Let’s say you’re developing a fintech product. You want to do a concept testing study. To make sure you get it right, you’re interested in finding out your target audience’s attitudes about a topic in your domain. For e.g., Gen Z’s perceptions about money in the US.

With a quick Google search, you get news articles, reports, and research studies about Gen Z’s financial habits and attitudes. Also, infographics and videos provide plenty of quantitative data to draw on.

These steps are a solid starting point for framing your concept testing study. You can further reduce the time spent on survey design with a  Concept Testing Survey Template . Sign up to get free access to this and hundreds more templates.

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#2. Tracking the evolution of the Web

As we wade into the brave new world of  Web 5.0 , there are quite a few of us who still remember static websites, flash animations, and images sliced up into tables.

If you want to refresh your memory, you can hop on the  Wayback Machine . iI gives you access to over 20 years of web history, with over 635 billion web pages saved over time!

Curiosity aside, there are practical use cases for this web archive. SEO specialist Artur Bowsza explores this in his fantastic article  Internet Archeology with the Wayback Machine .

Imagine you’re investigating a recent drop in a website’s visibility. You know there were some recent changes in the website’s code, but couldn’t get any details. Or maybe you’re preparing a case study of your recent successful project, but the website has changed so much, and you never bothered to take a screenshot. Wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time and uncover the long-forgotten versions of the website – like an archaeologist, discovering secrets from the past but working in the digital world?

#3. Repairing a business reputation

As a brand, you hope that a crisis never happens. But if hell does break loose, having a crisis management strategy is essential.

If you want examples, just do a Google search. From Gamestop getting caught in a  Reddit stock trading frenzy  to Facebook being voted  The Worst Company of 2021 , we have seen plenty of brands come under fire in recent years.

Some in-depth desk research can help you nail your crisis communication. Reputation management expert Lida Citroen outlines this in her article 7 Ways to Recover After a Reputation Crisis .

Conduct a thoughtful and thorough perception sweep of the reputation hit’s after-effects. This includes assessing digital impact such as social media, online relationships and Google search results. The evaluation gives you a baseline. How serious is the situation? Sometimes the way we believe the situation to be is not reflected in the business impact of the damage.

6 popular methods of desk research

#1. the internet.

No surprise there. When was the last time you checked a book to answer the burning question of “is pineapple on pizza illegal?” (it should be).

However, choosing authentic and credible sources from an information overload can be tricky. To help you out, the Lydia M. Olson Library has a 6-point checklist to filter out low-quality sources. You can read them in detail here .

#2. Libraries

You have earned some serious street cred if your preferred source is a library. But, jokes apart, finding the correct information for your research topic in a library can be time-consuming.

However, depending on which library you visit, you will find a wealth of verifiable, quotable information in the form of newspapers, magazines, research journals, books, documents, and more.

#3. Governmental and non-governmental organizations

NGOs, and governmental agencies like the US Census Bureau, have valuable demographic data that businesses can use during desk research. This data is collected using survey tools like SurveySparrow .

You may have to pay a certain fee to download or access the information from these agencies. However, the data obtained will be reliable and trustworthy.

#4. Educational institutions

Colleges and universities conduct plenty of primary research studies every year. This makes them a treasure trove for desk researchers.

However, getting access to this data requires legwork. The procedures vary according to the institution; among other things, you will need to submit an application to the relevant authority and abide by a data use agreement.

#5. Company databases

For businesses, customer and employee data are focus areas all on their own. But after the pandemic, companies are using even more applications and tools for the operations and service sides.

This gives businesses access to vast amounts of information useful for desk research and beyond. For example, one interesting  use case  is making employee onboarding more effective with just basic employee data, like their hobbies or skills.

#6. Commercial information media

These include radio, newspapers, podcasts, YouTube, and TV stations. They are decent sources of first-hand info on political and economic developments, market research, public opinion and other trending subjects.

However, this is also a source that blurs the lines between advertising, information and entertainment. So as far as credibility is concerned, you are better off supporting this data with additional sources.

Why is desk research helpful?

Desk research helps with the following:

• Better domain understanding.  Before doing market research, running a usability test, or starting any user-centric project, you want to see what companies have done in the past (in related areas if not the same domain). Then, instead of learning everything from scratch, you can review their research, success, and mistakes and learn from that. 
• Quicker opportunity spotting.  How do you know if you’ve found something new? By reviewing what has gone before. By doing this, you can spot gaps in the data that match up with the problem you’re trying to solve.
• More money saved . Thanks to the internet, most of the data you need is at your fingertips, and they are cheaper to compile than field data. With a few (search and mental) filters, you can quickly find credible sources with factual information.
• More time saved . You have less than 15 minutes with your research participant. Two minutes if you’re doing an online survey. Do you really want to waste that time asking questions that have already been answered elsewhere? Lack of preparation can also hurt your credibility.
• Better context.  Desk research helps to provide focus and a framework for primary research. By using desk research, companies can also get the insight to make better decisions about their customers and employees.
• More meaningful data.  Desk research is the yin to the yang of field research – they are both required for a meaningful study. That’s why desk research serves as a starting point for every kind of study.

This brings us to the last question.

How do you do desk research?

Good question! In her blog post , Lorène Fauvelle covers the desk research process in detail.

Y ou can also follow our 4-step guide below:

• First,  start with a general topic l ike “handmade organic soaps”. Read through existing literature about handmade soaps to see if there is a gap in the literature that your study can fill.
• Once you find that gap, it’s time to  specify your research topic . So in the example above, you can specify it like this: “What is the global market size for handmade organic soaps”?
• Identify the relevant secondary data for desk research. This only applies if there is past data that could be useful for your research.
• Review the secondary data  according to:
• The aim of the previous study
• The author/sponsors of the study
• The methodology of the study
• The time of the research

Note: One more thing about desk research…

Beware of dismissing research just because it was done a few years ago. People new to research often make the mistake of viewing research reports like so many yogurts in a fridge where the sell-by dates have expired. Just because it was done a couple of years ago, don’t think it’s no longer relevant. The best research tends to focus on human behaviour, and that tends to change very slowly.

• Dr David Travis, Desk Research: The What, Why and How

Wrapping up

That’s all folks! We hope this blog was helpful for you.

How have you used desk research for your work? Let us know in the comments below.

Growth Marketer at SurveySparrow

Fledgling growth marketer. Cloud watcher. Aunty to a naughty beagle.

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What is Desk Research? A Guide + Examples

Desk research can help you make data-driven decisions, define or adapt strategies, and uncover untapped market potential to drive growth – when it’s done right!

Nowadays, we have all the information we need at our fingertips; but knowing where to find the right data quickly is key.

So, what is desk research? What does it involve, and how can Similarweb Research Intelligence help?

Let’s find out.

What is desk research?

Desk research is a type of market research that uses existing data to support or validate outcomes and conclusions. Also known as secondary research , it’s a cost-effective way to obtain relevant data from a broad range of channels.

How is desk research used?

From small start-ups to established businesses, doing desk research provides you with crucial insights into trends, competitors, and market size . Whatever you do, desk research can help with product positioning and guide data-driven business decisions that help you become the ultimate competitor and find new ways to grow.

According to the latest data on the Internet of Things , around 130 new devices connect to the web every second. Stats on the state of data show we create and consume data at an exponential rate–data interactions will only continue to rise.

Primary vs. secondary research – what’s the difference?

Most market research methods fall into either primary or secondary research. When we talk about desk research, we tend to focus only on secondary methods. However, most primary research can also be done remotely, from a desk.

Primary research is self-conducted research that gathers data to answer questions. It usually involves going directly to a source, such as a customer or a prospect. Compared to secondary research, it takes longer, costs more, and demands more resources. Primary research methods include interviews, market research surveys , questionnaires, competitor reviews, market mapping , focus groups, etc.

Secondary research is the synthesis or summary of existing research using previously gained information from various sources. Most market research starts with secondary research: It aims to provide a researcher or analyst with a basis of knowledge formed from existing data. Secondary research methods include collecting data from the internet, government databases, reports, and academic journals, to name just a few.

Pros and cons of desk research

As with any type of market research, you need to choose the right method to deliver the best outcome for your research goal. Desk research is advantageous for several reasons, but it won’t always suit every market research project. Market research best practice tells us that we should use desk-based research before primary research – as this helps to reduce or refine the scope of the work before the second, more costly phase.

Here’s a summary of the pros and cons of desk research.

Advantages of desk-based research

Doing secondary market research is highly beneficial; here’s why.

• Low cost – most secondary research sources are low-to-no cost.
• Speed – as the data already exists, data collection is quick.
• Clarity – desk research drives & add-value to primary research actions.
• Scalability – due to the large datasets used in secondary research.
• Availability – pre-collected data is readily available to analyze.
• Insightful – get valuable insights and help resolve some initial research questions.

Disadvantages of desk-based research

As any good researcher will attest, it’s always good to look at a topic from every angle. Here are a few things to consider before starting any secondary research process.

• Out of-date data – consider if the coverage dates of the research are relevant. In a fast-moving market, having access to up-to-date information could be critical.
• Lack of perceived control over the data – secondary research is undertaken by a third party; as such, methodology controls need to be reviewed with caution.
• No exclusivity – desk research data is widely available and can be used by other researchers.
• Verification & interpretation – particularly when working with large data sets, it can take time to analyze and review to ensure the information is suitable for your research.

Types of desk-based research

Nowadays, you can do most market research from a desk. Here, I’ll focus solely on secondary research methods: Where finding and using the right resources is key. The data you use needs to be up-to-date and should always come from a trusted source.

Desk research methods – internal data resources

Before stepping into external research, look for any relevant internal sources. This data can often prove invaluable, and it’s a great place to start gathering insights that only you can see. The information is already yours, so aside from the fact it won’t cost a dime, it’s data your rivals won’t have access to.

Sources of internal information that can help you do desk research include:

• Historical campaign and sales analysis: Everything from website traffic and conversions through to sales. Accessible through your own analytics platform(s).
• Website and mobile application data: Your own platforms can also tell you where users are – such as the device split between mobile and desktop.
• Existing customer information: audience demographics , product use, and efficiency of service.
• Previous research conducted by other analysts: Even if the research seems unrelated, there could be indicative information within.

Desk research methods – external data resources

Using external data sources for desk research is an ideal way to get information about market trends, and explore a new topic.

• The internet: A virtual aggregator of all secondary research sources – always validate findings with credible sources.
• Commercial resources: Research associations and company reports usually cost money but give you data that’s specific to your industry/aim.
• Trade association reports: To see if there’s a trade association of interest, do a quick search online or use the Encyclopedia of Associations , the Directory of Associations , or the National Trade and Professional Associations Directory
• Industry Experts: Expert consultancy is an efficient way of getting information from someone who has ‘been there, done that.’ Also, consider ‘influencers.’
• Research associations & journals: Most research associations are independent and offer bespoke, specialized reports.
• Media coverage: TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines can often help uncover facts and relevant media stories related to your topic.
• Market research intelligence software: Platforms like Similarweb give you actionable insights into industry and competitors’ trends. With access to mobile app intelligence, you get a complete picture of the digital landscape.
• Government & non-government agencies: In the US, the biggest generator of data is the federal government. US Census Bureau , Congressional Research Service , US Government Publishing Office , US Small Business Administration , and the Department of Education . Most information from these sources is free.
• Local government sites: A reliable source to find data on population density or employment trends.
• Public library records: Access data via the Digital Public Library of America in the US or the National Archives in the UK.
• Competitor information: Sign-up for mailing lists, view comparison reports, and read online reviews.
• Educational institutions: Academic research papers and journals are well-researched. If you can find a relevant one, you’ll likely get solid data from credible sources.

How to choose the best type of desk research

With so many freely-available sources online for desk-based research; it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The best guidance I can offer is to keep a list of key questions you are trying to answer with this research, and consider:

• What are you hoping to learn from your research?
• Why is this data relevant?
• Is there an action you can take from this information?
• How up-to-date is the data you are using?

Always keep the questions you’re trying to answer front of mind. It’ll help you stay focused and keep your desk research on the right track. Time and money will usually determine the right type of desk research to use, but, even then, it’s important to stay focussed on where you spend your time vs. the return on that investment.

Inspiration: This article outlines some of the best market research questions to ask.

How to do desk research in five steps

Follow these steps to guide you through doing desktop research:

1. Clearly define your research topic Identify your topic and its purpose, then list any relevant research attributes.

2. Select appropriate resources Make a list of sources that’ll provide relevant information for your research topic.

3. Look for existing data Once you’ve collated your research sources, look for internal and external data relevant to your research topic. Remember to only use data from authentic sources.

4. Collate, compare & assemble Next, you’ll need to collate all the data you’ve obtained, remove any duplication, and bring it together into a usable format.

5. Data analysis The final step of doing desk research is to analyze the data. At this point, you should be able to see if your research questions have been answered. If any questions remain unanswered, go back to step 2, and look for alternative resources that will help you get clearer insights.

Desk-based research tools

Online resources are by far your most valuable asset for doing secondary research. However, software like Similarweb Digital Intelligence , Google Analytics (GA), and Google Search Console (GSC) can save you time and give you a more visually-appealing view of relevant data.

My list of go-to tools for desk research includes:

• Google Analytics & Search Console – your own site’s performance and visitor stats.
• Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence – uncover market, industry & competitor trends across web, mobile, and apps.
• Tableau – data visualization for presenting your findings.
• Competitor data – on rival’s websites, newsletters, and social media accounts.

Read: The best market research tools of 2023

Note that GA and GSC are free to use but limited in terms of what you can see outside your own site. With Similarweb, you can access virtually limitless industry-wide data.

Stop Guessing, Start Analyzing

Get actionable insights for desk research here

How Similarweb helps with desk research

Here are just a few examples of how Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence can help you with secondary research.

• Benchmarking yourself against your industry – Benchmarking suite
• Understand how competitor websites and apps perform – Company research module
• Get a full picture of your industry – Market research & industry analysis tools
• Understand how apps are impacting your market – App Intelligence
• Analyze consumer behavior – Audience analysis tool
• Understand the complete customer journey – Consumer journey tracker

Using research intelligence tools will save you time and money while removing bias from the data – ultimately giving you clarity and a complete view of the digital world relevant to your research topic.

Success Story: See how Airbnb uses Similarweb to reveal growth opportunities in new markets .

Desk research examples with Similarweb

A good example of desk research in action is looking into an industry to uncover market leaders, trends, relevant search trends, and an overview of a complete industry. Using the market analysis module in Similarweb, you can find out exactly what’s happening in your market, and make data-driven decisions that’ll help you increase market share , and drive faster, more sustainable business growth.

For this particular desk research example, I chose the airline industry.

Let’s dive in.

Industry Overview

See a snapshot of industry traffic and engagement metrics . This data is typically based on Similarweb’s index of the top 100 websites in a chosen vertical. You can easily create a custom industry , allowing you to do competitive benchmarking against specific companies in your market.

Industry Leaders

Quickly see who is winning in an industry using the Market quadrant analysis graph and industry leaders table. Analyze top-performing websites in your vertical, and dive into their traffic and engagement performance to view bounce rates, visit duration, monthly visits, month-on-month changes, unique visitors, pages/visits, and traffic share .

Industry Trends

Analyze trends in near real-time so you can take action when it matters most–not a quarter later. Create a personalized view of your industry for in-depth analysis and make informed decisions that will help you grow your market share.

Marketing Channels

Access valuable traffic metrics and insights for each marketing channel. See data for direct, social, display ads, paid search, referrals, emails, and organic traffic channels and evaluate performance for each. Uncover opportunities to grow your own traffic share, evaluate engagement and quality of traffic, and identify trends over time.

Search Trends (within an industry)

Discover trending topics and emerging search terms in any industry. View what’s trending, search volume, % change, volume trend, and traffic leaders for both branded and non-branded search in your sector. Use these insights to get an understanding of market demand, search intent, and audience interests within a specific category, brand, or product.

Demographics

Gain crucial insights into the audiences visiting your website, your competitors’ websites, and your industry as a whole. See gender and age distribution across web, mobile, or combined traffic channels, and compare your demographics with that of your rivals.

The market analysis element of Similarweb will help you answer some of your most important research questions, such as:

• How a specific industry grew over time
• Who the top and emerging players are in your industry
• Which products or services are trending and/or what are consumers searching for
• What demographics are relevant to you, and your competitors

The app intelligence module completes the picture and gives you a broad view of the digital landscape across your market. You can quickly see how apps are impacting your industry, and look at download, engagement, installs, ranking, and more.

Here, I’m sticking with the airline industry to establish whether or not android or iOS is the best fit for a new app. Immediately, I can see there are between 1-1.5M monthly active users on iOS vs. an equivalent of around 350,000k on Android.

Like what you see? Take a tour of Similarweb for yourself.

Discover industry insights for desk research here

Wrapping up

Good desk research helps you quickly uncover key information that can shape and steer successful market research projects. When done right, you’ll be able to answer questions and discover crucial data about your industry, competitors, and key trends to consider while building a strategy for growth.

Asking the right research questions from the onset and keeping these at the forefront of your mind throughout will save time and help direct your market analysis in the right direction.

Is desk-based research free?

Depending on the method used, desktop research can be done for free. If you require industry or government agency reports, these often carry a charge but are more likely to be free from bias when compared to commercially produced reports that (sometimes) receive sponsorship. 

Which businesses can utilize secondary desk research?

Desk-based research can uncover crucial insights into market trends, market sizing, and competitors. The information can be used by any size business to help guide strategic decision-making and help refine a product’s positioning.

Should you do secondary research before primary research?

Absolutely, yes. Secondary research should always come before primary or field research. The formative research phase helps pinpoint where more in-depth primary research is required. Desk research can also verify and support findings from field research but should not replace primary research–as they are each utilized under different circumstances.

Who does desk-based research?

Desk research can ‘technically’ be done by anyone, but it’s typically performed by a researcher, an analyst, or a marketing professional. Good market research has solid foundational data to drive critical business decisions. Experienced researchers and analysts are best-placed to spot opportunities, trends, and patterns when the stakes are this high.

So, while anybody can access secondary data free of charge, investing the necessary resources to do things right to get the most out of the process is essential.

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What Is Desk Research? Meaning, Methodology, Examples

Apr 4, 2024

10 min. read

Research in the digital age takes many shapes and forms. There are traditional methods that collect first-hand data via testing, focus groups, interviews, and proprietary data. And then there are ways to tap into the time and effort others have put into research, playing “armchair detective” by conducting desk research .

Desk research gives you a shortcut to insights by pulling data from other resources, which is crucial for understanding the customer journey . It takes less time and is more cost-effective compared to conducting primary market research . Most importantly, it can give you the consumer insights you need to make important business decisions.

Let’s explore the official desk research definition along with types of desk research, methodologies, examples, and how to do desk research effectively.

Desk Research Meaning: What is Desk Research?

Advantages and limitations of desk research, desk research methodology and methods, how to conduct desk research effectively, best practices for desk research, applications of desk research, how to conduct desk research with meltwater.

Desk Research definition: Desk research, also known as secondary research, involves gathering information and data from existing sources, such as books, journals, articles, websites, reports, and other published materials. Users analyze and synthesize information from already available information.

Companies use desk research at the onset of a project to gain a better understanding of a topic, identify knowledge gaps, and inform the next stages of research. It can also supplement original findings and provide context and background information.

Desk research gives marketers attractive advantages over traditional primary research, but it’s not without its shortcomings. Let’s explore these in more detail.

Desk research advantages

• Quick insights. Conducting interviews, focus groups, panels, and tests can take weeks or even months, along with additional time to analyze your findings. With desk research, you can pull from existing information to gain similar results in less time.
• Cost-effectiveness. Desk market research is usually less expensive than primary research because it requires less time and fewer resources. You don’t have to recruit participants or administer surveys, for example.
• Accessibility. There’s a world of data out there ready for you to leverage, including online databases, research studies, libraries, and archives.
• Diverse sources. Desk market research doesn’t limit you to one information source. You can use a combination of sources to gain a comprehensive overview of a topic.

Want to see how Meltwater can supercharge your market research efforts? Simply fill out the form at the bottom of this post and we'll be in touch.

Desk research limitations 

• Data quality. Marketers don’t know how reliable or valid the data is, which is why it’s important to choose your sources carefully. Only use data from credible sources, ideally ones that do not have a financial interest in the data’s findings.
• Less control. Users are at the mercy of the data that’s available and cannot tailor it to their needs. There’s no opportunity to ask follow-up questions or address specific research needs.
• Potential bias. Some sources may include biased findings and/or outdated information, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions. Users can mitigate the risk of bias by relying only on credible sources or corroborating evidence with multiple sources.

Desk research typically involves multiple sources and processes to gain a comprehensive understanding of an idea. There are two main desk methodologies: qualitative research and quantitative research .

• Qualitative research refers to analyzing existing data (e.g., interviews, surveys, observations) to gain insights into people's behaviors, motivations, and opinions. This method delves deeper into the context and meaning behind the data.
• Quantitative research refers to analyzing and interpreting numerical data to draw conclusions and make predictions. This involves quantifying patterns and trends to find relationships between variables.

Both desk research methodologies use a variety of methods to find and analyze data and make decisions.

Examples of desk research methods include but are not limited to:

• Literature review. Analyze findings from various types of literature, including medical journals, studies, academic papers, books, articles, online publications, and government agencies.
• Competitor analysis . Learn more about the products, services, and strategies of your competitors, including identifying their strengths and weaknesses, market gaps, and overall sentiment.
• Social listening . Discover trending topics and sentiments on social media channels to learn more about your target audience and brand health.
• Consumer intelligence . Understand your audience based on digital behaviors, triggers, web usage patterns, and interests.
• Market research . Analyze market reports, industry trends, demographics, and consumer buying patterns to identify market opportunities and strengthen your positioning.

Now let’s look at how to use these methods to their full potential.

While desk research techniques can vary, they all follow a similar formula. Here’s how you can conduct desk research effectively, even if it’s your first time.

1. Define your objective

Desk research starts with a specific question you want to answer. 

In marketing , your objective might be to:

• Learn about Gen Z buying behaviors for home goods
• Gauge the effectiveness of influencer marketing for food brands
• Understand the pain points of your competitor’s customers

These questions can help you find credible sources that can provide answers.

2. Choose reliable data sources

Based on your objectives, start collecting secondary data sources that have done the heavy lifting for you. Examples include:

• Market reports (often available as gated assets from research companies)
• Trade publications
• Academic journals
• Company websites
• Government publications and data
• Online databases and resources, such as Google Scholar 
• Secondary market research tools like Meltwater and Linkfluence
• Online blogs, articles, case studies, and white papers from credible sources

In many cases, you’ll use a combination of these source types to gain a thorough answer to your question.

3. Start gathering evidence

Go through your source materials to start answering your question. This is usually the most time-intensive part of desk research; you’ll need to extract insights and do some fact-checking to trust those insights.

One of your top priorities in this step is to use reliable sources. Here are some ways you can evaluate sources to use in your desk research:

• Consider the authority and reputation of the source (e.g., do they have expertise in your subject)
• Check whether the content is sponsored, which could indicate bias
• Assess whether the data is current
• Evaluate the publisher’s peer review processes , if applicable
• Review the content’s citations and references
• Seek consensus among multiple sources
• Use sources with built-in credibility, such as .gov or .edu sites or well-known medical and academic journals

If your source materials have supporting elements, such as infographics, charts, or graphs, include those with your desk research.

4. Cross-reference your findings with other sources

For desk research to be effective, you need to be able to trust the data you find. One way to build trust is to cross-reference your findings with other sources. 

For instance, you might see who else is citing the same sources you are in their research. If there are reputable companies using those same sources, you might feel they’re more credible compared to a random internet fact that lacks supporting evidence. 

5. Draw your conclusions & document the results

Organize and synthesize your findings in a way that makes sense for your objectives. Consider your stakeholders and why the information is important.

For example, the way you share your research with an internal team might have a different structure and tone compared to a client-facing document.

Bonus tip: Include a list of sources with your documentation to build credibility in your findings. 

When conducting desk research, follow these best practices to ensure a reliable and helpful outcome.

Organize and manage your research data

It’s helpful to have a system to organize your research data. This way, you can easily go back to review sources or share information with others. Spreadsheets, databases, and platforms like Meltwater for market research are great options to keep your desk research in one place.

Create actionable recommendations

It’s not enough to state your findings; make sure others know why the data matters. Share the data along with your conclusions and recommendations for what to do next.

Remember, desk research is about decision-making, not the data itself.

Document your sources

Whether you choose to share your sources or not, it’s best practice to document your sources for your own records. This makes it easier to provide evidence if someone asks for it or to look back at your research if you have additional questions.

Now for the big question: How can marketers apply desk research to their day-to-day tasks?

Try these desk research examples to power your marketing efforts.

Use desk research for market intelligence

Markets, preferences, and buying habits change over time, and marketers need to stay up to date on their industries. Desk research can provide market intelligence insights, including new competitors, trends, and audience segments that may impact your business.

Apply desk research in competitive analysis

Desk research can help you identify your true competitors and provide more context about their strengths and weaknesses. Marketers can use this intel to improve their positioning and messaging. For instance, a competitor’s weak spot might be something your company does well, and you can emphasize this area in your messaging.

Include desk research in content strategy and audience analysis

Desk research can support consumer intelligence by helping you define various audience segments and how to market to them. These insights can help you develop content and creative assets on the right topics and in the right formats, as well as share them in the best channels to reach your audience.

Emerging technologies like Meltwater's integrated suite of solutions have a strong impact on desk research, helping you streamline how you find and vet data to support your desired topics.

Using a combination of data science, AI, and market research expertise, Meltwater offers the largest media database of its kind to help marketers learn more about their audience and how to connect with them. Millions of real-time data points cover all niches, topics, and industries, giving you the on-demand insights you need.

Our clients use Meltwater for desk research to measure audience sentiment and identify audience segments as well as to conduct competitor analysis , social listening , and brand monitoring , all of which benefit from real-time data. 

Learn more about how you can leverage Meltwater as a research solution when you request a demo by filling out the form below:

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Secondary research: definition, methods, & examples.

19 min read This ultimate guide to secondary research helps you understand changes in market trends, customers buying patterns and your competition using existing data sources.

In situations where you’re not involved in the data gathering process ( primary research ), you have to rely on existing information and data to arrive at specific research conclusions or outcomes. This approach is known as secondary research.

In this article, we’re going to explain what secondary research is, how it works, and share some examples of it in practice.

Free eBook: The ultimate guide to conducting market research

What is secondary research?

Secondary research, also known as desk research, is a research method that involves compiling existing data sourced from a variety of channels . This includes internal sources (e.g.in-house research) or, more commonly, external sources (such as government statistics, organizational bodies, and the internet).

Secondary research comes in several formats, such as published datasets, reports, and survey responses , and can also be sourced from websites, libraries, and museums.

The information is usually free — or available at a limited access cost — and gathered using surveys , telephone interviews, observation, face-to-face interviews, and more.

When using secondary research, researchers collect, verify, analyze and incorporate it to help them confirm research goals for the research period.

As well as the above, it can be used to review previous research into an area of interest. Researchers can look for patterns across data spanning several years and identify trends — or use it to verify early hypothesis statements and establish whether it’s worth continuing research into a prospective area.

How to conduct secondary research

There are five key steps to conducting secondary research effectively and efficiently:

1.    Identify and define the research topic

First, understand what you will be researching and define the topic by thinking about the research questions you want to be answered.

Ask yourself: What is the point of conducting this research? Then, ask: What do we want to achieve?

This may indicate an exploratory reason (why something happened) or confirm a hypothesis. The answers may indicate ideas that need primary or secondary research (or a combination) to investigate them.

2.    Find research and existing data sources

If secondary research is needed, think about where you might find the information. This helps you narrow down your secondary sources to those that help you answer your questions. What keywords do you need to use?

Which organizations are closely working on this topic already? Are there any competitors that you need to be aware of?

Create a list of the data sources, information, and people that could help you with your work.

3.    Begin searching and collecting the existing data

Now that you have the list of data sources, start accessing the data and collect the information into an organized system. This may mean you start setting up research journal accounts or making telephone calls to book meetings with third-party research teams to verify the details around data results.

As you search and access information, remember to check the data’s date, the credibility of the source, the relevance of the material to your research topic, and the methodology used by the third-party researchers. Start small and as you gain results, investigate further in the areas that help your research’s aims.

4.    Combine the data and compare the results

When you have your data in one place, you need to understand, filter, order, and combine it intelligently. Data may come in different formats where some data could be unusable, while other information may need to be deleted.

After this, you can start to look at different data sets to see what they tell you. You may find that you need to compare the same datasets over different periods for changes over time or compare different datasets to notice overlaps or trends. Ask yourself: What does this data mean to my research? Does it help or hinder my research?

5.    Analyze your data and explore further

In this last stage of the process, look at the information you have and ask yourself if this answers your original questions for your research. Are there any gaps? Do you understand the information you’ve found? If you feel there is more to cover, repeat the steps and delve deeper into the topic so that you can get all the information you need.

If secondary research can’t provide these answers, consider supplementing your results with data gained from primary research. As you explore further, add to your knowledge and update your findings. This will help you present clear, credible information.

Primary vs secondary research

Unlike secondary research, primary research involves creating data first-hand by directly working with interviewees, target users, or a target market. Primary research focuses on the method for carrying out research, asking questions, and collecting data using approaches such as:

• Interviews (panel, face-to-face or over the phone)
• Questionnaires or surveys
• Focus groups

Using these methods, researchers can get in-depth, targeted responses to questions, making results more accurate and specific to their research goals. However, it does take time to do and administer.

Unlike primary research, secondary research uses existing data, which also includes published results from primary research. Researchers summarize the existing research and use the results to support their research goals.

Both primary and secondary research have their places. Primary research can support the findings found through secondary research (and fill knowledge gaps), while secondary research can be a starting point for further primary research. Because of this, these research methods are often combined for optimal research results that are accurate at both the micro and macro level.

Sources of Secondary Research

There are two types of secondary research sources: internal and external. Internal data refers to in-house data that can be gathered from the researcher’s organization. External data refers to data published outside of and not owned by the researcher’s organization.

Internal data

Internal data is a good first port of call for insights and knowledge, as you may already have relevant information stored in your systems. Because you own this information — and it won’t be available to other researchers — it can give you a competitive edge . Examples of internal data include:

• Database information on sales history and business goal conversions
• Information from website applications and mobile site data
• Customer-generated data on product and service efficiency and use
• Previous research results or supplemental research areas
• Previous campaign results

External data

External data is useful when you: 1) need information on a new topic, 2) want to fill in gaps in your knowledge, or 3) want data that breaks down a population or market for trend and pattern analysis. Examples of external data include:

• Government, non-government agencies, and trade body statistics
• Company reports and research
• Competitor research
• Public library collections
• Textbooks and research journals
• Media stories in newspapers
• Online journals and research sites

Three examples of secondary research methods in action

How and why might you conduct secondary research? Let’s look at a few examples:

1.    Collecting factual information from the internet on a specific topic or market

There are plenty of sites that hold data for people to view and use in their research. For example, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or Wiley Online Library all provide previous research on a particular topic. Researchers can create free accounts and use the search facilities to look into a topic by keyword, before following the instructions to download or export results for further analysis.

This can be useful for exploring a new market that your organization wants to consider entering. For instance, by viewing the U.S Census Bureau demographic data for that area, you can see what the demographics of your target audience are , and create compelling marketing campaigns accordingly.

2.    Finding out the views of your target audience on a particular topic

If you’re interested in seeing the historical views on a particular topic, for example, attitudes to women’s rights in the US, you can turn to secondary sources.

Textbooks, news articles, reviews, and journal entries can all provide qualitative reports and interviews covering how people discussed women’s rights. There may be multimedia elements like video or documented posters of propaganda showing biased language usage.

By gathering this information, synthesizing it, and evaluating the language, who created it and when it was shared, you can create a timeline of how a topic was discussed over time.

3.    When you want to know the latest thinking on a topic

Educational institutions, such as schools and colleges, create a lot of research-based reports on younger audiences or their academic specialisms. Dissertations from students also can be submitted to research journals, making these places useful places to see the latest insights from a new generation of academics.

Information can be requested — and sometimes academic institutions may want to collaborate and conduct research on your behalf. This can provide key primary data in areas that you want to research, as well as secondary data sources for your research.

Advantages of secondary research

There are several benefits of using secondary research, which we’ve outlined below:

• Easily and readily available data – There is an abundance of readily accessible data sources that have been pre-collected for use, in person at local libraries and online using the internet. This data is usually sorted by filters or can be exported into spreadsheet format, meaning that little technical expertise is needed to access and use the data.
• Faster research speeds – Since the data is already published and in the public arena, you don’t need to collect this information through primary research. This can make the research easier to do and faster, as you can get started with the data quickly.
• Low financial and time costs – Most secondary data sources can be accessed for free or at a small cost to the researcher, so the overall research costs are kept low. In addition, by saving on preliminary research, the time costs for the researcher are kept down as well.
• Secondary data can drive additional research actions – The insights gained can support future research activities (like conducting a follow-up survey or specifying future detailed research topics) or help add value to these activities.
• Secondary data can be useful pre-research insights – Secondary source data can provide pre-research insights and information on effects that can help resolve whether research should be conducted. It can also help highlight knowledge gaps, so subsequent research can consider this.
• Ability to scale up results – Secondary sources can include large datasets (like Census data results across several states) so research results can be scaled up quickly using large secondary data sources.

Disadvantages of secondary research

The disadvantages of secondary research are worth considering in advance of conducting research :

• Secondary research data can be out of date – Secondary sources can be updated regularly, but if you’re exploring the data between two updates, the data can be out of date. Researchers will need to consider whether the data available provides the right research coverage dates, so that insights are accurate and timely, or if the data needs to be updated. Also, fast-moving markets may find secondary data expires very quickly.
• Secondary research needs to be verified and interpreted – Where there’s a lot of data from one source, a researcher needs to review and analyze it. The data may need to be verified against other data sets or your hypotheses for accuracy and to ensure you’re using the right data for your research.
• The researcher has had no control over the secondary research – As the researcher has not been involved in the secondary research, invalid data can affect the results. It’s therefore vital that the methodology and controls are closely reviewed so that the data is collected in a systematic and error-free way.
• Secondary research data is not exclusive – As data sets are commonly available, there is no exclusivity and many researchers can use the same data. This can be problematic where researchers want to have exclusive rights over the research results and risk duplication of research in the future.

When do we conduct secondary research?

Now that you know the basics of secondary research, when do researchers normally conduct secondary research?

It’s often used at the beginning of research, when the researcher is trying to understand the current landscape . In addition, if the research area is new to the researcher, it can form crucial background context to help them understand what information exists already. This can plug knowledge gaps, supplement the researcher’s own learning or add to the research.

Secondary research can also be used in conjunction with primary research. Secondary research can become the formative research that helps pinpoint where further primary research is needed to find out specific information. It can also support or verify the findings from primary research.

You can use secondary research where high levels of control aren’t needed by the researcher, but a lot of knowledge on a topic is required from different angles.

Secondary research should not be used in place of primary research as both are very different and are used for various circumstances.

Questions to ask before conducting secondary research

Before you start your secondary research, ask yourself these questions:

• Is there similar internal data that we have created for a similar area in the past?

If your organization has past research, it’s best to review this work before starting a new project. The older work may provide you with the answers, and give you a starting dataset and context of how your organization approached the research before. However, be mindful that the work is probably out of date and view it with that note in mind. Read through and look for where this helps your research goals or where more work is needed.

• What am I trying to achieve with this research?

When you have clear goals, and understand what you need to achieve, you can look for the perfect type of secondary or primary research to support the aims. Different secondary research data will provide you with different information – for example, looking at news stories to tell you a breakdown of your market’s buying patterns won’t be as useful as internal or external data e-commerce and sales data sources.

• How credible will my research be?

If you are looking for credibility, you want to consider how accurate the research results will need to be, and if you can sacrifice credibility for speed by using secondary sources to get you started. Bear in mind which sources you choose — low-credibility data sites, like political party websites that are highly biased to favor their own party, would skew your results.

• What is the date of the secondary research?

When you’re looking to conduct research, you want the results to be as useful as possible , so using data that is 10 years old won’t be as accurate as using data that was created a year ago. Since a lot can change in a few years, note the date of your research and look for earlier data sets that can tell you a more recent picture of results. One caveat to this is using data collected over a long-term period for comparisons with earlier periods, which can tell you about the rate and direction of change.

• Can the data sources be verified? Does the information you have check out?

If you can’t verify the data by looking at the research methodology, speaking to the original team or cross-checking the facts with other research, it could be hard to be sure that the data is accurate. Think about whether you can use another source, or if it’s worth doing some supplementary primary research to replicate and verify results to help with this issue.

We created a front-to-back guide on conducting market research, The ultimate guide to conducting market research , so you can understand the research journey with confidence.

In it, you’ll learn more about:

• What effective market research looks like
• The use cases for market research
• The most important steps to conducting market research
• And how to take action on your research findings

Download the free guide for a clearer view on secondary research and other key research types for your business.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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• Desk Research: Definition, Types, Application, Pros & Cons

If you are looking for a way to conduct a research study while optimizing your resources, desk research is a great option. Desk research uses existing data from various sources, such as books, articles, websites, and databases, to answer your research questions. 

Let’s explore desk research methods and tips to help you select the one for your research.

What Is Desk Research?

Desk research, also known as secondary research or documentary research, is a type of research that relies on data that has already been collected and published by others. Its data sources include public libraries, websites, reports, surveys, journals, newspapers, magazines, books, podcasts, videos, and other sources. 

When performing desk research, you are not gathering new information from primary sources such as interviews, observations, experiments, or surveys. The information gathered will then be used to make informed decisions.

The most common use cases for desk research are market research , consumer behavior , industry trends , and competitor analysis .

How Is Desk Research Used?

Here are the most common use cases for desk research:

• Exploring a new topic or problem
• Identifying existing knowledge gaps
• Reviewing the literature on a specific subject
• Finding relevant data and statistics
• Analyzing trends and patterns
• Evaluating competitors and market trends
• Supporting or challenging hypotheses
• Validating or complementing primary research

Types of Desk Research Methods

There are two main types of desk research methods: qualitative and quantitative. 

• Qualitative Desk Research 

Analyzing non-numerical data, such as texts, images, audio, or video. Here are some examples of qualitative desk research methods:

Content analysis – Examining the content and meaning of texts, such as articles, books, reports, or social media posts. It uses data to help you identify themes, patterns, opinions, attitudes, emotions, or biases.

Discourse analysis – Studying the use of language and communication in texts, such as speeches, interviews, conversations, or documents. It helps you understand how language shapes reality, influences behavior, constructs identities, creates power relations, and more.

Narrative analysis – Analyzing the stories and narratives that people tell in texts, such as biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, or testimonials. This allows you to explore how people make sense of their experiences, express their emotions, construct their identities, or cope with challenges.

• Quantitative Desk Research

Analyzing numerical data, such as statistics, graphs, charts, or tables. 

Here are common examples of quantitative desk research methods:

Statistical analysis : This method involves applying mathematical techniques and tools to numerical data, such as percentages ratios, averages, correlations, or regressions.

You can use statistical analysis to measure, describe, compare, or test relationships in the data.

Meta-analysis : Combining and synthesizing the results of multiple studies on a similar topic or question. Meta-analysis can help you increase the sample size, reduce the margin of error, or identify common findings or discrepancies in data.

Trend analysis : This method involves examining the changes and developments in numerical data over time, such as sales, profits, prices, or market share. It helps you identify patterns, cycles, fluctuations, or anomalies. 

Examples of Desk Research

Here are some real-life examples of desk research questions:

• What are the current trends and challenges in the fintech industry?
• How do Gen Z consumers perceive money and financial services?
• What are the best practices for conducting concept testing for a new fintech product?
• Documentary on World War II and its effect on Austria as a country

You can use the secondary data sources listed below to answer these questions:

Industry reports and publications

• Market research surveys and studies
• Academic journals and papers
• News articles and blogs
• Podcasts and videos
• Social media posts and reviews
• Government and non-government agencies

How to Choose the Best Type of Desk Research

The main factors for selecting a desk research method are:

• Research objective and question
• Budget and deadlines
• Data sources availability and accessibility.
• Quality and reliability of data sources
• Your data analysis skills

Let’s say your research question requires an in-depth analysis of a particular topic, a literature review may be the best method. But if the research question requires analysis of large data sets, you can use trend analysis.

Differences Between Primary Research and Desk Research

The main difference between primary research and desk research is the source of data. Primary research uses data that is collected directly from the respondents or participants of the study. Desk research uses data that is collected by someone else for a different purpose.

Another key difference is the cost and time involved. Primary research is usually more expensive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive than desk research. However, it can also provide you with more specific, accurate, and actionable data that is tailored to your research goal and question.

The best practice is to use desk-based research before primary research; it refines the scope of the work and helps you optimize resources.

Read Also – Primary vs Secondary Research Methods: 15 Key Differences

How to Conduct a Desk Research

Here are the four main steps to conduct desk research:

• Define Research Goal and Question

What do you want to achieve with your desk research? What problem do you want to solve or what opportunity do you want to explore? What specific question do you want to answer with your desk research?

• Identify and Evaluate Data Sources

Where can you find relevant data for your desk research? How relevant and current are the data sources for your research? How consistent and comparable are they with each other? 

You can evaluate your data sources based on factors such as- 

– Authority: Who is the author or publisher of the data source? What are their credentials and reputation? Are they experts or credible sources on the topic?

– Accuracy: How accurate and precise is the data source? Does it contain any errors or mistakes? Is it supported by evidence or references?

– Objectivity: How objective and unbiased is the data source? Does it present facts or opinions? Does it have any hidden agenda or motive?

– Coverage: How comprehensive and complete is the data source? Does it cover all aspects of your topic? Does it provide enough depth and detail?

– Currency: How current and up-to-date is the data source? When was it published or updated? Is it still relevant to your topic?

• Collect and Analyze Your Data

How can you collect your data efficiently and effectively? What tools or techniques can you use to organize and analyze your data? How can you interpret your data with your research goal and question?

• Present and Report Your Findings

How can you communicate your findings clearly and convincingly? What format or medium can you use to accurately record your findings?

You can use spreadsheets, presentation slides, charts, infographics, and more.

Advantages of Desk Research

• Cost Effective

It is cheaper and faster than primary research, you don’t have to collect new data or report them. You can simply analyze and leverage your findings to make deductions.

• Prevents Effort Duplication

Desk research provides you with a broad and thorough overview of the research topic and related issues. This helps to avoid duplication of efforts and resources by using existing data.

• Improves Data Validity

Using desk research, you can compare and contrast various perspectives and opinions on the same topic. This enhances the credibility and validity of your research by referencing authoritative sources.

• Identify Data Trends and Patterns

 It helps you to identify new trends and patterns in the data that may not be obvious from primary research. This can help you see knowledge and research gaps to offer more effective solutions.

Disadvantages of Desk Research

• Outdated Information

One of the main challenges of desk research is that the data may not be relevant, accurate, or up-to-date for the specific research question or purpose. Desk research relies on data that was collected for a different reason or context, which may not match the current needs or goals of the researcher.

• Limited Scope

Another limitation of desk research is that it may not provide enough depth or insight into qualitative aspects of the market, such as consumer behavior, preferences, motivations, or opinions. 

Data obtained from existing sources may be biased or incomplete due to the agenda or perspective of the source.

Read More – Research Bias: Definition, Types + Examples

• Data Inconsistencies

It may also be inconsistent or incompatible with other data sources due to different definitions or methodologies.

• Legal and Technical Issues

Desk research data may also be difficult to access or analyze due to legal, ethical, or technical issues.

How to Use Desk Research Effectively

Here are some tips on how to use desk research effectively:

• Define the research problem and objectives clearly and precisely.
• Identify and evaluate the sources of secondary data carefully and critically.
• Compare and contrast different sources of data to check for consistency and reliability.
• Use multiple sources of data to triangulate and validate the findings.
• Supplement desk research with primary research when exploring deeper issues.
• Cite and reference the sources of data properly and ethically.

Desk research should not be used as a substitute for primary research, but rather as a complement or supplement. Combine it with primary research methods, such as surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, and others to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of your research topic.

Desk research is a cost-effective tool for gaining insights into your research topic. Although it has limitations, if you choose the right method and carry out your desk research effectively, you will save a lot of time, money, and effort that primary research would require.

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Home Market Research

Secondary Research: Definition, Methods and Examples.

In the world of research, there are two main types of data sources: primary and secondary. While primary research involves collecting new data directly from individuals or sources, secondary research involves analyzing existing data already collected by someone else. Today we’ll discuss secondary research.

One common source of this research is published research reports and other documents. These materials can often be found in public libraries, on websites, or even as data extracted from previously conducted surveys. In addition, many government and non-government agencies maintain extensive data repositories that can be accessed for research purposes.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

While secondary research may not offer the same level of control as primary research, it can be a highly valuable tool for gaining insights and identifying trends. Researchers can save time and resources by leveraging existing data sources while still uncovering important information.

What is Secondary Research: Definition

Secondary research is a research method that involves using already existing data. Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of the research.

One of the key advantages of secondary research is that it allows us to gain insights and draw conclusions without having to collect new data ourselves. This can save time and resources and also allow us to build upon existing knowledge and expertise.

When conducting secondary research, it’s important to be thorough and thoughtful in our approach. This means carefully selecting the sources and ensuring that the data we’re analyzing is reliable and relevant to the research question . It also means being critical and analytical in the analysis and recognizing any potential biases or limitations in the data.

LEARN ABOUT: Level of Analysis

Secondary research is much more cost-effective than primary research , as it uses already existing data, unlike primary research, where data is collected firsthand by organizations or businesses or they can employ a third party to collect data on their behalf.

LEARN ABOUT: Data Analytics Projects

Secondary Research Methods with Examples

Secondary research is cost-effective, one of the reasons it is a popular choice among many businesses and organizations. Not every organization is able to pay a huge sum of money to conduct research and gather data. So, rightly secondary research is also termed “ desk research ”, as data can be retrieved from sitting behind a desk.

The following are popularly used secondary research methods and examples:

1. Data Available on The Internet

One of the most popular ways to collect secondary data is the internet. Data is readily available on the internet and can be downloaded at the click of a button.

This data is practically free of cost, or one may have to pay a negligible amount to download the already existing data. Websites have a lot of information that businesses or organizations can use to suit their research needs. However, organizations need to consider only authentic and trusted website to collect information.

2. Government and Non-Government Agencies

Data for secondary research can also be collected from some government and non-government agencies. For example, US Government Printing Office, US Census Bureau, and Small Business Development Centers have valuable and relevant data that businesses or organizations can use.

There is a certain cost applicable to download or use data available with these agencies. Data obtained from these agencies are authentic and trustworthy.

3. Public Libraries

Public libraries are another good source to search for data for this research. Public libraries have copies of important research that were conducted earlier. They are a storehouse of important information and documents from which information can be extracted.

The services provided in these public libraries vary from one library to another. More often, libraries have a huge collection of government publications with market statistics, large collection of business directories and newsletters.

4. Educational Institutions

Importance of collecting data from educational institutions for secondary research is often overlooked. However, more research is conducted in colleges and universities than any other business sector.

The data that is collected by universities is mainly for primary research. However, businesses or organizations can approach educational institutions and request for data from them.

5. Commercial Information Sources

Local newspapers, journals, magazines, radio and TV stations are a great source to obtain data for secondary research. These commercial information sources have first-hand information on economic developments, political agenda, market research, demographic segmentation and similar subjects.

Businesses or organizations can request to obtain data that is most relevant to their study. Businesses not only have the opportunity to identify their prospective clients but can also know about the avenues to promote their products or services through these sources as they have a wider reach.

Key Differences between Primary Research and Secondary Research

Understanding the distinction between primary research and secondary research is essential in determining which research method is best for your project. These are the two main types of research methods, each with advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we will explore the critical differences between the two and when it is appropriate to use them.

How to Conduct Secondary Research?

We have already learned about the differences between primary and secondary research. Now, let’s take a closer look at how to conduct it.

Secondary research is an important tool for gathering information already collected and analyzed by others. It can help us save time and money and allow us to gain insights into the subject we are researching. So, in this section, we will discuss some common methods and tips for conducting it effectively.

Here are the steps involved in conducting secondary research:

1. Identify the topic of research: Before beginning secondary research, identify the topic that needs research. Once that’s done, list down the research attributes and its purpose.

2. Identify research sources: Next, narrow down on the information sources that will provide most relevant data and information applicable to your research.

3. Collect existing data: Once the data collection sources are narrowed down, check for any previous data that is available which is closely related to the topic. Data related to research can be obtained from various sources like newspapers, public libraries, government and non-government agencies etc.

4. Combine and compare: Once data is collected, combine and compare the data for any duplication and assemble data into a usable format. Make sure to collect data from authentic sources. Incorrect data can hamper research severely.

4. Analyze data: Analyze collected data and identify if all questions are answered. If not, repeat the process if there is a need to dwell further into actionable insights.

Advantages of Secondary Research

Secondary research offers a number of advantages to researchers, including efficiency, the ability to build upon existing knowledge, and the ability to conduct research in situations where primary research may not be possible or ethical. By carefully selecting their sources and being thoughtful in their approach, researchers can leverage secondary research to drive impact and advance the field. Some key advantages are the following:

1. Most information in this research is readily available. There are many sources from which relevant data can be collected and used, unlike primary research, where data needs to collect from scratch.

2. This is a less expensive and less time-consuming process as data required is easily available and doesn’t cost much if extracted from authentic sources. A minimum expenditure is associated to obtain data.

3. The data that is collected through secondary research gives organizations or businesses an idea about the effectiveness of primary research. Hence, organizations or businesses can form a hypothesis and evaluate cost of conducting primary research.

4. Secondary research is quicker to conduct because of the availability of data. It can be completed within a few weeks depending on the objective of businesses or scale of data needed.

As we can see, this research is the process of analyzing data already collected by someone else, and it can offer a number of benefits to researchers.

Disadvantages of Secondary Research

On the other hand, we have some disadvantages that come with doing secondary research. Some of the most notorious are the following:

1. Although data is readily available, credibility evaluation must be performed to understand the authenticity of the information available.

2. Not all secondary data resources offer the latest reports and statistics. Even when the data is accurate, it may not be updated enough to accommodate recent timelines.

3. Secondary research derives its conclusion from collective primary research data. The success of your research will depend, to a greater extent, on the quality of research already conducted by primary research.

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

In conclusion, secondary research is an important tool for researchers exploring various topics. By leveraging existing data sources, researchers can save time and resources, build upon existing knowledge, and conduct research in situations where primary research may not be feasible.

There are a variety of methods and examples of secondary research, from analyzing public data sets to reviewing previously published research papers. As students and aspiring researchers, it’s important to understand the benefits and limitations of this research and to approach it thoughtfully and critically. By doing so, we can continue to advance our understanding of the world around us and contribute to meaningful research that positively impacts society.

QuestionPro can be a useful tool for conducting secondary research in a variety of ways. You can create online surveys that target a specific population, collecting data that can be analyzed to gain insights into consumer behavior, attitudes, and preferences; analyze existing data sets that you have obtained through other means or benchmark your organization against others in your industry or against industry standards. The software provides a range of benchmarking tools that can help you compare your performance on key metrics, such as customer satisfaction, with that of your peers.

Using QuestionPro thoughtfully and strategically allows you to gain valuable insights to inform decision-making and drive business success. Start today for free! No credit card is required.

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Desk Research - Methodology and Techniques

As depicted by name Desk Research is the research technique which is mainly acquired by sitting at a desk .

Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. However, it could also be a complete waste of time and money if the researcher does not have the proper knowledge of how the research is performed.

Desk research is very effective and can be conducted in starting phase of market research as it is quite quick and cheap and most of the basic information could be easily fetched which can be used as benchmark in the research process.

There are basically two types of desk research techniques:

The main advantage here in performing internal desk research is that it involves internal and existing organizational resources to organize the collected data in such a way that it is not only efficient but also usable. Internal desk research is comparatively very cheap and effective as internal recourses are deputed and the expenditure in getting data from outside is less.

There could be two approaches for digging out the relevant information from internet, one is directly browsing the specific information from industrial, marketing or business sites and extracting the information out of these sites. Secondly, using the various search engines like www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.infoseek.go.com, www.altavista.com etc, for modulated searching.

The important aspect here is to refine the searching techniques in such a way that results are promising and relevant. For this it is necessary that the researcher should know the importance of the research and follow the guideline intellectually to reduce the efforts made and time consumed in searching.

Customers are the one who are considered the most informed as they are actually using products and services and are aware of the current market trends more than any other. Hence the feedback and information provided by customers is the most accurate and useful data which can be used most effectively in the further process of research.

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Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)

The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team . MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider . To Know more, click on About Us . The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.

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A comprehensive guide to desk-based research: unlocking secondary data sources.

Introduction

What is Desk-based research?

Desk research is a type of study based on material published in reports and similar materials available in public libraries, websites, data acquired from previously conducted surveys, and so on. Some businesses also keep data that can be utilized for the study. It is a research approach that uses already secondary data collection methods . These are gathered and summarized to improve the investigation’s overall efficacy.

Desk-based research, also known as secondary research, involves utilizing existing sources of information to gather data for your PhD thesis . This type of research can be a valuable complement to primary research, as it allows you to explore existing knowledge, gain insights, and support or refute existing theories.

Desk-based research examples:

Desk research is a popular alternative for businesses and organizations since it is a low-cost approach. Not everyone can afford to pay significant amounts of money to research design and gather data. That is why it is also known as “documentary research.”

Here’s a comprehensive guide to conducting desk-based research and unlocking secondary data sources for your PhD thesis:

• Refine your research questions : Clearly define your research questions or objectives. This will help you focus your desk-based research efforts and identify the specific types of data you need to collect.
• Identify relevant sources : Determine the types of sources that are most suitable for your research. These can include academic journals, books, conference proceedings, government reports, industry publications, statistical databases, websites, and other scholarly resources. Consider both online and offline sources.
• Develop search strategies : Plan your search strategies to locate relevant information effectively. Start by creating a list of keywords and synonyms related to your research topic. Use these keywords to search databases, library catalogues, and search engines. Consider using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to effectively refine your searches and combine keywords.
• Utilize academic databases : Academic databases such as JSTOR, PubMed , Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar are excellent resources for finding scholarly articles and papers. These databases allow you to search across various disciplines and access a wide range of academic publications.
• Explore institutional libraries : Visit your university or other institutions to access books, thesis, dissertations , and other relevant materials. Librarians can guide you on using the library catalog effectively and help you navigate available resources.
• Access government and organizational reports : Government agencies, research institutes, and organizations often publish reports, white papers, and studies that can provide valuable data and insights. To access these reports, visit relevant websites and explore their research or publications sections.

• Evaluate source credibility : Assess the credibility and reliability of the sources you find. Consider factors such as the author’s expertise, the publication’s reputation, the presence of peer review, and the recency of the information. Use academic judgment to determine the trustworthiness of the sources.
• Extract and organize data : Extract relevant data from the sources you collect. This can include quantitative data, qualitative findings, theories, arguments, or conceptual frameworks. Create a system to organize and store your extracted secondary data collection, such as a spreadsheet or a reference management tool like Zotero or Mendeley.
• Check out our Sample data collection for the Project to see how the secondary data collection is constructed.
• Analyze and synthesize the data : Analyze the secondary data in the research methodology you have gathered and synthesize the information to support your research questions. Identify patterns, themes, and gaps in the existing literature . Compare and contrast different viewpoints and theories, and critically evaluate the strength of the evidence.
• Integrate secondary data with primary research: If you are conducting primary research alongside your desk-based research, integrate the types of secondary data collection into your analysis. Use the secondary data to provide context, compare findings, or support your arguments.
• Cite and reference your sources : Properly cite and reference all the sources you have used in your desk-based research methodology dissertation. Follow the appropriate citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) as per your institution’s guidelines. Maintain accurate records of your references to avoid plagiarism and facilitate the writing of your thesis.

Desk-based research provides a foundation of knowledge and can significantly enhance the quality and depth of your PhD thesis. However, it is important to balance secondary research with primary research to contribute original insights and perspectives to your field of study.

• Check out our study guide to learn more about Secondary data collection. How to collect data for your PhD Thesis?

Qualitative desk-based research leverages existing data sources to access diverse information without primary data collection . Researchers gain insights into historical trends, longitudinal studies, and cross-comparisons by analyzing academic journals, government reports, industry publications, and online databases. However, caution must be exercised to ensure data credibility and relevance. Skilled researchers can make well-founded, evidence-based conclusions in any field.

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Ph.D. Assistance is completely aware that data collecting is the most critical phase in doing research and can significantly impact the results or conclusion. Our global staff of PhD experts assists you in data collecting based on the study topic and data source. Because PhD experts from across the world educate our data-collecting staff, their implicit and explicit expertise has enabled them to gather any survey (personal interview, mail, in-house), focus groups, etc. and translate it into a more accessible format, therefore assisting decision-making.

• Guerin, Benoit, Barbara Janta, and Anke van Gorp. “Desk-based research and literature review.”  Evaluating interventions that prevent or counter violent extremism 63 (2018).
• Bassot, Barbara.  Doing qualitative desk-based research: a practical guide to writing an excellent dissertation . Policy Press, 2022.
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• What is desk research: Definition, tips & examples

Defne Çobanoğlu

Every research starts with thinking and then continues with reading. Lots of reading 🤓. It’s because you have to know what other scientists, marketers, and researchers have found on the subject so you can build on it. This is basically what desk research is. 

In this article, you will learn what secondary or desk research is and how to do it with some excellent tips and examples. Let us get started with the basic definition!

• What is desk research?

In layman’s terms, desk research is a type of research where you gather data while “ sitting at a desk .” It is another name for secondary research where the study itself is desk-based research and not experiment-based research. 

Broadly speaking, there are two types of main research types. One of them is primary research , where the researcher tries to gather data firsthand (directly from the data source). The other one is secondary research , where the researcher is going through secondary data from published books, case studies, and other quantitative research. In other words, secondary research basically equals desk research.

• Why do you need desk research?

No matter the objective of the study, desk research should always be the first step. Because previously done experimental research and explanatory research give a good starting point. If you can take advantage of the existing information, it is always constructive to see what was previously said. But that is not the only reason to use this research method. So here are the advantages of desk research:

✅Insightfulness

It would be foolish of you to just jump into the middle of research without doing any research beforehand. A researcher who collects data before going along with their plan will gather substantial information and continue with their plan with this obtained insightfulness.

✅Time efficiency

Conducting a full-on study from start to finish is quite time-consuming. However, secondary data is right there waiting to be inspected. Thanks to that, the data collection is very quick.

✅Availability

As mentioned above, the secondary data collection sources are available on many platforms. They can be found in libraries, databases, online sources, booklets, and many more.

✅Cost-effectiveness

In addition to the other advantages, doing desk research is very cheap, too. So long as you can access a library or have an internet connection, you can gather the appropriate data without a cost.

The benefits of desk research

• How to do desk research

The best approach to any research is a systematic one. That is why you should always have a plan or outline you will follow during your research. And we have gathered this step-by-step plan to guide you on your desk research. You can use it as is or build on these steps.

• Identify the topic: The first thing is to identify the research topic clearly to make sure you know what you want to know.. (You can change the topic as you explore the concept further.)
• Find research sources: Secondly, go on and identify the research sources.
• Collect data: Afterward, you can start collecting data from these sources. Go through every option to gather as much information as possible.
• Combine everything: Combine all that you gathered and compare it with the other information you collected. Make sure there are no contradictions.
• Make an informed analysis: The last step is to try to see if the findings answer the research topic well enough or not. If not, you can change the question or repeat the process. If you are satisfied with the findings you can decide if you want to continue with exploratory research methods to further your findings.

5 Steps to conduct a desk research

• Expert tips for desk research

Even the simplest task is best done by following a structured plan and organization. In addition to this, if you are planning to start your desk research, you should mind these smart tips to guide you in your way:

• Make sure the data you collect is not outdated .
• Take systematic notes while going through the sources so as not to get mixed up.
• Be critical and analytical and question your findings to make sure there are no contradictions.
• Do not limit yourself to just a few sources. It is better to make use of all options .
• Do not be biased. Stay open-minded . If you limit yourself to only a number of sources, your findings will be more than likely, insufficient. You should broaden your perspective by looking into various sides and frames.
• You can change course according to your findings. Do not feel limited to a frame. 
• You can combine and support your findings with some primary research techniques such as surveys, interviews, or observations.
• Applications of desk research

Now, we know how to do desk research, what to have in mind, and its advantages. But on what occasions can you use this type of research? Let us see some examples of desk research.

1. Doing market research on a subject

When you want information on the latest fashion trends and clothing preferences of teenagers, it is best to consult appropriate data. You can read through magazines, fashion articles, fashion brand reports, and so on. Worth the data you obtain, you can build your fashion brand or create an eye-catching ad.

2. When you have an academic approach

Let us say you are a scholar who specializes in second language acquisition in children in a bilingual household. You can check out available online academic sources such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Wiley Online Library, or Library Genesis. There, you can find previously done studies, articles, and statistics.  

3. Getting a general idea of a specific group of people

Let us say you will work with or around university students aged 18-28, and you want to know more about their behaviors and preferences to make informed decisions. You can use sources such as textbooks, news articles, reviews, journal entries, and previously done interviews and surveys. 

• Frequently asked questions about desk research

What are the common resources for desk research?

The sources for desk research are limitless. Because they are basically every study conducted on the research topic. As long as they are organized, tangible, and objective , there is no problem using them. Some appropriate resources for desk research are:

• Published books
• Case studies
• Directories
• Company financial data
• Government statistics
• Commercial publications

When is desk research not reliable?

You may go through the relevant sources all you want, but if you fail to make sure the data is accurate, this can disrupt your project. There are some instances where desk research is not reliable and usable. For example, you can not use information that is outdated, biased, insufficient, irrelevant, or inaccurate .

Desk research vs. Empirical research

Empirical research is based on observation as directly experienced by the researcher. And even though secondary research backs up the theory part, empirical data is a primary research method . In desk research, the researcher goes through existing sources; therefore, desk research is a secondary research method.

Desk research vs. Primary research

Desk research is also known as secondary research and it involves collecting data from secondary sources such as published documents. And, primary research involves collecting data directly from the original sources. For example, doing experiments, observations, or interviews. 

Desk research vs. Field research

Desk research, also known as secondary research, is when data collection is completed from secondary sources such as published documents or website sources. Field research, also known as primary research, is when data collection is directly from the source about a specific subject.

In desk research you collect pre-existing information while in field research you create new knowledge via exploration.

Desk research is an essential part of any study, no matter the concept. Thanks to desk research, the researcher collects all available data to draw their own conclusions or support their research theory.

It can be done using a number of source materials from books, reports, analyses, and entries. İt is a valuable part of the study. Desk research has its own advantages, and it can be perfected with some tips as well. What's more, you can use a smart tool such as a form and survey maker tool like forms.app to help you with all your research subjects!

Defne is a content writer at forms.app. She is also a translator specializing in literary translation. Defne loves reading, writing, and translating professionally and as a hobby. Her expertise lies in survey research, research methodologies, content writing, and translation.

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Desk Research

Desk research methodology is a method of collecting and analyzing information from available secondary sources, such as documents, reports, academic publications and other materials available online or in libraries. The purpose of desk research is to gain a broader perspective on the problem or issue under study, as well as to supplement or confirm knowledge on the topic. Desk research is particularly useful for research on historical events or processes and theoretical studies.

Application of Desk Research

Methods for implementing desk research include various ways to collect and analyze available market information without conducting face-to-face surveys with users. Here are some example methods: Analysis of available industry reports and publications: you can collect data from available industry reports and publications, such as market reports, industry analysis, scientific reports, etc. Analysis of statistical data: you can use available statistical data, such as demographic data, sales data, labor market data, etc. Review of websites and industry portals: you can collect data from various websites and industry portals, such as those of manufacturers, distributors, industry organizations, etc. Analysis of newspaper articles: you can analyze newspaper articles posted in newspapers, magazines and the Internet to gain information about the market and its trends. Internet search: you can search for market information using search engines such as Google to gain a wide range of available information. Social media data analysis: you can collect and analyze data from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to gain information about users’ opinions and preferences.

Methods of implementing Desk Research

The methods for carrying out desk research are as follows: Searching databases: Various databases, such as industry, statistical or scientific databases, can be used to find the information needed. Reviewing documents and reports: You can also review various types of documents and reports, such as financial reports, market statistics or industry reports, to obtain information on an issue of interest. Analyzing data from the Internet: You can also use various sources available on the Internet, such as websites, online forums and social media to find the information you need. Literature research: You can also conduct literature research, that is, you can analyze the available scientific literature and review articles from scientific journals or books in the field. Data analysis from other sources: You can also use data available from other sources, such as data files from government offices or institutions or data collected by other companies or organizations.

Our company Fieldstat specializes in Desk Research. We provide top-notch services and our teams are professionally qualified. We do market research, product quality research, competitive research, consumer research, social media research, technology research and much more. We have a wealth of tools and knowledge to meet our clients’ needs and deliver the best results. If you are looking for someone to help you gather and interpret information, please contact us.

Who commissions Desk Research?

Desk research is commissioned by various individuals or institutions that need information on a particular issue or market. Examples of people or institutions that may commission desk research: Companies: Many companies commission desk research to learn about the market situation, customer needs and preferences, competition or industry trends. Non-profit organizations: Non-profit organizations, such as foundations or associations, often commission desk research to obtain information on a particular field or social problem. Government institutions: Government institutions, such as ministries or offices, may also commission desk research to obtain information on various issues, such as to develop public policy. Individuals: Individuals can also commission desk research, such as if they want to learn about the market for services or products in order to make purchasing or investment decisions.

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Desk research: how to conduct secondary research efficiently.

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If you’re already familiar with UX Design, you know how essential research is to get to know the users of a product and understand their needs.

Basically, there are two types of research: primary (where you collect information yourself by surveys, interviews, observations, etc.) and secondary (searching for data compiled from previous findings). Desk Research falls into the second category.

Keep reading to know the best practices and a step-by-step to research successfully from your own desk!

What is Desk Research?

Desk Research is a method that explores data from existing documents and previous research — secondary data — to gather information over a particular topic.

It can provide solid arguments and help you elaborate a line of thought or fight for your ideas. And to do this, Desk Research relies on data already collected from other people.

Therefore, before spending time and money on field visits, prototypes, or usability tests, it’s wise to see what the world already knows that could be relevant for you and your team.

Why should you have a Desk Research?

Desk Research should be used as a research method before starting any Product Design project. It’s always constructive to see what previous studies and experts say about a particular topic, especially if you can take advantage of the information already out there.

Secondary research has the objective of any investigation: to provide information that could support and guide decision-making.

So in terms of objectives , using Desk Research is not that different from Primary Research.

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary and Secondary Research share the same object of study but are different in their process.

Primary research is first-hand research created and tailored to meet specific needs. The source of this kind of research is the individuals or organization behind the investigation.

Additionally, primary research uses raw data, which needs to be filtered and organized in order to be analyzed and reported.

On the other hand, secondary research collects data from previous research, so it doesn’t belong to anyone.

Needless to say, primary research demands more time and money, while secondary research is cheaper and faster to gather results.

Desk Research: where to look?

Since Desk Research relies on other people’s findings, pay close attention to the sources and always run check facts.

There are all kinds of information online so we need to be diligent to filter good quality material.

Also, the internet is not the only possible source of information to carry out Desk Research. You may want to check:

• Existing products in the market;
• Your own organization records;
• Academic records;
• Government organizations;
• Relevant NGO’S.

Products in the market

An insightful resource is observing products that are already on the market.

Furthermore, evaluate the products that your own company has already launched.

Look at the concepts, interactions, and experiences these products provide.

Company records

Go through research and analysis your own company has conducted in the past.

This type of information is extremely valuable to understand ideas, opportunities, and difficulties the company has faced in the past and that can serve as a starting point for your own proposal.

Investigate further, look at the people in charge of these data, and if possible, try to talk to them directly and exchange knowledge about what they have found out, and what you intend to do.

Most of the time, internal research helps to clarify essential points, due to the fact they were applied in the same context, in the same market segment.

External Sources

External research sources are perhaps the most common and widely known. However, as we already mentioned, it’s important to understand which sources are reliable.

With that in mind, we compiled a few aspects for your consideration:

Data available from the Web

Internet is the most popular and accessible source of information there is. With just one click you can download any data or research you want.

Despite much information being available for free, that are company sites that sell information and reports.

If you’re digging the internet for free content, check reliable websites with known expertise in the field.

For example, in the case of research and data about usability, it’s common to rely on data from the Nielsen Norman Group . The consulting firm is an expert on UX, has authority and reputation in the market.

In times when the internet rules the era of information, libraries end up being underestimated. But they can be excellent sources for desk research.

Of course, recent studies will most likely be found online but there may be old interesting research published only on paper. So, apart from books, beware to check articles, papers, and research from a wide range of authors.

Don’t dismiss studies that are not recent. Even if research was carried out a couple of years ago, it can still be extremely relevant and serve to support your ideas, provide you answers, questions, or insights.

Human behavior, for example, changes very slowly, so studies that focus on that, won’t lose its “expiration date” so soon.

Academic Records

In addition to using university libraries, you can search for more specific research conducted by students or professors at the institutions.

As a general rule, educational institutions conduct a variety of primary research that can be requested and used as Desk Research by companies.

Desk Research can also rely on newspapers, magazines, and even news transmitted on TV or radio.

However, it is always important to be diligent when using this type of information because it is generally superficial and informational for the public.

Relying solely on media data can bring biased and shallow information. Nevertheless, it can be a good start for your Desk Research.

A step-by-step to Desk Research

It’s wise to consider a couple of measures to ensure the quality and efficiency of your Desk Research.

So we’ll describe a step-by-step to help you in your endeavor.

Of course, as you gain experience with this research method, you can adapt each step to make it more coherent to the way you work. But be sure to go through them.

1) Define your goal

Before starting the research, identify its purpose: What do you want to know? Which question do you need to answer?

Without a pre-determined objective, you won’t be a good judge whether the information you’re coming across is relevant or not for your project.

Establishing objectives is all about setting a clear path to the questions you want to answer; this will ground you and help you stay focused, so you don’t end up wasting precious time.

Your research objectives can revolve around:

• a number: like seeking to find five articles from different sources or collecting information from 20 user interviews;
• an assumption: here, your goal is to find arguments and information that support your hypothesis. However, make sure to also look for information that may disprove your statement.

2) Map your sources

Will you only use the internet? Or will you also go to public libraries? Are you going to talk to people in your company too?

Mapping the sources you intend to use saves time and prevents you from losing focus. At this stage, identify which sources are more likely to bring you the best results.

Remember to have a plan B, too. For example, if you can’t find all the information on websites, find out what the next trusted source you should be using.

3) Set a deadline

Working with deadlines is another strategy to maintain focus during research.

Determine whether you will invest hours, days, or a few weeks to carry out your Desk Research.

However, keep in mind that we tend to use up all the time assigned to us. So keep it a tight schedule and propose realistic deadlines to help your productivity and your research efficiency.

4) Hands-on

It’s time to carry out your research, keeping in mind: your objective, the deadline, and reliable sources.

Use whichever method you think is best to identify and gather the necessary information: summarizing, filing, highlighting, or copying.

For instance, you can put all your findings on an online whiteboard (like miro.com ).

Remember to seek different views on the same problem. Don’t fall into so-called confirmation bias, where you only collect data that confirms your assumption.

Look for information that may contradict the initial ideas to bring other perspectives that will be essential upon data analysis.

5) Analyze data

A crucial step of Desk Research is analyzing the data collected. First, carefully read the information and review all the findings. Then, go deeper into your study: compare the results of different sources and define the importance of each one.

Next, check if your research answered the questions and met the initially proposed objective.

If not, redo the research or check if the objective is coherent or needs to be changed.

In this step, you should also formalize the information in a way it’s presentable to others; you can write a report or organize your findings into a presentation.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Desk Research

• Secondary Research is cheaper than Primary Research. Thus, if your company does not have the budget to conduct interviews and do field observations, desk research is a good solution;
• Desk Research also has a time advantage. Compared to primary Research, secondary Research is much faster to conduct;
• The wide availability of information makes Desk Research easier to execute.

Disadvantages

• The challenge of finding reliable sources. If the research is done over the internet, it is necessary to be very careful with websites and articles you base upon;
• It’s not always possible to find reports and research that is up-to-date and include the most recent information;
• Because it is faster and cheaper, Desk Research can create the false impression that it is the best method to use. However, it is essential to understand that primary research is also relevant and has more focus and objectivity to meet the company’s needs.

Every method, or tool, has its pros and cons. Therefore, you need to assess where you are to decide if Desk Research is the right resource for your project. And, of course, it can always – and should – serve as a starting point for Primary Research.

• The Beginner’s Guide to Desk Research
• Desk research: the what, why and how
• How to use desk research to kick-start your design process
• Secondary Research- Definition, Methods and Examples.
• Secondary Research

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Desk research.

Knowing what others have already discovered means you can contribute new, original thought to an existing knowledge base.

Reading time: 3 minutes

Start with what’s there

Where to start is one of the hardest questions to answer when researching a problem. Depending on the type of project, you’ll need to look into a variety of research types to learn what’s been done before. Understanding past research will help you to focus on where you can do new research, and how best to frame that research. 

This process is known as benchmarking. Essentially, it means doing traditional desk-based research to find out what others have discovered in the field you’re investigating. You should also look for research that supports, or does not support, items that you might already know, or think you know, about the subject.

This process both informs and gives direction to your work. If you know where others have been, you can build off of their work, and contribute to the overall knowledge in this topic through your original research.

Academic Research can help you uncover what people have already done in your topic area. Use search engines like Google Scholar or Academia.edu, and publications like the Harvard Business Review, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the MIT Technology Review to find projects related to your subject. Read the abstracts of articles that sound interesting, then check those papers’ bibliographies to find additional articles and works.

Statistical Research can help you properly frame your area of interest. For example, historical statistics will allow you to understand whether your problem frame should widen out or focus in. Always evaluate the source of your data to maintain data hygiene and fidelity. 

• Data hygiene refers to the quality of the data collection and interpretation. 
• Data fidelity refers to the precision with which the data has been recorded. If the data collection or interpretation is illogical or messy, move on and find better data on which to base your work.

Internal-to-Organization Research is helpful if your project relates to a program or set of programs already underway in your organization. Look at those programs to see what’s already being done. Talk to the program leaders, review their documents, and, if possible, observe them working in the field. This process will help you frame your approach to avoid duplication of work, and increase your contribution to work already in process.

External-to-Organization Research means seeking out and studying existing programs outside of your organization. Look across all sectors: private, non-profit, academic, or other government organizations. Learning what others are developing will help you frame your project in a way that builds on this work. As you notify others of your work, you will also contribute to the community of knowledge on your subject.

Organize your research

Always properly cite and document desk research sources. Follow the examples below; either print them, or take a screenshot and mark them up digitally.

Keep all your citations organized and together. Keeping track of research sources means you can quickly and easily find content that you would like to reference or cite in a final report or communication.

Header image credit: Miray Celebi Kaba/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

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Systematic approach to desk-top research and university projects

• Post author By admin
• Post date September 22, 2014
• No Comments on Systematic approach to desk-top research and university projects

How to conduct effective desk-top research?

This article is for any university student about to embark on writing essays or completing dissertations and projects for the first time. I have also run workshops introducing these methods and they do seem to be overwhelmingly useful even to more experienced researchers. This article is also intended to help  dissertation supervisors who may want to produce a ‘mini-systematic review’ for an undergraduate or postgraduate research project. This provides a robust methodology for the students to follow and is a much more rewarding and exacting project than a mere literature review. It will also satisfy requirements of those professional bodies who look for an element of ‘data analysis’ within the project.

So, let us embark on an interesting and hopefully informative journey about how to carry out effective desk-top research.

Introducing the systematic review

The word “ systematic ” in relation to a review involves the use of precise methods to gather and assess the results of research publications that (most importantly) minimises bias within the process. The result should be a robust and reliable assimilation of evidence in order to reach a reliable conclusion. Medical systematic reviews are conducted and published through the Cochrane Library  named after Archie Cochrane a Scottish doctor who established the idea of evidence-based medicine. Why do I mention systematic reviews in relation to desk-top research? Well – if you understand the premise and approaches of a systematic review and apply them to your essays, coursework and dissertations, then you will be undertaking a high quality piece of work (or suggesting a high quality assignment if you are setting the work). The steps highlighted below would also provide you with a methodology and the basis of a methods section for a dissertation.

Figure 1 illustrates the systematic approach.  The details on the left hand side are the minimum approach that could be undertaken in an essay or piece of desk-top research. For more in-depth undergraduate projects, and certainly for full systematic reviews, the details on the right hand side would need to be fully understood and reported.

Full systematic reviews can be conducted on any subject, not just medical ones. I have written  ones on education subjects – and here too, they are useful to  pool knowledge about best practice, or to evaluate new innovations in teaching for example. In education, often the methods are more relaxed as generally education papers do not meet the high quality standards of medical papers and their research designs. This is often due to not being able to randomise groups of students / learners due to the constraints of timetabling and classrooms. This isn’t the entire story though, as generally there is a feeling that much medical research and education research is simply not conducted as well as it could be .

Systematic principles – we should all use them!

A full systematic review is a serious piece of research and I like to teach the principles to my university students wherever possible because it provides them with a basis for doing high quality literature reviews, essays and dissertations. In fact I believe that anyone conducting research should know these principles. How many times do we hear that people are just using a Google Search or even Scholar, and they think it is research? The mainstay for any professional research must be the use of peer-reviewed and edited articles, and Scholar will not provide a robust enough search of these, and will also retrieve non-peer-reviewed reports and documents. Interesting as background reading certainly, but not for citation within a professional piece of work.

1) Setting the research question

The formulation of a precise research question is the starting point for any research and can be quite tricky. In medicine the  PICO framework  is used to define the various elements – population, intervention, comparison and outcome measure. For example I might be interested whether probiotics help people with diarrhoea.

Population – patients with diarrhoea Intervention – probiotics Comparison – no treatment Outcome – alleviation of diarrhoeal symptoms

So a question might be,

In patients with diarrhoea, do probiotics compared to no treatment, alleviate symptoms?

A PICO based question is the starting point of any dissertation student of mine, although not all the categories may apply. Once the question is set, the search strategy evolves and we can start generating keywords around the question categories.

But let’s take an education example. I’m interested in free online learning in the form of massive online open courses – MOOCs and the student experience.

P = learners I = MOOCs C = face to face/ traditional learning O = student experience

The question might be,

Do MOOCs enhance the experience of learners compared to traditional methods?

2) Deciding where to search?

A systematic review will aim to find ALL the articles in the world! This means not just using electronic databases, but hand searching books and journals, and contacting experts for unpublished or ongoing research. This can be quite a time intensive process. Today, the process is greatly helped by being able to save your searches within electronic databases, so once established (e.g. you might run a search at the start of your student project), you can simply run it again at the end to check for recent articles. Be pragmatic with the time you have – you might not be able to search everywhere, and the school of thought is that actually a good search of electronic databases will retrieve you the majority of articles these days, although do take care if you are particularly interested in more historic ones that may not be digitised.

So, where you decide to search will depend on what your organisation or local library has access to. Web of Knowledge and Medline are the mainstays of my research – which is both medical and educational. For my review on MOOCs I also used SCOPUS, IEEE and others. These cover both conference proceedings and workshop proceedings alongside published articles (original research, literature reviews, comments, opinions, letters etc).

3) Building up keyword lists for searching

From our PICO categories, we can start building up lists of keywords on similar themes.

P = learners, students, users I = MOOCs, xMOOC, cMOOC, massive online open course, free course C = face to face teaching, traditional teaching O = student experience, learning gain, knowledge gain

The next step is building up these words further. This is where I recommend using Wikipedia . It is a great keyword generator. I will also run some searches at this point to find relevant studies and look at their keywords to add to the list. If you were carrying out a full systematic review to publish, you would spend some time building up your keywords and then testing the results to ensure you were retrieving relevant articles. This iterative process might go on for some time, although for shorter-time scale projects such as undergraduate work, this may not be desirable.

4) Getting the keywords organised using Boolean logic

In some research I recently conducted looking at massive online open courses – MOOCs – I used six online databases to search, and used Boolean notation for searching with my keyword lists. There is a nice explanation of the use of Boolean logic on Ithaca College Library website. This in its simplest form uses the words (inputed in capitals – AND, OR, NOT) to combine keywords in order to expand and cross-reference your search accordingly. The Figure 2 summarises this approach.

You can also truncate words to search for all the variants of word endings using an asterisk *

e.g. MOOC MOOCs we can search for MOOC* e.g. Massive or massively we can search for massiv*

If searching phrases these need to be in quotations otherwise the individual words will be searched for separately and return thousands of results.

e.g. “massiv* online open cours*”

I’ve referred to the use of Boolean notation in another blog article – “ Seek and ye shall find ” complete with webcasts and instructions. This is following very simple principles and those expert in searching and forming Boolean instruction will be more complex than this. Here are some of the more commonly used ‘operators’ or instructions within the notation.

# means search OR – this will link together keywords and is used to broaden a search AND – this will cross-reference two searches (and not expand the search as you might suspect) NOT – this will exclude terms from the search

Going back to our question whether probiotics are effective for patients with diarrhoea, we could just haphazardly search for the keywords as shown below in Figure 3. However, as shown by the numbers, you will retrieve vast numbers of records and your search will not be specifically addressing your question.

The use of Boolean notation can be illustrated by the formation of a Venn diagram which shows the principles of combining the three separate searches using the word ‘AND’. The ‘OR’ term will enable you to expand out your searches such as for probiotics and lactobacillus. You may also search for humans and adults as a focus, and also the disease of interest. By using the ‘AND’ term you are cross-referencing the three searches to find those papers in the centre of the Venn diagram (Figure 4) – you can see a more manageable number of 1312 papers. These of course can be further limited perhaps by searching just for clinical trials.

5) Running the search and being organised!

Organisation is key and many online databases can set up accounts to save your searches (Medline is great for this) or export your outputs to a reference manager. I prefer to sometimes run the search, save the results as a ‘txt’ file and input into Microsoft Excel for analysis. The analysis steps might be important in a systematic review where you have pre-set what your research question is and your criteria for including studies. You can therefore use a new Excel sheet for each step in the analysis to maintain a good record of your process.

If you are completing a full systematic review, you will wish to refine your search in an iterative manner. That is, you will look at your search results to see if they are retrieving relevant articles, and refine the keywords and Boolean strategy if necessary to produce a more precise result. This step can in my experience take far more time than you might realise. The benefit is, once the search is right, you can save it and use it to update your coursework / project or review in the future.

6) What are study inclusion and exclusion criteria? (Could be optional depending on type of project or research)

For an undergraduate project you may not wish to be so stringent to think about what types of studies you wish to include or exclude. If you are completing a literature review, you may want just to provide an overall evaluation of everything that you have found. If you are being more systematic and wish to generate data for your project, you can follow the steps undertaken by a full systematic review, and record the numbers of studies you include and exclude at each phase. The beauty of this within a project or piece of research is that you are generating legitimate research data that can be displayed in a number of established figures and formats as illustrated below in Figure 5. Here, the results of a literature search and numbers of studies that are excluded during the process are shown.

Some excellent details on how to report systematic review results can be found not he following website, describing the PRISMA statements – preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta analyses .

In my studies of ‘education’, I set the entry gate quite wide so not to restrict the numbers of studies based on their design and quality. You will need to decide your inclusion and exclusion criteria at the start when you are writing your research proposal, or planning your essay. If you did wish to consider excluding types of articles, you might for example be doing a medical review and may well wish to only include randomised controlled trials. You might be researching an area of biomedical science and wish only to include animal investigations. If you are interested in systematic reviews in education specifically, this is a subject of development and debate the present time (e.g. Bennett 2005).

When you are analysing the results of your searches you will often soon spot ‘duplicate studies’. You will almost certainly find the same study on a number of databases, so you can use the ‘sort’ function to scan your lists of authors and remove duplicates. Studies can be duplicated in more subtle ways, for example an author might publish an abstract of data in a national journal, and then present the data at international conference. These are strictly duplicate studies because they contain the same data. The duplicate will need to be removed as shown in Figure 5.

7) Data collection and analysis

If you are intending to follow a systematic approach you will need to construct a series of spreadsheets to gather and organise your results. If you are completing a full systematic review you will establish the layout of a data extraction table prior to starting the review. This would include items such as author name, date of publication, methodology, outcome measures, and a host of other details. Again, the Cochrane organisation has further details on  data extraction .

Sorting your search results and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria does take time, but ultimately it will give you the good results you are looking for. In a full-scale systematic review a number of authors would do these steps independently to ensure the process is accurate and to avoid bias introduced by personal choices and preferences. A third author can help discuss any areas of conflict or indecision. Filtering of the papers generally occurs in two phases:

Phase 1 of filtering. You can quickly filter your results often by just looking at the titles and author names to identify duplicates. You may need to review the abstracts at this point to ensure they match your inclusion criteria. Anything that is unclear will need to be checked by reviewing the full paper.

Phase 2 of selecting and filtering. If your inclusion criteria is looking for a specific methodology – e.g. randomised controlled trial, or specific subset of articles – e.g. animal studies, if you cannot glean this information from the abstract you will need the full paper to review.

So you might go through a phase of ordering full papers, and again use a reference manager of file system on your computer to organise yourself. I generally obtain the full paper for every article as I go along.

8) Qualitative versus quantitive analysis

For a full systematic review, if you have identified enough studies you can then extract data for pooling in a meta-analysis to provide quantitative data. As part of a review it is also good practice to provide a brief ‘narrative’ of the papers identified, and also to summarise your results in table form. The extent to which you do all of this will depend on the numbers of papers retrieved, and for the purposes of ‘containing’ an undergraduate project within 5000 words which is often the limit, you may need to restrict the textual explanations of the papers.

Providing the ‘narrative’ is often the part that students struggle to do within project result sections, therefore it is worth gaining a deeper understanding of the approaches and styles that can be undertaken. Popay et al in 2006 wrote a report on narrative synthesis that may be a starting point.

9) Finishing off and identifying themes and conclusions

If you have adhered to your question, keywords and inclusion / exclusion criteria, you should end up with a corpus (body of literature) directly relevant to your question. Depending on the volume of papers retrieved you may be able to look for sub-themes and organise your discussion around these. For example, searching for probiotics and diarrhoeal disease may reveal areas of research focusing on children as opposed to adults for example. The research may focus on different types of bacteria or blends of bacteria. A systematic approach is a great way of organising your research from start to finish!

Bennett, J., Fred Lubben , Sylvia Hogarth & Bob Campbell (2005). Systematic reviews of research in science education: rigour or rigidity?, International Journal of Science Education, 27:4, 387-406.

Cochrane Library (2014). About Cochrane Systematic Reviews and Protocols. Available:  http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutCochraneSystematicReviews.html

Popay, J., Roberts, H., Sowden, A., Petticrew, M., Arai, L., Rodgers, M., … & Duffy, S. (2006). Guidance on the conduct of narrative synthesis in systematic reviews. A product from the ESRC methods programme. Version, 1.

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Research Methods In Psychology

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

Research methods in psychology are systematic procedures used to observe, describe, predict, and explain behavior and mental processes. They include experiments, surveys, case studies, and naturalistic observations, ensuring data collection is objective and reliable to understand and explain psychological phenomena.

Hypotheses are statements about the prediction of the results, that can be verified or disproved by some investigation.

There are four types of hypotheses :

• Null Hypotheses (H0 ) – these predict that no difference will be found in the results between the conditions. Typically these are written ‘There will be no difference…’
• Alternative Hypotheses (Ha or H1) – these predict that there will be a significant difference in the results between the two conditions. This is also known as the experimental hypothesis.
• One-tailed (directional) hypotheses – these state the specific direction the researcher expects the results to move in, e.g. higher, lower, more, less. In a correlation study, the predicted direction of the correlation can be either positive or negative.
• Two-tailed (non-directional) hypotheses – these state that a difference will be found between the conditions of the independent variable but does not state the direction of a difference or relationship. Typically these are always written ‘There will be a difference ….’

All research has an alternative hypothesis (either a one-tailed or two-tailed) and a corresponding null hypothesis.

Once the research is conducted and results are found, psychologists must accept one hypothesis and reject the other. 

So, if a difference is found, the Psychologist would accept the alternative hypothesis and reject the null.  The opposite applies if no difference is found.

Sampling techniques

Sampling is the process of selecting a representative group from the population under study.

A sample is the participants you select from a target population (the group you are interested in) to make generalizations about.

Representative means the extent to which a sample mirrors a researcher’s target population and reflects its characteristics.

Generalisability means the extent to which their findings can be applied to the larger population of which their sample was a part.

• Volunteer sample : where participants pick themselves through newspaper adverts, noticeboards or online.
• Opportunity sampling : also known as convenience sampling , uses people who are available at the time the study is carried out and willing to take part. It is based on convenience.
• Random sampling : when every person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected. An example of random sampling would be picking names out of a hat.
• Systematic sampling : when a system is used to select participants. Picking every Nth person from all possible participants. N = the number of people in the research population / the number of people needed for the sample.
• Stratified sampling : when you identify the subgroups and select participants in proportion to their occurrences.
• Snowball sampling : when researchers find a few participants, and then ask them to find participants themselves and so on.
• Quota sampling : when researchers will be told to ensure the sample fits certain quotas, for example they might be told to find 90 participants, with 30 of them being unemployed.

Experiments always have an independent and dependent variable .

• The independent variable is the one the experimenter manipulates (the thing that changes between the conditions the participants are placed into). It is assumed to have a direct effect on the dependent variable.
• The dependent variable is the thing being measured, or the results of the experiment.

Operationalization of variables means making them measurable/quantifiable. We must use operationalization to ensure that variables are in a form that can be easily tested.

For instance, we can’t really measure ‘happiness’, but we can measure how many times a person smiles within a two-hour period. 

By operationalizing variables, we make it easy for someone else to replicate our research. Remember, this is important because we can check if our findings are reliable.

Extraneous variables are all variables which are not independent variable but could affect the results of the experiment.

It can be a natural characteristic of the participant, such as intelligence levels, gender, or age for example, or it could be a situational feature of the environment such as lighting or noise.

Demand characteristics are a type of extraneous variable that occurs if the participants work out the aims of the research study, they may begin to behave in a certain way.

For example, in Milgram’s research , critics argued that participants worked out that the shocks were not real and they administered them as they thought this was what was required of them. 

Extraneous variables must be controlled so that they do not affect (confound) the results.

Randomly allocating participants to their conditions or using a matched pairs experimental design can help to reduce participant variables. 

Situational variables are controlled by using standardized procedures, ensuring every participant in a given condition is treated in the same way

Experimental Design

Experimental design refers to how participants are allocated to each condition of the independent variable, such as a control or experimental group.

• Independent design ( between-groups design ): each participant is selected for only one group. With the independent design, the most common way of deciding which participants go into which group is by means of randomization. 
• Matched participants design : each participant is selected for only one group, but the participants in the two groups are matched for some relevant factor or factors (e.g. ability; sex; age).
• Repeated measures design ( within groups) : each participant appears in both groups, so that there are exactly the same participants in each group.
• The main problem with the repeated measures design is that there may well be order effects. Their experiences during the experiment may change the participants in various ways.
• They may perform better when they appear in the second group because they have gained useful information about the experiment or about the task. On the other hand, they may perform less well on the second occasion because of tiredness or boredom.
• Counterbalancing is the best way of preventing order effects from disrupting the findings of an experiment, and involves ensuring that each condition is equally likely to be used first and second by the participants.

If we wish to compare two groups with respect to a given independent variable, it is essential to make sure that the two groups do not differ in any other important way. 

Experimental Methods

All experimental methods involve an iv (independent variable) and dv (dependent variable)..

• Field experiments are conducted in the everyday (natural) environment of the participants. The experimenter still manipulates the IV, but in a real-life setting. It may be possible to control extraneous variables, though such control is more difficult than in a lab experiment.
• Natural experiments are when a naturally occurring IV is investigated that isn’t deliberately manipulated, it exists anyway. Participants are not randomly allocated, and the natural event may only occur rarely.

Case studies are in-depth investigations of a person, group, event, or community. It uses information from a range of sources, such as from the person concerned and also from their family and friends.

Many techniques may be used such as interviews, psychological tests, observations and experiments. Case studies are generally longitudinal: in other words, they follow the individual or group over an extended period of time. 

Case studies are widely used in psychology and among the best-known ones carried out were by Sigmund Freud . He conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses.

Case studies provide rich qualitative data and have high levels of ecological validity. However, it is difficult to generalize from individual cases as each one has unique characteristics.

Correlational Studies

Correlation means association; it is a measure of the extent to which two variables are related. One of the variables can be regarded as the predictor variable with the other one as the outcome variable.

Correlational studies typically involve obtaining two different measures from a group of participants, and then assessing the degree of association between the measures. 

The predictor variable can be seen as occurring before the outcome variable in some sense. It is called the predictor variable, because it forms the basis for predicting the value of the outcome variable.

Relationships between variables can be displayed on a graph or as a numerical score called a correlation coefficient.

• If an increase in one variable tends to be associated with an increase in the other, then this is known as a positive correlation .
• If an increase in one variable tends to be associated with a decrease in the other, then this is known as a negative correlation .
• A zero correlation occurs when there is no relationship between variables.

After looking at the scattergraph, if we want to be sure that a significant relationship does exist between the two variables, a statistical test of correlation can be conducted, such as Spearman’s rho.

The test will give us a score, called a correlation coefficient . This is a value between 0 and 1, and the closer to 1 the score is, the stronger the relationship between the variables. This value can be both positive e.g. 0.63, or negative -0.63.

A correlation between variables, however, does not automatically mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the values of the other variable. A correlation only shows if there is a relationship between variables.

Correlation does not always prove causation, as a third variable may be involved. 

Interview Methods

Interviews are commonly divided into two types: structured and unstructured.

A fixed, predetermined set of questions is put to every participant in the same order and in the same way. 

Responses are recorded on a questionnaire, and the researcher presets the order and wording of questions, and sometimes the range of alternative answers.

The interviewer stays within their role and maintains social distance from the interviewee.

There are no set questions, and the participant can raise whatever topics he/she feels are relevant and ask them in their own way. Questions are posed about participants’ answers to the subject

Unstructured interviews are most useful in qualitative research to analyze attitudes and values.

Though they rarely provide a valid basis for generalization, their main advantage is that they enable the researcher to probe social actors’ subjective point of view. 

Questionnaire Method

Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to face, by telephone, or post.

The choice of questions is important because of the need to avoid bias or ambiguity in the questions, ‘leading’ the respondent or causing offense.

• Open questions are designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject’s own knowledge and feelings. They provide insights into feelings, opinions, and understanding. Example: “How do you feel about that situation?”
• Closed questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” or specific information, limiting the depth of response. They are useful for gathering specific facts or confirming details. Example: “Do you feel anxious in crowds?”

Its other practical advantages are that it is cheaper than face-to-face interviews and can be used to contact many respondents scattered over a wide area relatively quickly.

Observations

There are different types of observation methods :

• Covert observation is where the researcher doesn’t tell the participants they are being observed until after the study is complete. There could be ethical problems or deception and consent with this particular observation method.
• Overt observation is where a researcher tells the participants they are being observed and what they are being observed for.
• Controlled : behavior is observed under controlled laboratory conditions (e.g., Bandura’s Bobo doll study).
• Natural : Here, spontaneous behavior is recorded in a natural setting.
• Participant : Here, the observer has direct contact with the group of people they are observing. The researcher becomes a member of the group they are researching.  
• Non-participant (aka “fly on the wall): The researcher does not have direct contact with the people being observed. The observation of participants’ behavior is from a distance

Pilot Study

A pilot  study is a small scale preliminary study conducted in order to evaluate the feasibility of the key s teps in a future, full-scale project.

A pilot study is an initial run-through of the procedures to be used in an investigation; it involves selecting a few people and trying out the study on them. It is possible to save time, and in some cases, money, by identifying any flaws in the procedures designed by the researcher.

A pilot study can help the researcher spot any ambiguities (i.e. unusual things) or confusion in the information given to participants or problems with the task devised.

Sometimes the task is too hard, and the researcher may get a floor effect, because none of the participants can score at all or can complete the task – all performances are low.

The opposite effect is a ceiling effect, when the task is so easy that all achieve virtually full marks or top performances and are “hitting the ceiling”.

Research Design

In cross-sectional research , a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time

Sometimes, we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time.

In cohort studies , the participants must share a common factor or characteristic such as age, demographic, or occupation. A cohort study is a type of longitudinal study in which researchers monitor and observe a chosen population over an extended period.

Triangulation means using more than one research method to improve the study’s validity.

Reliability

Reliability is a measure of consistency, if a particular measurement is repeated and the same result is obtained then it is described as being reliable.

• Test-retest reliability :  assessing the same person on two different occasions which shows the extent to which the test produces the same answers.
• Inter-observer reliability : the extent to which there is an agreement between two or more observers.

Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis is a systematic review that involves identifying an aim and then searching for research studies that have addressed similar aims/hypotheses.

This is done by looking through various databases, and then decisions are made about what studies are to be included/excluded.

Strengths: Increases the conclusions’ validity as they’re based on a wider range.

Weaknesses: Research designs in studies can vary, so they are not truly comparable.

Peer Review

A researcher submits an article to a journal. The choice of the journal may be determined by the journal’s audience or prestige.

The journal selects two or more appropriate experts (psychologists working in a similar field) to peer review the article without payment. The peer reviewers assess: the methods and designs used, originality of the findings, the validity of the original research findings and its content, structure and language.

Feedback from the reviewer determines whether the article is accepted. The article may be: Accepted as it is, accepted with revisions, sent back to the author to revise and re-submit or rejected without the possibility of submission.

The editor makes the final decision whether to accept or reject the research report based on the reviewers comments/ recommendations.

Peer review is important because it prevent faulty data from entering the public domain, it provides a way of checking the validity of findings and the quality of the methodology and is used to assess the research rating of university departments.

Peer reviews may be an ideal, whereas in practice there are lots of problems. For example, it slows publication down and may prevent unusual, new work being published. Some reviewers might use it as an opportunity to prevent competing researchers from publishing work.

Some people doubt whether peer review can really prevent the publication of fraudulent research.

The advent of the internet means that a lot of research and academic comment is being published without official peer reviews than before, though systems are evolving on the internet where everyone really has a chance to offer their opinions and police the quality of research.

Types of Data

• Quantitative data is numerical data e.g. reaction time or number of mistakes. It represents how much or how long, how many there are of something. A tally of behavioral categories and closed questions in a questionnaire collect quantitative data.
• Qualitative data is virtually any type of information that can be observed and recorded that is not numerical in nature and can be in the form of written or verbal communication. Open questions in questionnaires and accounts from observational studies collect qualitative data.
• Primary data is first-hand data collected for the purpose of the investigation.
• Secondary data is information that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research e.g. taken from journals, books or articles.

Validity means how well a piece of research actually measures what it sets out to, or how well it reflects the reality it claims to represent.

Validity is whether the observed effect is genuine and represents what is actually out there in the world.

• Concurrent validity is the extent to which a psychological measure relates to an existing similar measure and obtains close results. For example, a new intelligence test compared to an established test.
• Face validity : does the test measure what it’s supposed to measure ‘on the face of it’. This is done by ‘eyeballing’ the measuring or by passing it to an expert to check.
• Ecological validit y is the extent to which findings from a research study can be generalized to other settings / real life.
• Temporal validity is the extent to which findings from a research study can be generalized to other historical times.

Features of Science

• Paradigm – A set of shared assumptions and agreed methods within a scientific discipline.
• Paradigm shift – The result of the scientific revolution: a significant change in the dominant unifying theory within a scientific discipline.
• Objectivity – When all sources of personal bias are minimised so not to distort or influence the research process.
• Empirical method – Scientific approaches that are based on the gathering of evidence through direct observation and experience.
• Replicability – The extent to which scientific procedures and findings can be repeated by other researchers.
• Falsifiability – The principle that a theory cannot be considered scientific unless it admits the possibility of being proved untrue.

Statistical Testing

A significant result is one where there is a low probability that chance factors were responsible for any observed difference, correlation, or association in the variables tested.

If our test is significant, we can reject our null hypothesis and accept our alternative hypothesis.

If our test is not significant, we can accept our null hypothesis and reject our alternative hypothesis. A null hypothesis is a statement of no effect.

In Psychology, we use p < 0.05 (as it strikes a balance between making a type I and II error) but p < 0.01 is used in tests that could cause harm like introducing a new drug.

A type I error is when the null hypothesis is rejected when it should have been accepted (happens when a lenient significance level is used, an error of optimism).

A type II error is when the null hypothesis is accepted when it should have been rejected (happens when a stringent significance level is used, an error of pessimism).

Ethical Issues

• Informed consent is when participants are able to make an informed judgment about whether to take part. It causes them to guess the aims of the study and change their behavior.
• To deal with it, we can gain presumptive consent or ask them to formally indicate their agreement to participate but it may invalidate the purpose of the study and it is not guaranteed that the participants would understand.
• Deception should only be used when it is approved by an ethics committee, as it involves deliberately misleading or withholding information. Participants should be fully debriefed after the study but debriefing can’t turn the clock back.
• All participants should be informed at the beginning that they have the right to withdraw if they ever feel distressed or uncomfortable.
• It causes bias as the ones that stayed are obedient and some may not withdraw as they may have been given incentives or feel like they’re spoiling the study. Researchers can offer the right to withdraw data after participation.
• Participants should all have protection from harm . The researcher should avoid risks greater than those experienced in everyday life and they should stop the study if any harm is suspected. However, the harm may not be apparent at the time of the study.
• Confidentiality concerns the communication of personal information. The researchers should not record any names but use numbers or false names though it may not be possible as it is sometimes possible to work out who the researchers were.