Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Secondary Data as Primary

The phrase secondary data as primary refers to the use of pre-existing quantitative or qualitative data sets and their associated analysis as a collective focus of study. Case researchers typically undertake some form of meta-analysis of this secondary data and the related analysis using a historical or comparative approach.

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

The increased popularity and application of discourse and narrative analysis, advances in the archiving and computing of qualitative and quantitative data, and ethical concerns about the influence of industry funding have facilitated the re-examination and reassessment of secondary data as primary data. Unlike secondary data analysis, which involves the re-use of existing data to extend a pre-existing study or undertake new analysis of the data, the use of secondary data as primary data utilizes secondary data and its associated analysis as a focus of a new social research project that generates methodological and/or substantive insights on the case subject. It is the selection of the data and analysis collectively as the focus of a case study that transforms what would otherwise be secondary data into primary data. Secondary data as primary should also be distinguished from synthesis research, or literature reviews, in which the primary data analysis performed by the initial researchers is reported without any additional substantive analysis of the data.

Secondary data as primary is ideal for highlighting trends or patterns, discursive or methodological framing, or gaps in analysis of research undertaken collectively on a particular topic. However, as is often the situation in much case research and many forms of comparative secondary analysis (e.g., cross-national analysis), the framing of the topic (i.e., how the case is theoretically and practically defined) comes to the fore in assessing the validity of such studies and the conclusions drawn about trends in the topic of study. Methods of inclusion and exclusion of studies in the case not only determine the characteristics of the final research study but also can substantially influence the resulting analysis. Hence, being able to speak to the selection and comprehensiveness of the data (which databases and search terms were used, span of time covered by the secondary data collected, choice of extensive methods versus intensive methods, etc.) is critical when undertaking case analysis that utilizes secondary data as primary data.

Application

Insights from science and technology studies regarding the social context of science, and increased funding of research by industry, in particular in the biomedical sciences, has encouraged a host of extensive case studies (variable-oriented research with a large number of cases as opposed to intensive studies that examine in detail a small number of cases) that have examined the impact of funding sources on the outcome, validity, and reliability of empirical medical studies. Studies conducted by Joel Lexchin and associates in 2003 on pharmaceutical funding, and by Anke Huss and colleagues in 2007 on cell phone company sponsorship of research, have raised concerns about clinical trial agreements and selective publication biases that reveal only positive results of drug or technological use. The intent of many of these meta-analyses that utilize secondary data as primary data has been to demonstrate the lack of negative or null results in the published data and consequently the collective bias that results in the medical literature about these topics, which has in turn affected research funding decisions, treatment practices, and healthcare policy.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution