Secondary Data

Finding Secondary Data

Public and university libraries are great sources of relevant data, especially if a researcher seeks to access data in published sources, such as books or encyclopedias. The web is also a source of valuable data and, more specifically, an effective way to locate references to such materials. Using key words in an Internet search engine may sometimes be enough to locate relevant secondary data online. However, the breadth of information on the Internet can be unmanageable, so a researcher may waste a lot of time attempting to discriminate between bogus and true research.

For this reason, it is highly recommendable that researchers conduct customized searches via specific sources. The following are three sources that may assist on this account:

• 1.
  Public statistical providers. These sources are usually government based (e.g., in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau or in Poland, the Central Statistical Office). There are also other international statistic offices, such as Eurostat, where one may find social and economic indicators from all European Union members, and worldwide organizations, such as OECD.Stat, which includes data and metadata for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and selected nonmember economies, or United Nations Statistics Division.
• 2.
  Specialized search engines. These include databases such as Econlit with its own search engine that focuses only on economics and management publications, or the Financial Times Historical Archive, which is used primarily for financial studies. It is also worth mentioning Google Scholar, which is used by academics to help narrow online searches. It is not specialized in any particular subject, but discriminates efficiently among academic and nonacademic publications. Finally, social networks are also shifting the way secondary data and reviews of literature are understood. Academia.edu or ResearchGate are probably the most widely known and used academic networks. These networks enable a researcher to not only locate relevant publications but also other scholars and professionals working on the same topic.
• 3.
  Organizations related to specific research topics. Ample and relevant information may be obtained from organizations related to certain research topics. For example, the World Intellectual Property Organization is a helpful resource for those researching intellectual property. For researchers in the health sector, the World Health Organization has a similar function. In addition, most industries have their own national and/or international organizations. For instance, Euromines is a well-known international organization within the mining industry and the World Tourism Organization is a well-known international organization within the tourism industry. Should one happen to be interested in working rights, the International Trade Union Confederation website and its global index report are valuable sources.[Page 1578]

Advantages of Secondary Data

There are several advantages to relying on secondary data.

...