Question

Describe one primary and one secondary data source that could be used in developing a public program. Describe the pros and cons of using each data source.

Answer 1

Primary Data are defined as the data that has been produced by the researcher himself/herself through surveys, interviews, experiments, specially designed for understanding and solving the research problem at hand.

Eg of primary data is the national census data collected by the government.

The main source of primary data is research .It involves collection by the investigator directly from study participants to address a specific question or hypothesis. In this data can be collected by in-person or telephone interviews, mail surveys, or computerized questionnaires.

Pros and cons of primary data source

The main pros of primary data source is its authenticity, specific nature, and up to date information. The main disadvantage of primary sources, is as they are relying solely on your own knowledge and interpretation. That is not be sufficient in really extracting as much value as possible out of the original materials.

Secondary Data are defined as the data which includes using existing data generated by large government Institutions,or other institutions as part of organizational record keeping. These type of secondary data is then extracted from more varied datafiles. They are generally once primary data but become secondary data when used by a third party.

Eg of secondary data is the data collected from online sources.

The main sources of secondary data are books, personal sources, journal, newspaper, website, government record etc. Secondary data are easily available compared to that of primary data. It needs only little research and need for manpower to use these sources.

Pros and cons

The main pros of secondary data source is

is very cheap and not time-consuming.

The major disadvantage of secondary research is that the researcher may find difficulty in obtaining information which are specific to his or her research needs.