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Examples in which a source can be both primary and secondary include an obituary [23] or a survey of several volumes of a journal counting the frequency of articles on a certain topic. [23] Whether a source is regarded as primary or secondary in a given context may change, depending upon the present state of knowledge within the field. [24]
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research component in all study fields, including physical and social sciences, humanities, [2] and business ...
Secondary data refers to data that is collected by someone other than the primary user. [1] Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses , information collected by government departments, organizational records and data that was originally collected for other research purposes. [ 2 ]
A primary source can have all of these qualities, and a secondary source may have none of them. Deciding whether primary, secondary or tertiary sources are appropriate on any given occasion is a matter of good editorial judgment and common sense, not merely mindless, knee-jerk reactions to classification of a source as "primary" or "secondary".
Many sources contain a combination of primary/secondary or secondary/tertiary material, sometimes all three. A source that is secondary in one context may be primary in another (e.g. a history book is a secondary source for the facts it reports, but a primary source for what the author wrote about an event).
The same item might be considered a primary source in one investigation and a secondary source in another. For example, a speech about the Declaration of Independence that was delivered by a noted statesman on its hundredth anniversary would be secondary source for a scholar studying the document's philosophical origins.
Sources of information are commonly categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary sources.In brief, a primary source is one close to the event with firsthand knowledge (for example, an eyewitness); a secondary source is at least one step removed (for example, a book about an event written by someone not involved in it); and a tertiary source is an encyclopaedia or textbook that provides a ...
Any source can be either a primary or secondary source, depending on how it is used. For example, if an author compiles research data from several scientists into a table for comparison, she is a secondary source with respect to that data. However, she might also make original conclusions about that data.