Remember that data are information. All research involves finding or selecting data and analysing them. Now, what do we mean by primary and secondary data? Put simply, primary data are what we gather ourselves in the process of primary research. Whenever we ask people questions in a survey or observe their behaviour, whether naturalistically or in the context of an experiment, we are carrying out primary research and gathering primary data. If, however, we are selecting and analysing or re-analysing data someone else has gathered for their own hypothesis/set of aims, this is secondary research and we are analysing secondary data.
A quick search of the British Journal of Psychology database shows a total of 4,789 articles, of which just 225 contained ‘meta-analysis’ or ‘systematic review’ in the title, indicating that these are studies of secondary data. So we can see that the vast majority of published studies involve primary data. This is healthy. Whenever we gather, analyse and publish primary data we are adding something new to the body of data that informs psychological knowledge and understanding.
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