WEBVTT

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I received several requests to tell you a bit more 
about the difference

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between primary and secondary research 
methods

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and explain a bit when we use the first and when 
the second.

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The most basic distinction between primary and 
secondary research is this..

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Primary research is when we use original data.

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It is simply put, new data. Secondary research 
is when we study the results of others.

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Because these results are often published in 
scientific journals and books,

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we also refer to this as a literature study.

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And because you often sit behind a desk 
reading these articles,

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it’s also named desk research.

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Secondary research is basically the systematic 
review of existing knowledge.

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So when do scholars perform primary or 
secondary research?

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Well, often we do both in different stages of a 
larger study.

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Let’s say I’m interested in the effects of fear 
appeals in anti-smoking campaigns.

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More specifically: I want to know if a Dutch anti-
smoking campaign

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should make more use of them in order to 
become more effective.

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I will start by exploring the existing literature on 
the use of fear appeals,

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anti-smoking campaigns, health campaigns in 
general,

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studies in to why people smoke, when people 
block fear appeals, et cetera.

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I systematically collect all of this secondary 
data, basically the research findings of others,

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and analyze these results in order to come up 
with some expectations

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of what would happen if we would use more fear 
appeals in Dutch anti-smoking campaigns.

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In some cases, if time, money or practicality 
forces us to limit ourselves to a literature study,

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this is where my research ends.

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But often, if I want to really understand 
something and delve deeper in to the question,

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I want to study this further and in more detail.

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Existing studies might have been conducted in 
other countries for instance,

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so I’m wondering if these results will also be true 
in the NL.

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Or, it’s also possible no study has looked 
specifically at this target group

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or what happens over a prolonged period in time.

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In short: A review of the existing literature can 
leave us with a thousand questions

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and things we want to check or explore in more 
detail.

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So now I need to conduct my own, primary, 
research.

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My desk research has left me with several 
research hypotheses

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that we will set out to prove or disprove with 
original data.

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If the research findings you find in the literature 
are reliable

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I should be able to replicate them. This is why 
replication of existing studies,

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sometimes with only one small variation,

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is an important scientific tool. In order to be sure 
of what we know, we keep checking it

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and keep changing the research context slightly 
to see if that makes a difference.

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Of course next to checking the reliability of 
existing data,

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primary research also allows us to radically 
expand on existing knowledge

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by adding completely new research variables,

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leading to new insights into previously 
unexplored relationships.

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So in a nutshell: we usually start with secondary 
research.

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That’s why, whenever we discuss research 
methods,

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we should not forget this important category.

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Many questions have already been asked and 
answered by scholars all over the world

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and a systematic review of existing data will 
allow us

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to formulate hypotheses and more specific 
research questions.

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The introduction of digital search engines has 
greatly increased our ability

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to find and use existing studies, our ability ‘to 
stand on the shoulders of giants’ as it were.

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Famous words by Newton, now the motto of 
Google Scholar.

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After we have studied existing knowledge we 
test our expectations

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and further expand on this by conducting our 
own primary research,

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if we have the time and money that is.