how to do secondary research dissertation

Write Your Dissertation Using Only Secondary Research

Writing a dissertation is already difficult to begin with but it can appear to be a daunting challenge when you only have other people’s research as a guide for proving a brand new hypothesis! You might not be familiar with the research or even confident in how to use it but if secondary research is what you’re working with then you’re in luck. It’s actually one of the easiest methods to write about!

Secondary research is research that has already been carried out and collected by someone else. It means you’re using data that’s already out there rather than conducting your own research – this is called primary research. Thankfully secondary will save you time in the long run! Primary research often means spending time finding people and then relying on them for results, something you could do without, especially if you’re in a rush. Read more about the advantages and disadvantages of primary research .

So, where do you find secondary data?

Secondary research is available in many different places and it’s important to explore all areas so you can be sure you’re looking at research you can trust. If you’re just starting your dissertation you might be feeling a little overwhelmed with where to begin but once you’ve got your subject clarified, it’s time to get researching! Some good places to search include:

Libraries (your own university or others – books and journals are the most popular resources!)
Government records
Online databases
Credible Surveys (this means they need to be from a reputable source)
Search engines (google scholar for example).

The internet has everything you’ll need but you’ve got to make sure it’s legitimate and published information. It’s also important to check out your student library because it’s likely you’ll have access to a great range of materials right at your fingertips. There’s a strong chance someone before you has looked for the same topic so it’s a great place to start.

What are the two different types of secondary data?

It’s important to know before you start looking that they are actually two different types of secondary research in terms of data, Qualitative and quantitative. You might be looking for one more specifically than the other, or you could use a mix of both. Whichever it is, it’s important to know the difference between them.

Qualitative data – This is usually descriptive data and can often be received from interviews, questionnaires or observations. This kind of data is usually used to capture the meaning behind something.
Quantitative data – This relates to quantities meaning numbers. It consists of information that can be measured in numerical data sets.

The type of data you want to be captured in your dissertation will depend on your overarching question – so keep it in mind throughout your search!

Getting started

When you’re getting ready to write your dissertation it’s a good idea to plan out exactly what you’re looking to answer. We recommend splitting this into chapters with subheadings and ensuring that each point you want to discuss has a reliable source to back it up. This is always a good way to find out if you’ve collected enough secondary data to suit your workload. If there’s a part of your plan that’s looking a bit empty, it might be a good idea to do some more research and fill the gap. It’s never a bad thing to have too much research, just as long as you know what to do with it and you’re willing to disregard the less important parts. Just make sure you prioritise the research that backs up your overall point so each section has clarity.

Then it’s time to write your introduction. In your intro, you will want to emphasise what your dissertation aims to cover within your writing and outline your research objectives. You can then follow up with the context around this question and identify why your research is meaningful to a wider audience.

The body of your dissertation

Before you get started on the main chapters of your dissertation, you need to find out what theories relate to your chosen subject and the research that has already been carried out around it.

Literature Reviews

Your literature review will be a summary of any previous research carried out on the topic and should have an intro and conclusion like any other body of the academic text. When writing about this research you want to make sure you are describing, summarising, evaluating and analysing each piece. You shouldn’t just rephrase what the researcher has found but make your own interpretations. This is one crucial way to score some marks. You also want to identify any themes between each piece of research to emphasise their relevancy. This will show that you understand your topic in the context of others, a great way to prove you’ve really done your reading!

Theoretical Frameworks

The theoretical framework in your dissertation will be explaining what you’ve found. It will form your main chapters after your lit review. The most important part is that you use it wisely. Of course, depending on your topic there might be a lot of different theories and you can’t include them all so make sure to select the ones most relevant to your dissertation. When starting on the framework it’s important to detail the key parts to your hypothesis and explain them. This creates a good foundation for what you’re going to discuss and helps readers understand the topic.

To finish off the theoretical framework you want to start suggesting where your research will fit in with those texts in your literature review. You might want to challenge a theory by critiquing it with another or explain how two theories can be combined to make a new outcome. Either way, you must make a clear link between their theories and your own interpretations – remember, this is not opinion based so don’t make a conclusion unless you can link it back to the facts!

Concluding your dissertation

Your conclusion will highlight the outcome of the research you’ve undertaken. You want to make this clear and concise without repeating information you’ve already mentioned in your main body paragraphs. A great way to avoid repetition is to highlight any overarching themes your conclusions have shown

When writing your conclusion it’s important to include the following elements:

Summary – A summary of what you’ve found overall from your research and the conclusions you have come to as a result.
Recommendations – Recommendations on what you think the next steps should be. Is there something you would change about this research to improve it or further develop it?
Show your contribution – It’s important to show how you’ve contributed to the current knowledge on the topic and not just repeated what other researchers have found.

Hopefully, this helps you with your secondary data research for your dissertation! It’s definitely not as hard as it seems, the hardest part will be gathering all of the information in the first place. It may take a while but once you’ve found your flow – it’ll get easier, promise! You may also want to read about the advantages and disadvantages of secondary research .

Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

Dissertation structure and layout - the basics

The Caveat

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

Acknowledgements page
Abstract (or executive summary)
Table of contents , list of figures and tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Methodology
Chapter 4: Results
Chapter 5: Discussion
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question .

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

A dissertation's structure reflect the research process

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
How does your research contribute something original?
How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics , etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings? In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach Blog .

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project.

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36 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

Very nice and easy to understand. Thank you .

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

This is so good

How can i arrange my specific objectives in my dissertation?

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Knowledge Base
Dissertation

How to Write a Dissertation | A Guide to Structure & Content

A dissertation or thesis is a long piece of academic writing based on original research, submitted as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

The structure of a dissertation depends on your field, but it is usually divided into at least four or five chapters (including an introduction and conclusion chapter).

The most common dissertation structure in the sciences and social sciences includes:

An introduction to your topic
A literature review that surveys relevant sources
An explanation of your methodology
An overview of the results of your research
A discussion of the results and their implications
A conclusion that shows what your research has contributed

Dissertations in the humanities are often structured more like a long essay , building an argument by analysing primary and secondary sources . Instead of the standard structure outlined here, you might organise your chapters around different themes or case studies.

Other important elements of the dissertation include the title page , abstract , and reference list . If in doubt about how your dissertation should be structured, always check your department’s guidelines and consult with your supervisor.

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Acknowledgements, table of contents, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations, introduction, literature review / theoretical framework, methodology, reference list.

The very first page of your document contains your dissertation’s title, your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date. Sometimes it also includes your student number, your supervisor’s name, and the university’s logo. Many programs have strict requirements for formatting the dissertation title page .

The title page is often used as cover when printing and binding your dissertation .

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The acknowledgements section is usually optional, and gives space for you to thank everyone who helped you in writing your dissertation. This might include your supervisors, participants in your research, and friends or family who supported you.

The abstract is a short summary of your dissertation, usually about 150-300 words long. You should write it at the very end, when you’ve completed the rest of the dissertation. In the abstract, make sure to:

State the main topic and aims of your research
Describe the methods you used
Summarise the main results
State your conclusions

Although the abstract is very short, it’s the first part (and sometimes the only part) of your dissertation that people will read, so it’s important that you get it right. If you’re struggling to write a strong abstract, read our guide on how to write an abstract .

In the table of contents, list all of your chapters and subheadings and their page numbers. The dissertation contents page gives the reader an overview of your structure and helps easily navigate the document.

All parts of your dissertation should be included in the table of contents, including the appendices. You can generate a table of contents automatically in Word.

If you have used a lot of tables and figures in your dissertation, you should itemise them in a numbered list . You can automatically generate this list using the Insert Caption feature in Word.

If you have used a lot of abbreviations in your dissertation, you can include them in an alphabetised list of abbreviations so that the reader can easily look up their meanings.

If you have used a lot of highly specialised terms that will not be familiar to your reader, it might be a good idea to include a glossary . List the terms alphabetically and explain each term with a brief description or definition.

In the introduction, you set up your dissertation’s topic, purpose, and relevance, and tell the reader what to expect in the rest of the dissertation. The introduction should:

Establish your research topic , giving necessary background information to contextualise your work
Narrow down the focus and define the scope of the research
Discuss the state of existing research on the topic, showing your work’s relevance to a broader problem or debate
Clearly state your objectives and research questions , and indicate how you will answer them
Give an overview of your dissertation’s structure

Everything in the introduction should be clear, engaging, and relevant to your research. By the end, the reader should understand the what , why and how of your research. Not sure how? Read our guide on how to write a dissertation introduction .

Before you start on your research, you should have conducted a literature review to gain a thorough understanding of the academic work that already exists on your topic. This means:

Collecting sources (e.g. books and journal articles) and selecting the most relevant ones
Critically evaluating and analysing each source
Drawing connections between them (e.g. themes, patterns, conflicts, gaps) to make an overall point

In the dissertation literature review chapter or section, you shouldn’t just summarise existing studies, but develop a coherent structure and argument that leads to a clear basis or justification for your own research. For example, it might aim to show how your research:

Addresses a gap in the literature
Takes a new theoretical or methodological approach to the topic
Proposes a solution to an unresolved problem
Advances a theoretical debate
Builds on and strengthens existing knowledge with new data

The literature review often becomes the basis for a theoretical framework , in which you define and analyse the key theories, concepts and models that frame your research. In this section you can answer descriptive research questions about the relationship between concepts or variables.

The methodology chapter or section describes how you conducted your research, allowing your reader to assess its validity. You should generally include:

The overall approach and type of research (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, experimental, ethnographic)
Your methods of collecting data (e.g. interviews, surveys, archives)
Details of where, when, and with whom the research took place
Your methods of analysing data (e.g. statistical analysis, discourse analysis)
Tools and materials you used (e.g. computer programs, lab equipment)
A discussion of any obstacles you faced in conducting the research and how you overcame them
An evaluation or justification of your methods

Your aim in the methodology is to accurately report what you did, as well as convincing the reader that this was the best approach to answering your research questions or objectives.

Next, you report the results of your research . You can structure this section around sub-questions, hypotheses, or topics. Only report results that are relevant to your objectives and research questions. In some disciplines, the results section is strictly separated from the discussion, while in others the two are combined.

For example, for qualitative methods like in-depth interviews, the presentation of the data will often be woven together with discussion and analysis, while in quantitative and experimental research, the results should be presented separately before you discuss their meaning. If you’re unsure, consult with your supervisor and look at sample dissertations to find out the best structure for your research.

In the results section it can often be helpful to include tables, graphs and charts. Think carefully about how best to present your data, and don’t include tables or figures that just repeat what you have written – they should provide extra information or usefully visualise the results in a way that adds value to your text.

Full versions of your data (such as interview transcripts) can be included as an appendix .

The discussion is where you explore the meaning and implications of your results in relation to your research questions. Here you should interpret the results in detail, discussing whether they met your expectations and how well they fit with the framework that you built in earlier chapters. If any of the results were unexpected, offer explanations for why this might be. It’s a good idea to consider alternative interpretations of your data and discuss any limitations that might have influenced the results.

The discussion should reference other scholarly work to show how your results fit with existing knowledge. You can also make recommendations for future research or practical action.

The dissertation conclusion should concisely answer the main research question, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of your central argument. Wrap up your dissertation with a final reflection on what you did and how you did it. The conclusion often also includes recommendations for research or practice.

In this section, it’s important to show how your findings contribute to knowledge in the field and why your research matters. What have you added to what was already known?

You must include full details of all sources that you have cited in a reference list (sometimes also called a works cited list or bibliography). It’s important to follow a consistent reference style . Each style has strict and specific requirements for how to format your sources in the reference list.

The most common styles used in UK universities are Harvard referencing and Vancouver referencing . Your department will often specify which referencing style you should use – for example, psychology students tend to use APA style , humanities students often use MHRA , and law students always use OSCOLA . M ake sure to check the requirements, and ask your supervisor if you’re unsure.

To save time creating the reference list and make sure your citations are correctly and consistently formatted, you can use our free APA Citation Generator .

Your dissertation itself should contain only essential information that directly contributes to answering your research question. Documents you have used that do not fit into the main body of your dissertation (such as interview transcripts, survey questions or tables with full figures) can be added as appendices .

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In your dissertation journey, secondary research is a secret weapon. It's all about tapping into the wisdom of others – from journals, newspapers, and books – to gather valuable information. Secondary research can be used to supplement primary research, or it can be used as the sole source of data in a dissertation.

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In a secondary research dissertation, picking the right data sources is key. They should offer accurate information, enhance topic understanding, and broaden perspectives.

To better understand the dissertation writing pattern, review the following complete secondary research dissertation examples;

The Abuse of Corporate Veil: A Comparative Analysis of Corporate Veil Lifting Approaches
The Importance of Procurement Strategy & Impact on Construction Projects
An Investigation of Cyberbullying and Its Impact on Adolescents’ Mental Health

This article covers secondary research's dissertation significance, its role in building strong arguments, and selecting suitable data sources.

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What is secondary research .

Secondary research uses existing sources to grasp a topic. It involves studying studies, articles, newspapers, and books. It's quicker than primary research, skipping data collection to focus on existing sources.

Secondary sources , often by expert researchers, offer thorough coverage, benefiting from their primary research and field expertise.

Why is Secondary Research Important?

Secondary research is essential for any dissertation because it gives students the opportunity to draw on existing knowledge and build on the work of other scholars without having to conduct their original experiments or surveys.

By using secondary research instead of conducting original experiments or surveys, students can save time while still being able to access reliable information on their chosen topics.

Secondary sources broaden students' scope beyond just primary materials, enhancing argument strength. This integrates current literature with past expert findings for more robust dissertations.

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Data Analysis for Secondary Research Dissertation

1. understand your topic.

The first step in choosing the right data sources is clearly understanding your topic and what kind of information you need. Probe your objectives and required data. This trims down pertinent resources for your project.

2. Choose Relevant Sources

Once you have identified the type of information you need, it’s time to find relevant sources. Seek books, journals, sites, government documents with detailed information. Ensure they are recent and credible for up-to-date subject insight.

3. Types of Data Sources

When it comes to researching secondary data, there are two main types of sources:

Quantitative data refers to numerical values collected from surveys, experiments, or censuses. This data type is typically presented in numerical form (for example, percentages or averages).
Qualitative data is non-numerical information gathered through interviews or focus groups. This type of data is more subjective than quantitative because it relies on individual opinions and experiences rather than objective measurements.

4. Analyze Your Sources

For found sources, assess before using in your dissertation. Check author's expertise and possible biases. Pick suitable sources for your research paper after careful analysis.

Optimizing Secondary Research in Your Dissertation

A. understand your research question and objectives .

Before you begin searching for secondary sources, take some time to think about what kind of information you need. Consider the scope of your research question and the objectives of your dissertation project. It will help narrow down your search parameters.

b. Synthesize Information from Multiple Sources

Blend sources into a coherent narrative backing your argument. Use pertinent details, not replacing primary research. Craft a logical, well-rounded argument with clear readability.

c. Citing Sources Properly

When doing secondary research for your dissertation project, ensure you cite your sources properly according to the style guidelines set by your school or department (e.g., APA style). Respecting contributors and ensuring accuracy for cross-checking and inquiries about source material.

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The Advantages of Secondary Research

The main benefit of utilizing secondary research in dissertations is its time and cost efficiency. Unlike primary research, which can be both time-consuming and expensive, secondary research relies on existing data that is readily available. This eliminates the need for data collection and expensive surveys.

Secondary research offers greater consistency than primary research, as the initial researcher addresses potential biases. This reduces variables, facilitating accurate conclusions. Moreover, secondary research can unveil unnoticed patterns, enhancing comprehension of the subject.

Finally, secondary research grants access to expert insights beyond your primary study group, enriching your dissertation and enhancing its credibility among academic peers.

Crafting an effective dissertation can be complex, but the right data sources could make all the difference. To help select quality information for your research needs, consider taking these key steps to ensure accuracy and thoroughness in writing. To better understand the use of secondary research and secondary data, study the Secondary Research Dissertation examples.

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Integrated Primary & Secondary Research

6 Process of Conducting Secondary Research

A syringe with pink fluid going into one test tube in a box filled with test tubes.

Step 1: Define your research topic and question

Start with a thorough literature review
Ensure that the research question has clinical or policy relevance and is based on sound a priori reasoning. A good question is what makes a study good, not a large sample size
Be flexible to adapt your question to the strengths and limitations of the potential datasets

Step 2: Select a dataset

Use a resource such as the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Online Compendium
To increase the novelty of your work, consider selecting a dataset that has not been widely used in your field or link datasets together to gain a fresh perspective
Factor in the complexity of the dataset
Factor in dataset cost and time to acquire the actual dataset
Consider selecting a dataset your mentor has used previously

Step 3: Get to know your dataset

Why does the database exist?
Who reports the data?
What are the incentives for accurate reporting?
How are the data audited, if at all?
Can you link your dataset to other large datasets?
Read everything you can about the database
Check to see if your measures have been validated against other sources
Get a close feel for the data by analyzing it yourself or closely reviewing outputs if someone else is doing the programming

Step 4: Structure your analysis and presentation of findings in a way that is clinically meaningful

Think carefully about the clinical implications of your findings
Be cautious when interpreting statistical significance (i.e., p-values). Large sample sizes can yield associations that are highly statistically significant but not clinically meaningful
Consult with a statistician for complex datasets and analyses
Think carefully about how you portray the data. A nice figure sometimes tells the story better than rows of data

Attribution

This page contains materials taken from:

Smith, A.K., Ayanian, J.Z., Covinsky, K.E. et al. Conducting High-Value Secondary Dataset Analysis: An Introductory Guide and Resources. J GEN INTERN MED 26, 920–929 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1621-5

An Open Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Copyright © by Andrea Niosi and KPU Marketing 4201 Class of Summer 2020 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Primary vs Secondary Research – A Guide with Examples

Published by Alvin Nicolas at August 16th, 2021 , Revised On August 29, 2023

Introduction

Primary research or secondary research? How do you decide which is best for your dissertation paper?

As researchers, we need to be aware of the pros and cons of the two types of research methods to make sure their selected research method is the most appropriate, taking into account the topic of investigation .

The success of any dissertation paper largely depends on choosing the correct research design . Before you can decide whether you must base your research strategy on primary or secondary research; it is important to understand the difference between primary resources and secondary resources.

What is the Difference between Primary Sources and Secondary Sources?

What are primary sources.

According to UCL libraries, primary sources are articles, images, or documents that provide direct evidence or first-hand testimony about any given research topic.

Is it important that we have a clear understanding of the information resulting from actions under investigation ? Primary sources allow us to get close to those events to recognise their analysis and interpretation in scientific and academic communities.

Examples of Primary Sources

Classic examples of primary sources include;

Original documents are prepared by the researcher investigating any given topic of research.
Reporters witnessing an event and reporting news.
Conducting surveys to collect data , such as primary elections and population census.
Interviews , speeches, letters, and diaries – what the participants wrote or said during data collection.
Audio, video, and image files were created to capture an event

What are Secondary Sources?

However, when the researcher wishes to analyse and understand information coming out of events or actions that have already occurred, their work is regarded as a secondary source.

In essence, no secondary source can be created without using primary sources. The same information source or evidence can be considered either primary or secondary, depending on who is presenting the information and where the information is presented.

Examples of Secondary Sources

Some examples of secondary sources are;

Documentaries (Even though the images, videos, and audio are seen as primary sources by the developer of the documentary)
Articles, publications, journals, and research documents are created by those not directly involved in the research.
Dissertations , thesis, and essays .
Critical reviews.
Books presented as evidence.

Need help with getting started with your dissertation paper? Here is a comprehensive article on “ How to write a dissertation – Step by step guide “.

What Type of Research you Should Base your Dissertation on – Primary or Secondary?

Below you will find detailed guidelines to help you make an informed decision if you have been thinking of the question “Should I use primary or secondary research in my dissertation”.

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Primary Research

Primary research includes an exhaustive analysis of data to answer research questions that are specific and exploratory in nature.

Primary research methods with examples include the use of various primary research tools such as interviews, research surveys , numerical data, observations, audio, video, and images to collect data directly rather than using existing literature.

Business organisations throughout the world have their employees or an external research agency conduct primary research on their behalf to address certain issues. On the other hand, undergraduate and postgraduate students conduct primary research as part of their dissertation projects to fill an obvious research gap in their respective fields of study.

As indicated above, primary data can be collected in a number of ways, and so we have also conducted in-depth research on the most common yet independent primary data collection techniques .

Sampling in Primary Research

When conducting primary research, it is vitally important to pay attention to the chosen sampling method which can be described as “ a specific principle used to select members of the population to participate in the research ”.

Oftentimes, the researcher might not be able to directly work with the targeted population because of its large size, and so it becomes indispensable to employ statistical sampling techniques where the researchers have no choice but to draw conclusions based on responses collected from the representative population.

The process of sampling in primary data collection includes the following five steps;

Identifying the target population.
Selecting an appropriate sampling frame.
Determining the sampling size.
Choosing a sampling method .
Practical application of the selected sampling technique.

The researcher can gather responses when conducting primary research, but nonverbal communication and gestures play a considerable role. They help the researcher identify the various hidden elements which cannot be identified when conducting the secondary research.

How to use Social Media Networks for Dissertation Research

Reasons Why you Should Use Primary Research

As stated previously, the most prominent advantage of primary research over secondary research is that the researcher is able to directly collect the data from the respondents which makes the data more authentic and reliable.
Primary research has room for customisation based on the personal requirements and/or limitations of the researcher.
Primary research allows for a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter to address the problem at hand .
The researcher will have the luxury to decide how to collect and use the data, which means that they will be able to make use of the data in whatever way deemed fit to them to gain meaningful insights.
The results obtained from primary research are recognised as credible throughout academic and scientific communities.

Reasons Why you Should not Use Primary Research

If you are considering primary research for your dissertation , you need to be aware of the high costs involved in the process of gathering primary data. Undergraduate and Masters’ students often do not have the financial resources to fund their own research work. Ph.D. students, on the other hand, are awarded a very limited research budget to work with. Thus, if you are on a low or limited budget, conducting primary research might not be the most suitable option.
Primary research can be extremely time-consuming. Getting your target population to participate in online surveys and face-to-face or telephonic interviews requires patience and a lot of time. This is especially important for undergraduate and Masters’ students who are required to complete and submit their work within a certain timeframe.
Primary research is well recognised only when it makes use of several methods of data collection . Having just one primary research method will undermine your research. Using more than one method of data collection will mean that you need more time and financial resources.
There might be participants who wouldn’t be willing to disclose their information, thus this aspect is crucial and should be looked into carefully.

One important aspect of primary research that researchers should look into is research ethics. Keeping participants’ information confidential is a research responsibility that should never be overlooked.

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Secondary Research

Secondary research or desk-based research is the second type of research you could base your research methodology in a dissertation on. This type of research reviews and analyses existing research studies to improve the overall authenticity of the research.

Secondary research methods include the use of secondary sources of information including journal articles, published reports, public libraries, books, data available on the internet, government publications, and results from primary research studies conducted by other researchers in the past.

Unlike primary research, secondary research is cost-effective and less time-consuming simply because it uses existing literature and doesn’t require the researcher to spend time and financial resources to collect first-hand data.

Not all researchers and/or business organisations are able to afford a significant amount of money towards research, and that’s one of the reasons this type of research is the most popular in universities and organisations.

The Steps for Conducting Secondary Research

Secondary research involves the following five steps;

Establishing the topic of research and setting up the research questions to be answered or the research hypothesis to be tested.
Identifying authentic and reliable sources of information.
Gather data relevant to the topic of research from various secondary sources such as books, journal articles, government publications, commercial sector reports.
Combining the data in a suitable format so you can gain meaningful insights.
Analysing the data to find a solution to a problem in hand

Reasons Why you Should Use Secondary Research

Secondary sources are readily available with researchers facing little to no difficulty in accessing secondary data. Unlike primary data that involves a lengthy and complex process, secondary data can be collected by the researcher through a number of existing sources without having to leave the comfort of the desk.
Secondary research is a simple process, and therefore the cost associated with it is almost negligible.

Reasons Why you Should Not Use Secondary Research

Finding authentic and credible sources of secondary data is nothing less than a challenge. The internet these days is full of fake information, so it is important to exercise precaution when selecting and evaluating the available information.
Secondary sources may not provide accurate and/or up-to-date numbers, so your research could be diluted if you are not including accurate statistics from recent timelines.
Secondary research, in essence, is dependent on primary research and stems its findings from sets of primary data. The reliability of secondary research will, to a certain degree, depends on the quality of primary data used.

If you aren’t sure about the correct method of research for your dissertation paper, you should get help from an expert who can guide on whether you should use Primary or Secondary Research for your dissertation paper.

The Steps Involved in Writing a Dissertation

Key Differences between Primary and Secondary Research

Should i use primary or secondary research for my dissertation paper – conclusion.

When choosing between primary and secondary research, you should always take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of both types of research so you make an informed decision.

The best way to select the correct research strategy for your dissertation is to look into your research topic, research questions , aim and objectives – and of course the available time and financial resources.

Discussion pertaining to the two research techniques clearly indicates that primary research should be chosen when a specific topic, a case, organisation, etc. is to be researched about and the researcher has access to some financial resources.

Whereas secondary research should be considered when the research is general in nature and can be answered by analysing past researches and published data.

Not sure which research strategy you should apply, get in touch with us right away . At ResearchProspect, we have Masters and Ph.D. qualified writers in all academic subjects so you can be confident of having your research; completed to the highest academic standard and well-recognised in the academic world.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between primary vs secondary research.

Primary research involves collecting firsthand data from sources like surveys or interviews. Secondary research involves analyzing existing data, such as articles or reports. Primary is original data gathering, while secondary relies on existing information.

A four-step guide to secondary research for dissertations

The first thing you must know about secondary research is that it is the easiest type. It is much simpler hence we have provided you a guide that is only 4 steps long. Secondary research does not involve the painstaking efforts of primary research. There is no finding participants, selecting and readying measures and spending months collecting data. But there are some basic factors that you need to be aware of when doing secondary research. And here, we are going to cover all of them. Step 1: Develop the research question This step is similar to any other type of research method. At an undergraduate level, a research question is most often provided to you by the supervisor. But this differs when doing a thesis at graduate level. Here you need to come up with a research question on your own. The first thing to do is specify the research area in which your dissertation will fall. Any relevant and interesting topic can be targeted for academic exploration. Once your topic has been identified, it is time to read. Go through existing literature about your chosen topic. This will help you discover any gaps that can be filled by your research. Then create a research question based on this study. Step 2: Identifying a secondary data set After your literature review and forming a research question, you can turn to secondary data collection. There is always some previous data that will fit in perfectly with your own perspective. And will help you answer your stated research question more easily and thoroughly. But how do you come across that useful data for your dissertation? This is done be reviewing the literature based on the topic of your research. This process will help you find other agencies, organizations and research centers that have explored the same area. Once you find the data you need, then you must contact the authors and ask for permission to use it. This process can change depending on external and internal research. The fore mentioned possibility works for external data collection. For internal research, there is no need to search other literature for secondary data set. You can reuse the same previous data that was collected within the organization. In both situations, you have to ultimately make sure that the data fits with your research question. Once that is established, you must state the reasons you chose to rely on secondary data. Step 3: Evaluation of secondary data set There are some disadvantages involved in secondary data collection process. They are as follows: 1. Secondary data might not be suitable for the purpose of your research. 2. It may have a different format from what you require. 3. Validity and reliability might be lacking. 4. Secondary data might not be able to respond to your research question. 5. The actual authors might have failed to provide important information in their research. Since these factors can hinder the efficiency of your research, you must evaluate secondary data. Here are some ways to do that. • The aim of the original study You first need to discover what the aim of the secondary data study is? The writer’s goal impact the overall research. It includes sampling, measurement tools and the context of research. At this point you also need to highlight the differences between your research and the study. It is most likely that they have another research question specified. Hence, it is important to know where your ideas diversify from theirs. • Think of who is behind collecting that data The next stage of evaluation is determining who the data has been collected by. Which institutions were the writers affiliated with? Were they professional enough for their research to be authentic? You can find this information by doing some online research. • The measures employed Legitimate researchers will have complete documents of measures, procedures, samples and protocols. You can obtain this information from their final report or contact them to request for it. This information is essential to make sure it is valid and reliable. • The time that data was collected In evaluation you also require knowing when the data collection took place. In case it happened a long time back, it is most probably outdated. Hence making it obsolete and unusable. And ideal time period is it should be collected within the past five years. • The methodology used for the data collection Knowing the dissertation methodology might be the most important aspect of evaluation. This helps you evaluate the way the sample was acquired. If the size of the sample was sufficient. Whether there were any measures or responses that should exist. Any of the drawback that are present in the original methodology help identify any limitation for your research. Step 4: Prepare and analyze The final step is to move on to preparing the secondary data set after the evaluation. In case of quantitative research outline every variable that will be used in your dissertation. Once that is identified, transfer this into a new Excel or SPSS file. Remember to just copy the whole thing. It is crucial to not make any alteration in it. The final step is analyzing the data. Decide on the analysis technique that is most useful for your data set. A statistical analysis is what you need at this final stage. This was our complete guide to secondary research for a successful dissertation. For further dissertation research help contact us for a quality writing service.

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Research Methods

Secondary research.

Primary Research

What is Secondary Research?

Advantages and disadvantages of secondary research, secondary research in literature reviews, secondary research - going beyond literature reviews, main stages of secondary research, useful resources, using material on this page.

Quantitative Research This link opens in a new window
Qualitative Research This link opens in a new window
Being Critical This link opens in a new window
Subject LibGuides This link opens in a new window

Pile of books on a desk with a person behind them

Secondary research

Secondary research uses research and data that has already been carried out. It is sometimes referred to as desk research. It is a good starting point for any type of research as it enables you to analyse what research has already been undertaken and identify any gaps.

You may only need to carry out secondary research for your assessment or you may need to use secondary research as a starting point, before undertaking your own primary research .

Searching for both primary and secondary sources can help to ensure that you are up to date with what research has already been carried out in your area of interest and to identify the key researchers in the field.

"Secondary sources are the books, articles, papers and similar materials written or produced by others that help you to form your background understanding of the subject. You would use these to ﬁnd out about experts’ ﬁndings, analyses or perspectives on the issue and decide whether to draw upon these explicitly in your research." (Cottrell, 2014, p. 123).

Examples of secondary research sources include:.

journal articles
official statistics, such as government reports or organisations which have collected and published data

Primary research involves gathering data which has not been collected before. Methods to collect it can include interviews, focus groups, controlled trials and case studies. Secondary research often comments on and analyses this primary research.

Gopalakrishnan and Ganeshkumar (2013, p. 10) explain the difference between primary and secondary research:

"Primary research is collecting data directly from patients or population, while secondary research is the analysis of data already collected through primary research. A review is an article that summarizes a number of primary studies and may draw conclusions on the topic of interest which can be traditional (unsystematic) or systematic".

Secondary Data

As secondary data has already been collected by someone else for their research purposes, it may not cover all of the areas of interest for your research topic. This research will need to be analysed alongside other research sources and data in the same subject area in order to confirm, dispute or discuss the findings in a wider context.

"Secondary source data, as the name infers, provides second-hand information. The data come ‘pre-packaged’, their form and content reflecting the fact that they have been produced by someone other than the researcher and will not have been produced specifically for the purpose of the research project. The data, none the less, will have some relevance for the research in terms of the information they contain, and the task for the researcher is to extract that information and re-use it in the context of his/her own research project." (Denscombe, 2021, p. 268)

In the video below Dr. Benedict Wheeler (Senior Research Fellow at the European Center for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School) discusses secondary data analysis. Secondary data was used for his research on how the environment affects health and well-being and utilising this secondary data gave access to a larger data set.

As with all research, an important part of the process is to critically evaluate any sources you use. There are tools to help with this in the Being Critical section of the guide.

Louise Corti, from the UK Data Archive, discusses using secondary data in the video below. T he importance of evaluating secondary research is discussed - this is to ensure the data is appropriate for your research and to investigate how the data was collected.

There are advantages and disadvantages to secondary research:

Advantages:

Usually low cost
Easily accessible
Provides background information to clarify / refine research areas
Increases breadth of knowledge
Shows different examples of research methods
Can highlight gaps in the research and potentially outline areas of difficulty
Can incorporate a wide range of data
Allows you to identify opposing views and supporting arguments for your research topic
Highlights the key researchers and work which is being undertaken within the subject area
Helps to put your research topic into perspective

Disadvantages

Can be out of date
Might be unreliable if it is not clear where or how the research has been collected - remember to think critically
May not be applicable to your specific research question as the aims will have had a different focus

Literature reviews

Secondary research for your major project may take the form of a literature review . this is where you will outline the main research which has already been written on your topic. this might include theories and concepts connected with your topic and it should also look to see if there are any gaps in the research., as the criteria and guidance will differ for each school, it is important that you check the guidance which you have been given for your assessment. this may be in blackboard and you can also check with your supervisor..

The videos below include some insights from academics regarding the importance of literature reviews.

Secondary research which goes beyond literature reviews

For some dissertations/major projects there might only be a literature review (discussed above ). For others there could be a literature review followed by primary research and for others the literature review might be followed by further secondary research.

You may be asked to write a literature review which will form a background chapter to give context to your project and provide the necessary history for the research topic. However, you may then also be expected to produce the rest of your project using additional secondary research methods, which will need to produce results and findings which are distinct from the background chapter t o avoid repetition .

Remember, as the criteria and guidance will differ for each School, it is important that you check the guidance which you have been given for your assessment. This may be in Blackboard and you can also check with your supervisor.

Although this type of secondary research will go beyond a literature review, it will still rely on research which has already been undertaken. And, "just as in primary research, secondary research designs can be either quantitative, qualitative, or a mixture of both strategies of inquiry" (Manu and Akotia, 2021, p. 4) .

Your secondary research may use the literature review to focus on a specific theme, which is then discussed further in the main project. Or it may use an alternative approach. Some examples are included below. Remember to speak with your supervisor if you are struggling to define these areas.

Some approaches of how to conduct secondary research include:

A systematic review is a structured literature review that involves identifying all of the relevant primary research using a rigorous search strategy to answer a focused research question.
This involves comprehensive searching which is used to identify themes or concepts across a number of relevant studies.
The review will assess the q uality of the research and provide a summary and synthesis of all relevant available research on the topic.
The systematic review LibGuide goes into more detail about this process (The guide is aimed a PhD/Researcher students. However, students on other levels of study may find parts of the guide helpful too).
Scoping reviews aim to identify and assess available research on a specific topic (which can include ongoing research).
They are "particularly useful when a body of literature has not yet been comprehensively reviewed, or exhibits a complex or heterogeneous nature not amenable to a more precise systematic review of the evidence. While scoping reviews may be conducted to determine the value and probable scope of a full systematic review, they may also be undertaken as exercises in and of themselves to summarize and disseminate research findings, to identify research gaps, and to make recommendations for the future research." (Peters et al., 2015) .
This is designed to summarise the current knowledge and provide priorities for future research.
"A state-of-the-art review will often highlight new ideas or gaps in research with no official quality assessment." (Baguss, 2020) .
"Bibliometric analysis is a popular and rigorous method for exploring and analyzing large volumes of scientific data." (Donthu et al., 2021)
Quantitative methods and statistics are used to analyse the bibliographic data of published literature. This can be used to measure the impact of authors, publications, or topics within a subject area.

The bibliometric analysis often uses the data from a citation source such as Scopus or Web of Science .

This is a technique used to combine the statistic results of prior quantitative studies in order to increase precision and validity.
"It goes beyond the parameters of a literature review, which assesses existing literature, to actually perform calculations based on the results collated, thereby coming up with new results" (Curtis and Curtis, 2011, p. 220)

(Adapted from: Grant and Booth, 2009, cited in Sarhan and Manu, 2021, p. 72 )

Grounded Theory is used to create explanatory theory from data which has been collected.
"Grounded theory data analysis strategies can be used with different types of data, including secondary data." ( Whiteside, Mills and McCalman, 2012 )
This allows you to use a specific theory or theories which can then be applied to your chosen topic/research area.
You could focus on one case study which is analysed in depth, or you could examine more than one in order to compare and contrast the important aspects of your research question.
"Good case studies often begin with a predicament that is poorly comprehended and is inadequately explained or traditionally rationalised by numerous conflicting accounts. Therefore, the aim is to comprehend an existent problem and to use the acquired understandings to develop new theoretical outlooks or explanations." ( Papachroni and Lochrie, 2015, p. 81 )

Main stages of secondary research for a dissertation/major project

In general, the main stages for conducting secondary research for your dissertation or major project will include:

Click on the image below to access the reading list which includes resources used in this guide as well as some additional useful resources.

Link to online reading list of additional resources and further reading

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License .

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Last Updated: Aug 11, 2022 3:41 PM
URL: https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/researchmethods

Dissertations and major projects

Planning your dissertation
Introduction

Doing the research

Methodology, thinking about structure, working with your supervisor.

Managing your data
Writing up your dissertation

Useful links for dissertations and major projects

Study Advice Helping students to achieve study success with guides, video tutorials, seminars and one-to-one advice sessions.
Maths Support A guide to Maths Support resources which may help if you're finding any mathematical or statistical topic difficult during the transition to University study.
Academic writing LibGuide Expert guidance on punctuation, grammar, writing style and proof-reading.
Guide to citing references Includes guidance on why, when and how to use references correctly in your academic writing.
The Final Chapter An excellent guide from the University of Leeds on all aspects of research projects
Royal Literary Fund: Writing a Literature Review A guide to writing literature reviews from the Royal Literary Fund
Academic Phrasebank Use this site for examples of linking phrases and ways to refer to sources.

The research process for a dissertation or project is substantial and takes time. You will need to think about what you have to find out in order to answer your research question, and where and when you can find this information. As you gather your research, keep returning to your research question to check what you are doing is relevant.

This page gives advice on keeping on track during your research by using your plan, your method or research process, your structure, and your supervisor.

The kinds of research you will need to do will depend on your research question. You will usually need to survey existing literature to get an overview of the knowledge that has been gained so far on the topic; this will inform your own research and your interpretations. You may also decide to do:

- primary research (conducting your own experiments, surveys etc to gain new knowledge)

- secondary research (collating knowledge from other people's research to produce a new synthesis).

You may need to do either or both.

Primary research

If you are doing qualitative or quantitative research, or experiments, start on these as soon as you can. Gathering data takes a lot of time. People are often too busy to participate in interviews or fill out questionnaires and you might need to find extra participants to make up your sample. Scientific experiments may take longer than you anticipate especially if they require ethical clearance, special equipment, or learning new methods.

Design and plan your data collection methods – check them with your supervisor and see if they fit with your methodology.
Identify and plan for any ethical issues with collecting your data.
Do a test or pilot questionnaire as soon as possible so you can make changes if necessary.
Identify your sample size and control groups.
Have a contingency plan if not everyone is willing to participate.
Keep good records – number and store any evidence – don't throw anything out until you graduate! See our advice on Managing your data in this guide for more suggestions.

The key to effective secondary research is to keep it under control, and to take an approach which will make your reading and your notes meaningful first time round.

Start small with one main text and build up.
Once you have an overview, formulate some sub-questions which will help answer your main dissertation question.
Look for the answers to these questions.
Do more reading to fill in the gaps.
Keep thinking, and analysing the relevance of the information as you go along.
But be aware of your work schedule – you can't read everything, so be selective.

If you need help, consult your Academic Liaison Librarian - they may know about materials you hadn't thought of.

Literature searching A guide to finding articles, books and other materials on your subject
Doing your literature search - University of Reading Two short videos from the Library on planning and doing a literature search
Doing your literature review (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
Doing your literature review (transcript) Read along while watching the video tutorial.
Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian

Methodology means being aware of the way in which you do something and being able to justify why you did it that way. Each academic discipline has a number of different sets of methods for conducting research.

For example: One method of conducting qualitative research is semi-structured interviews, another method is case studies – each are appropriate for finding different levels and types of information.

The method you choose will be the model for how you go about your research:

Why is the method you chose the most appropriate way of finding an answer to your research question?
Are there any other methods you might have used…why didn't you choose them?
Throughout your dissertation be aware of the decisions you make and note them down explaining why you made them:
Did you change your plans when you encountered a problem?
Did you have to adjust sample size, questions, approach?

This awareness of why you did your research in a certain way and your ability to explain and justify these choices is a vital part of your dissertation.

Do bear in mind that no structure, title or question is set in stone until you submit your completed work. If you find a more interesting or productive way to discuss your topic, don't be afraid to change your structure - providing you have time to do any extra work.

Structuring your dissertation (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
Structuring your dissertation (transcript) Read along while watching the video tutorial.

Have some specific questions to ask your supervisor: These can be general like "How can I narrow down my question?" or more detailed such as "Am I interpreting this result correctly?"
If you are unsure of an idea or approach, don't be afraid to talk it through with your supervisor – that's what they're there for! Just explaining it to someone else can help sort out your own thinking.
It is easier for supervisors to give advice on a specific piece of work, so bring your research proposal, or chapter draft, to the meetings – your supervisor might not have time to read it all, so highlight places you'd like feedback on.

It's worth taking the advice of your supervisor seriously. You may have a strong idea of what you want to do in your dissertation, but your supervisor has academic experience and often knows what will and won't work. If you explain your ideas and are polite and enthusiastic, your supervisor can be a great sounding board and source of expert information.

<< Previous: Planning your dissertation
Next: Managing your data >>
Last Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:46 AM
URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/dissertations

A Four-Step Guide to Conducting Secondary Research For Your Dissertation

Secondary research is a useful strategy to obtain data and support your ideas when conducting research for your dissertation. It will always be challenging to write a large project like a dissertation all by yourself (professional essay service, 2019). In dissertation secondary research, a specific study subject or topic is investigated utilizing published data sources, such as books, journals, and internet databases. Although conducting secondary research may seem simple, it necessitates a systematic approach to guarantee that you locate and utilize the most relevant and trustworthy sources.

Table of Contents

What Secondary Research Is Used For?

One of the main purposes of secondary research is to thoroughly grasp the body of material that already exists on a certain topic. It frequently serves as a framework for the study and helps contextualize a research topic or hypothesis. Researchers can also find gaps in the literature and areas that need more inquiry by using secondary sources.

Another purpose of secondary research is, secondary research can provide useful insights into the research methodology and analytical techniques employed by other researchers, which can inform the design and implementation of the current study.

Types Of Secondary Research

Dissertation secondary research can be split into two major categories: qualitative and quantitative. While quantitative research is used to gather and analyze numerical data, qualitative research examines individuals’ or groups’ subjective experiences and viewpoints. Other sorts of secondary research fall under these broad categories, including:

literature review: A literature review critically evaluates the body of writing already written about a certain subject. It entails locating, analysing, and synthesizing the pertinent literature to present a thorough overview of the subject field.

Meta-analysis: A meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines the findings of several studies to produce a more accurate assessment of the magnitude of an intervention’s or variable’s impact.

Systematic review: Reviewing the literature on a certain topic systematically is a disciplined and organized process in PhD dissertation . It entails formulating an inclusion and exclusion criterion, creating a research topic, then looking up and synthesizing the pertinent literature.

Content analysis: It is a technique for examining written or visual content to spot themes, patterns, and trends.

Historical analysis: Historical analysis is the process of looking at old records or artifacts to understand historical occurrences or social phenomena.

Recognizing these types of overconfidence bias can help individuals become more self-aware and take steps to reduce their impact on decision-making.

Secondary Research Benefits

Compared to primary research methods, there are numerous advantages of secondary research. First off, you can easily find dissertation help in UK . Second, because secondary research includes analyzing existing data rather than gathering new data, it frequently takes less time and costs less money than primary research. Second, by using a variety of sources and disciplines, secondary research can provide a topic with a broader perspective. Thirdly, by conducting secondary research, scholars can steer clear of duplicating prior findings or committing the same errors. Finally, by highlighting areas that need additional research, secondary research can serve as a foundation for subsequent studies.

Difficulties With Secondary Research

Secondary research has several drawbacks despite its benefits. First off, because it depends on the veracity and validity of the material that is already available, secondary research is frequently prone to bias. Second, the calibre and amount of the available types of secondary data may be a constraint for secondary research.

For instance, it could be challenging to reach meaningful conclusions if there is little or obsolete literature on a given subject or not the required Types of secondary data. Finally, because it may require examining a sizable amount of complicated and varied material, secondary research might be difficult to synthesize.

Guide To Conducting A Secondary Research

Here is the secondary research process in 4 steps describes briefly.

Step 2: Select Pertinent Sources

You must choose pertinent dissertation secondary sources after defining your study question. You can conduct secondary research using a range of sources, such as books, journals, online databases, and government papers. Finding answers to open-ended issues as a way of learning and/or developing new knowledge is a part of the research, in addition to simply acquiring information (Goddard, Melville, 2001).

There are many different search techniques you can employ to find relevant dissertation secondary sources. Using keywords related to your research subject to search internet databases and library catalogs is a typical strategy. You can also search for books and articles that are mentioned in the materials you’ve already found.

Step 3: Consider The Sources

After you have found probable sources, you must assess them to see if they are pertinent, trustworthy, and reliable. You can assess sources using a variety of factors, such as the author’s qualifications, the source’s publication date, and its reputation.

It’s crucial to remember that not all sources are created equal while examining them during creating dissertation using only secondary data. Other sources could be out-of-date or irrelevant to your research issue, while some could be prejudiced or unreliable. A source’s context should also be taken into account because it may have an impact on its credibility and applicability.

Step 4: Review And Combine Sources

Analysis and synthesis of the sources you have chosen are the last steps in secondary research. This entails carefully reading each source and making notes on the most important conclusions, points, and supporting details.

You should search for trends and connections among your sources as you study them when you are creating dissertation using only secondary data. Additionally, you should evaluate how the sources you have chosen support or refute your research question and thesis.

You can start combining your sources into a coherent argument after you have evaluated them. This entails determining the key ideas and points that are supported by your sources and utilizing them to strengthen your own argument.

A crucial step in writing a dissertation is conducting secondary research. You can create a compelling argument for your position and prove your subject-matter expertise by using a methodical strategy to locate, assess, and analyze information. You can do efficient secondary research that will aid in the creation of your dissertation by establishing your research question, discovering pertinent sources, assessing these sources, and analyzing and synthesizing your findings.

What Does Dissertation Secondary Research Entail?

How does secondary research for a dissertation get done.

Determine your research. This will assist you in locating the pertinent sources and information you require to respond to your research inquiry.
Select pertinent sources. Academic journals, publications, official reports, statistical databases, and other publicly accessible sources may be among them.
Assess the reliability and applicability of the sources. Look for reliable, current, and pertinent sources that address your research question.
Examine and assess the information. Consider how important themes and trends are related to your research question after identifying them.
Summarize the results. Think about how the results relate to the body of prior research on the subject.
Clearly cite all of your sources. Ensure that you offer comprehensive and correct information for each source, and adhere to the citation style that is advised by your school.

Which Four Kinds Of Secondary Research Are There?

Literature Review: In this sort of study, the current academic literature on a particular subject is reviewed
Data Analysis: To address a research topic, data analysis entails examining already-existing quantitative data, such as statistical data, survey results, or market research data.
Historical Research: To comprehend the historical background of a research subject, historical research entails examining current documents, archives, and other primary materials.
Case Study Research: To shed light on a research subject, case study research involves examining past case studies and frequently in-depth investigations of a certain company or circumstance.

Which Of The Secondary Research Examples Is The Best?

Disclaimer: Kindly note that the work we provide is not the final version, it is research based work which you have to incorporate and edit according to your university requirements.

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Home » Dissertation – Format, Example and Template

Dissertation – Format, Example and Template

Table of Contents

Dissertation

Definition:

Dissertation is a lengthy and detailed academic document that presents the results of original research on a specific topic or question. It is usually required as a final project for a doctoral degree or a master’s degree.

Dissertation Meaning in Research

In Research , a dissertation refers to a substantial research project that students undertake in order to obtain an advanced degree such as a Ph.D. or a Master’s degree.

Dissertation typically involves the exploration of a particular research question or topic in-depth, and it requires students to conduct original research, analyze data, and present their findings in a scholarly manner. It is often the culmination of years of study and represents a significant contribution to the academic field.

Types of Dissertation

Types of Dissertation are as follows:

Empirical Dissertation

An empirical dissertation is a research study that uses primary data collected through surveys, experiments, or observations. It typically follows a quantitative research approach and uses statistical methods to analyze the data.

Non-Empirical Dissertation

A non-empirical dissertation is based on secondary sources, such as books, articles, and online resources. It typically follows a qualitative research approach and uses methods such as content analysis or discourse analysis.

Narrative Dissertation

A narrative dissertation is a personal account of the researcher’s experience or journey. It typically follows a qualitative research approach and uses methods such as interviews, focus groups, or ethnography.

Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review is a comprehensive analysis of existing research on a specific topic. It typically follows a qualitative research approach and uses methods such as meta-analysis or thematic analysis.

Case Study Dissertation

A case study dissertation is an in-depth analysis of a specific individual, group, or organization. It typically follows a qualitative research approach and uses methods such as interviews, observations, or document analysis.

Mixed-Methods Dissertation

A mixed-methods dissertation combines both quantitative and qualitative research approaches to gather and analyze data. It typically uses methods such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups, as well as statistical analysis.

How to Write a Dissertation

Here are some general steps to help guide you through the process of writing a dissertation:

Choose a topic : Select a topic that you are passionate about and that is relevant to your field of study. It should be specific enough to allow for in-depth research but broad enough to be interesting and engaging.
Conduct research : Conduct thorough research on your chosen topic, utilizing a variety of sources, including books, academic journals, and online databases. Take detailed notes and organize your information in a way that makes sense to you.
Create an outline : Develop an outline that will serve as a roadmap for your dissertation. The outline should include the introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
Write the introduction: The introduction should provide a brief overview of your topic, the research questions, and the significance of the study. It should also include a clear thesis statement that states your main argument.
Write the literature review: The literature review should provide a comprehensive analysis of existing research on your topic. It should identify gaps in the research and explain how your study will fill those gaps.
Write the methodology: The methodology section should explain the research methods you used to collect and analyze data. It should also include a discussion of any limitations or weaknesses in your approach.
Write the results: The results section should present the findings of your research in a clear and organized manner. Use charts, graphs, and tables to help illustrate your data.
Write the discussion: The discussion section should interpret your results and explain their significance. It should also address any limitations of the study and suggest areas for future research.
Write the conclusion: The conclusion should summarize your main findings and restate your thesis statement. It should also provide recommendations for future research.
Edit and revise: Once you have completed a draft of your dissertation, review it carefully to ensure that it is well-organized, clear, and free of errors. Make any necessary revisions and edits before submitting it to your advisor for review.

Dissertation Format

The format of a dissertation may vary depending on the institution and field of study, but generally, it follows a similar structure:

Title Page: This includes the title of the dissertation, the author’s name, and the date of submission.
Abstract : A brief summary of the dissertation’s purpose, methods, and findings.
Table of Contents: A list of the main sections and subsections of the dissertation, along with their page numbers.
Introduction : A statement of the problem or research question, a brief overview of the literature, and an explanation of the significance of the study.
Literature Review : A comprehensive review of the literature relevant to the research question or problem.
Methodology : A description of the methods used to conduct the research, including data collection and analysis procedures.
Results : A presentation of the findings of the research, including tables, charts, and graphs.
Discussion : A discussion of the implications of the findings, their significance in the context of the literature, and limitations of the study.
Conclusion : A summary of the main points of the study and their implications for future research.
References : A list of all sources cited in the dissertation.
Appendices : Additional materials that support the research, such as data tables, charts, or transcripts.

Dissertation Outline

Dissertation Outline is as follows:

Title Page:

Title of dissertation
Author name
Institutional affiliation
Date of submission
Brief summary of the dissertation’s research problem, objectives, methods, findings, and implications
Usually around 250-300 words

Table of Contents:

List of chapters and sections in the dissertation, with page numbers for each

I. Introduction

Background and context of the research
Research problem and objectives
Significance of the research

II. Literature Review

Overview of existing literature on the research topic
Identification of gaps in the literature
Theoretical framework and concepts

III. Methodology

Research design and methods used
Data collection and analysis techniques
Ethical considerations

IV. Results

Presentation and analysis of data collected
Findings and outcomes of the research
Interpretation of the results

V. Discussion

Discussion of the results in relation to the research problem and objectives
Evaluation of the research outcomes and implications
Suggestions for future research

VI. Conclusion

Summary of the research findings and outcomes
Implications for the research topic and field
Limitations and recommendations for future research

VII. References

List of sources cited in the dissertation

VIII. Appendices

Additional materials that support the research, such as tables, figures, or questionnaires.

Example of Dissertation

Here is an example Dissertation for students:

Title : Exploring the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Academic Achievement and Well-being among College Students

This dissertation aims to investigate the impact of mindfulness meditation on the academic achievement and well-being of college students. Mindfulness meditation has gained popularity as a technique for reducing stress and enhancing mental health, but its effects on academic performance have not been extensively studied. Using a randomized controlled trial design, the study will compare the academic performance and well-being of college students who practice mindfulness meditation with those who do not. The study will also examine the moderating role of personality traits and demographic factors on the effects of mindfulness meditation.

Chapter Outline:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background and rationale for the study
Research questions and objectives
Significance of the study
Overview of the dissertation structure

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Definition and conceptualization of mindfulness meditation
Theoretical framework of mindfulness meditation
Empirical research on mindfulness meditation and academic achievement
Empirical research on mindfulness meditation and well-being
The role of personality and demographic factors in the effects of mindfulness meditation

Chapter 3: Methodology

Research design and hypothesis
Participants and sampling method
Intervention and procedure
Measures and instruments
Data analysis method

Chapter 4: Results

Descriptive statistics and data screening
Analysis of main effects
Analysis of moderating effects
Post-hoc analyses and sensitivity tests

Chapter 5: Discussion

Summary of findings
Implications for theory and practice
Limitations and directions for future research
Conclusion and contribution to the literature

Chapter 6: Conclusion

Recap of the research questions and objectives
Summary of the key findings
Contribution to the literature and practice
Implications for policy and practice
Final thoughts and recommendations.

References :

List of all the sources cited in the dissertation

Appendices :

Additional materials such as the survey questionnaire, interview guide, and consent forms.

Note : This is just an example and the structure of a dissertation may vary depending on the specific requirements and guidelines provided by the institution or the supervisor.

How Long is a Dissertation

The length of a dissertation can vary depending on the field of study, the level of degree being pursued, and the specific requirements of the institution. Generally, a dissertation for a doctoral degree can range from 80,000 to 100,000 words, while a dissertation for a master’s degree may be shorter, typically ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 words. However, it is important to note that these are general guidelines and the actual length of a dissertation can vary widely depending on the specific requirements of the program and the research topic being studied. It is always best to consult with your academic advisor or the guidelines provided by your institution for more specific information on dissertation length.

Applications of Dissertation

Here are some applications of a dissertation:

Advancing the Field: Dissertations often include new research or a new perspective on existing research, which can help to advance the field. The results of a dissertation can be used by other researchers to build upon or challenge existing knowledge, leading to further advancements in the field.
Career Advancement: Completing a dissertation demonstrates a high level of expertise in a particular field, which can lead to career advancement opportunities. For example, having a PhD can open doors to higher-paying jobs in academia, research institutions, or the private sector.
Publishing Opportunities: Dissertations can be published as books or journal articles, which can help to increase the visibility and credibility of the author’s research.
Personal Growth: The process of writing a dissertation involves a significant amount of research, analysis, and critical thinking. This can help students to develop important skills, such as time management, problem-solving, and communication, which can be valuable in both their personal and professional lives.
Policy Implications: The findings of a dissertation can have policy implications, particularly in fields such as public health, education, and social sciences. Policymakers can use the research to inform decision-making and improve outcomes for the population.

When to Write a Dissertation

Here are some situations where writing a dissertation may be necessary:

Pursuing a Doctoral Degree: Writing a dissertation is usually a requirement for earning a doctoral degree, so if you are interested in pursuing a doctorate, you will likely need to write a dissertation.
Conducting Original Research : Dissertations require students to conduct original research on a specific topic. If you are interested in conducting original research on a topic, writing a dissertation may be the best way to do so.
Advancing Your Career: Some professions, such as academia and research, may require individuals to have a doctoral degree. Writing a dissertation can help you advance your career by demonstrating your expertise in a particular area.
Contributing to Knowledge: Dissertations are often based on original research that can contribute to the knowledge base of a field. If you are passionate about advancing knowledge in a particular area, writing a dissertation can help you achieve that goal.
Meeting Academic Requirements : If you are a graduate student, writing a dissertation may be a requirement for completing your program. Be sure to check with your academic advisor to determine if this is the case for you.

Purpose of Dissertation

some common purposes of a dissertation include:

To contribute to the knowledge in a particular field : A dissertation is often the culmination of years of research and study, and it should make a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge in a particular field.
To demonstrate mastery of a subject: A dissertation requires extensive research, analysis, and writing, and completing one demonstrates a student’s mastery of their subject area.
To develop critical thinking and research skills : A dissertation requires students to think critically about their research question, analyze data, and draw conclusions based on evidence. These skills are valuable not only in academia but also in many professional fields.
To demonstrate academic integrity: A dissertation must be conducted and written in accordance with rigorous academic standards, including ethical considerations such as obtaining informed consent, protecting the privacy of participants, and avoiding plagiarism.
To prepare for an academic career: Completing a dissertation is often a requirement for obtaining a PhD and pursuing a career in academia. It can demonstrate to potential employers that the student has the necessary skills and experience to conduct original research and make meaningful contributions to their field.
To develop writing and communication skills: A dissertation requires a significant amount of writing and communication skills to convey complex ideas and research findings in a clear and concise manner. This skill set can be valuable in various professional fields.
To demonstrate independence and initiative: A dissertation requires students to work independently and take initiative in developing their research question, designing their study, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. This demonstrates to potential employers or academic institutions that the student is capable of independent research and taking initiative in their work.
To contribute to policy or practice: Some dissertations may have a practical application, such as informing policy decisions or improving practices in a particular field. These dissertations can have a significant impact on society, and their findings may be used to improve the lives of individuals or communities.
To pursue personal interests: Some students may choose to pursue a dissertation topic that aligns with their personal interests or passions, providing them with the opportunity to delve deeper into a topic that they find personally meaningful.

Advantage of Dissertation

Some advantages of writing a dissertation include:

Developing research and analytical skills: The process of writing a dissertation involves conducting extensive research, analyzing data, and presenting findings in a clear and coherent manner. This process can help students develop important research and analytical skills that can be useful in their future careers.
Demonstrating expertise in a subject: Writing a dissertation allows students to demonstrate their expertise in a particular subject area. It can help establish their credibility as a knowledgeable and competent professional in their field.
Contributing to the academic community: A well-written dissertation can contribute new knowledge to the academic community and potentially inform future research in the field.
Improving writing and communication skills : Writing a dissertation requires students to write and present their research in a clear and concise manner. This can help improve their writing and communication skills, which are essential for success in many professions.
Increasing job opportunities: Completing a dissertation can increase job opportunities in certain fields, particularly in academia and research-based positions.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Secondary Research

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Secondary research: definition, methods, & examples.

19 min read This ultimate guide to secondary research helps you understand changes in market trends, customers buying patterns and your competition using existing data sources.

In situations where you’re not involved in the data gathering process ( primary research ), you have to rely on existing information and data to arrive at specific research conclusions or outcomes. This approach is known as secondary research.

In this article, we’re going to explain what secondary research is, how it works, and share some examples of it in practice.

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What is secondary research?

Secondary research, also known as desk research, is a research method that involves compiling existing data sourced from a variety of channels . This includes internal sources (e.g.in-house research) or, more commonly, external sources (such as government statistics, organizational bodies, and the internet).

Secondary research comes in several formats, such as published datasets, reports, and survey responses , and can also be sourced from websites, libraries, and museums.

The information is usually free — or available at a limited access cost — and gathered using surveys , telephone interviews, observation, face-to-face interviews, and more.

When using secondary research, researchers collect, verify, analyze and incorporate it to help them confirm research goals for the research period.

As well as the above, it can be used to review previous research into an area of interest. Researchers can look for patterns across data spanning several years and identify trends — or use it to verify early hypothesis statements and establish whether it’s worth continuing research into a prospective area.

How to conduct secondary research

There are five key steps to conducting secondary research effectively and efficiently:

1. Identify and define the research topic

First, understand what you will be researching and define the topic by thinking about the research questions you want to be answered.

Ask yourself: What is the point of conducting this research? Then, ask: What do we want to achieve?

This may indicate an exploratory reason (why something happened) or confirm a hypothesis. The answers may indicate ideas that need primary or secondary research (or a combination) to investigate them.

2. Find research and existing data sources

If secondary research is needed, think about where you might find the information. This helps you narrow down your secondary sources to those that help you answer your questions. What keywords do you need to use?

Which organizations are closely working on this topic already? Are there any competitors that you need to be aware of?

Create a list of the data sources, information, and people that could help you with your work.

3. Begin searching and collecting the existing data

Now that you have the list of data sources, start accessing the data and collect the information into an organized system. This may mean you start setting up research journal accounts or making telephone calls to book meetings with third-party research teams to verify the details around data results.

As you search and access information, remember to check the data’s date, the credibility of the source, the relevance of the material to your research topic, and the methodology used by the third-party researchers. Start small and as you gain results, investigate further in the areas that help your research’s aims.

4. Combine the data and compare the results

When you have your data in one place, you need to understand, filter, order, and combine it intelligently. Data may come in different formats where some data could be unusable, while other information may need to be deleted.

After this, you can start to look at different data sets to see what they tell you. You may find that you need to compare the same datasets over different periods for changes over time or compare different datasets to notice overlaps or trends. Ask yourself: What does this data mean to my research? Does it help or hinder my research?

5. Analyze your data and explore further

In this last stage of the process, look at the information you have and ask yourself if this answers your original questions for your research. Are there any gaps? Do you understand the information you’ve found? If you feel there is more to cover, repeat the steps and delve deeper into the topic so that you can get all the information you need.

If secondary research can’t provide these answers, consider supplementing your results with data gained from primary research. As you explore further, add to your knowledge and update your findings. This will help you present clear, credible information.

Primary vs secondary research

Unlike secondary research, primary research involves creating data first-hand by directly working with interviewees, target users, or a target market. Primary research focuses on the method for carrying out research, asking questions, and collecting data using approaches such as:

Interviews (panel, face-to-face or over the phone)
Questionnaires or surveys
Focus groups

Using these methods, researchers can get in-depth, targeted responses to questions, making results more accurate and specific to their research goals. However, it does take time to do and administer.

Unlike primary research, secondary research uses existing data, which also includes published results from primary research. Researchers summarize the existing research and use the results to support their research goals.

Both primary and secondary research have their places. Primary research can support the findings found through secondary research (and fill knowledge gaps), while secondary research can be a starting point for further primary research. Because of this, these research methods are often combined for optimal research results that are accurate at both the micro and macro level.

Sources of Secondary Research

There are two types of secondary research sources: internal and external. Internal data refers to in-house data that can be gathered from the researcher’s organization. External data refers to data published outside of and not owned by the researcher’s organization.

Internal data

Internal data is a good first port of call for insights and knowledge, as you may already have relevant information stored in your systems. Because you own this information — and it won’t be available to other researchers — it can give you a competitive edge . Examples of internal data include:

Database information on sales history and business goal conversions
Information from website applications and mobile site data
Customer-generated data on product and service efficiency and use
Previous research results or supplemental research areas
Previous campaign results

External data

External data is useful when you: 1) need information on a new topic, 2) want to fill in gaps in your knowledge, or 3) want data that breaks down a population or market for trend and pattern analysis. Examples of external data include:

Government, non-government agencies, and trade body statistics
Company reports and research
Competitor research
Public library collections
Textbooks and research journals
Media stories in newspapers
Online journals and research sites

Three examples of secondary research methods in action

How and why might you conduct secondary research? Let’s look at a few examples:

1. Collecting factual information from the internet on a specific topic or market

There are plenty of sites that hold data for people to view and use in their research. For example, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or Wiley Online Library all provide previous research on a particular topic. Researchers can create free accounts and use the search facilities to look into a topic by keyword, before following the instructions to download or export results for further analysis.

This can be useful for exploring a new market that your organization wants to consider entering. For instance, by viewing the U.S Census Bureau demographic data for that area, you can see what the demographics of your target audience are , and create compelling marketing campaigns accordingly.

2. Finding out the views of your target audience on a particular topic

If you’re interested in seeing the historical views on a particular topic, for example, attitudes to women’s rights in the US, you can turn to secondary sources.

Textbooks, news articles, reviews, and journal entries can all provide qualitative reports and interviews covering how people discussed women’s rights. There may be multimedia elements like video or documented posters of propaganda showing biased language usage.

By gathering this information, synthesizing it, and evaluating the language, who created it and when it was shared, you can create a timeline of how a topic was discussed over time.

3. When you want to know the latest thinking on a topic

Educational institutions, such as schools and colleges, create a lot of research-based reports on younger audiences or their academic specialisms. Dissertations from students also can be submitted to research journals, making these places useful places to see the latest insights from a new generation of academics.

Information can be requested — and sometimes academic institutions may want to collaborate and conduct research on your behalf. This can provide key primary data in areas that you want to research, as well as secondary data sources for your research.

Advantages of secondary research

There are several benefits of using secondary research, which we’ve outlined below:

Easily and readily available data – There is an abundance of readily accessible data sources that have been pre-collected for use, in person at local libraries and online using the internet. This data is usually sorted by filters or can be exported into spreadsheet format, meaning that little technical expertise is needed to access and use the data.
Faster research speeds – Since the data is already published and in the public arena, you don’t need to collect this information through primary research. This can make the research easier to do and faster, as you can get started with the data quickly.
Low financial and time costs – Most secondary data sources can be accessed for free or at a small cost to the researcher, so the overall research costs are kept low. In addition, by saving on preliminary research, the time costs for the researcher are kept down as well.
Secondary data can drive additional research actions – The insights gained can support future research activities (like conducting a follow-up survey or specifying future detailed research topics) or help add value to these activities.
Secondary data can be useful pre-research insights – Secondary source data can provide pre-research insights and information on effects that can help resolve whether research should be conducted. It can also help highlight knowledge gaps, so subsequent research can consider this.
Ability to scale up results – Secondary sources can include large datasets (like Census data results across several states) so research results can be scaled up quickly using large secondary data sources.

Disadvantages of secondary research

The disadvantages of secondary research are worth considering in advance of conducting research :

Secondary research data can be out of date – Secondary sources can be updated regularly, but if you’re exploring the data between two updates, the data can be out of date. Researchers will need to consider whether the data available provides the right research coverage dates, so that insights are accurate and timely, or if the data needs to be updated. Also, fast-moving markets may find secondary data expires very quickly.
Secondary research needs to be verified and interpreted – Where there’s a lot of data from one source, a researcher needs to review and analyze it. The data may need to be verified against other data sets or your hypotheses for accuracy and to ensure you’re using the right data for your research.
The researcher has had no control over the secondary research – As the researcher has not been involved in the secondary research, invalid data can affect the results. It’s therefore vital that the methodology and controls are closely reviewed so that the data is collected in a systematic and error-free way.
Secondary research data is not exclusive – As data sets are commonly available, there is no exclusivity and many researchers can use the same data. This can be problematic where researchers want to have exclusive rights over the research results and risk duplication of research in the future.

When do we conduct secondary research?

Now that you know the basics of secondary research, when do researchers normally conduct secondary research?

It’s often used at the beginning of research, when the researcher is trying to understand the current landscape . In addition, if the research area is new to the researcher, it can form crucial background context to help them understand what information exists already. This can plug knowledge gaps, supplement the researcher’s own learning or add to the research.

Secondary research can also be used in conjunction with primary research. Secondary research can become the formative research that helps pinpoint where further primary research is needed to find out specific information. It can also support or verify the findings from primary research.

You can use secondary research where high levels of control aren’t needed by the researcher, but a lot of knowledge on a topic is required from different angles.

Secondary research should not be used in place of primary research as both are very different and are used for various circumstances.

Questions to ask before conducting secondary research

Before you start your secondary research, ask yourself these questions:

Is there similar internal data that we have created for a similar area in the past?

If your organization has past research, it’s best to review this work before starting a new project. The older work may provide you with the answers, and give you a starting dataset and context of how your organization approached the research before. However, be mindful that the work is probably out of date and view it with that note in mind. Read through and look for where this helps your research goals or where more work is needed.

What am I trying to achieve with this research?

When you have clear goals, and understand what you need to achieve, you can look for the perfect type of secondary or primary research to support the aims. Different secondary research data will provide you with different information – for example, looking at news stories to tell you a breakdown of your market’s buying patterns won’t be as useful as internal or external data e-commerce and sales data sources.

How credible will my research be?

If you are looking for credibility, you want to consider how accurate the research results will need to be, and if you can sacrifice credibility for speed by using secondary sources to get you started. Bear in mind which sources you choose — low-credibility data sites, like political party websites that are highly biased to favor their own party, would skew your results.

What is the date of the secondary research?

When you’re looking to conduct research, you want the results to be as useful as possible , so using data that is 10 years old won’t be as accurate as using data that was created a year ago. Since a lot can change in a few years, note the date of your research and look for earlier data sets that can tell you a more recent picture of results. One caveat to this is using data collected over a long-term period for comparisons with earlier periods, which can tell you about the rate and direction of change.

Can the data sources be verified? Does the information you have check out?

If you can’t verify the data by looking at the research methodology, speaking to the original team or cross-checking the facts with other research, it could be hard to be sure that the data is accurate. Think about whether you can use another source, or if it’s worth doing some supplementary primary research to replicate and verify results to help with this issue.

We created a front-to-back guide on conducting market research, The ultimate guide to conducting market research , so you can understand the research journey with confidence.

In it, you’ll learn more about:

What effective market research looks like
The use cases for market research
The most important steps to conducting market research
And how to take action on your research findings

Download the free guide for a clearer view on secondary research and other key research types for your business.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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Library Guides

Dissertations 4: methodology: methods.

Introduction & Philosophy
Methodology

Primary & Secondary Sources, Primary & Secondary Data

When describing your research methods, you can start by stating what kind of secondary and, if applicable, primary sources you used in your research. Explain why you chose such sources, how well they served your research, and identify possible issues encountered using these sources.

Definitions

There is some confusion on the use of the terms primary and secondary sources, and primary and secondary data. The confusion is also due to disciplinary differences (Lombard 2010). Whilst you are advised to consult the research methods literature in your field, we can generalise as follows:

Secondary sources

Secondary sources normally include the literature (books and articles) with the experts' findings, analysis and discussions on a certain topic (Cottrell, 2014, p123). Secondary sources often interpret primary sources.

Primary sources

Primary sources are "first-hand" information such as raw data, statistics, interviews, surveys, law statutes and law cases. Even literary texts, pictures and films can be primary sources if they are the object of research (rather than, for example, documentaries reporting on something else, in which case they would be secondary sources). The distinction between primary and secondary sources sometimes lies on the use you make of them (Cottrell, 2014, p123).

Primary data

Primary data are data (primary sources) you directly obtained through your empirical work (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2015, p316).

Secondary data

Secondary data are data (primary sources) that were originally collected by someone else (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2015, p316).

Comparison between primary and secondary data

Use

Virtually all research will use secondary sources, at least as background information.

Often, especially at the postgraduate level, it will also use primary sources - secondary and/or primary data. The engagement with primary sources is generally appreciated, as less reliant on others' interpretations, and closer to 'facts'.

The use of primary data, as opposed to secondary data, demonstrates the researcher's effort to do empirical work and find evidence to answer her specific research question and fulfill her specific research objectives. Thus, primary data contribute to the originality of the research.

Ultimately, you should state in this section of the methodology:

What sources and data you are using and why (how are they going to help you answer the research question and/or test the hypothesis.

If using primary data, why you employed certain strategies to collect them.

What the advantages and disadvantages of your strategies to collect the data (also refer to the research in you field and research methods literature).

Quantitative, Qualitative & Mixed Methods

The methodology chapter should reference your use of quantitative research, qualitative research and/or mixed methods. The following is a description of each along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research uses numerical data (quantities) deriving, for example, from experiments, closed questions in surveys, questionnaires, structured interviews or published data sets (Cottrell, 2014, p93). It normally processes and analyses this data using quantitative analysis techniques like tables, graphs and statistics to explore, present and examine relationships and trends within the data (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2015, p496).

Qualitative research 

Qualitative research is generally undertaken to study human behaviour and psyche. It uses methods like in-depth case studies, open-ended survey questions, unstructured interviews, focus groups, or unstructured observations (Cottrell, 2014, p93). The nature of the data is subjective, and also the analysis of the researcher involves a degree of subjective interpretation. Subjectivity can be controlled for in the research design, or has to be acknowledged as a feature of the research. Subject-specific books on (qualitative) research methods offer guidance on such research designs. 

Mixed methods

Mixed-method approaches combine both qualitative and quantitative methods, and therefore combine the strengths of both types of research. Mixed methods have gained popularity in recent years. 

When undertaking mixed-methods research you can collect the qualitative and quantitative data either concurrently or sequentially. If sequentially, you can for example, start with a few semi-structured interviews, providing qualitative insights, and then design a questionnaire to obtain quantitative evidence that your qualitative findings can also apply to a wider population (Specht, 2019, p138).

Ultimately, your methodology chapter should state:

Whether you used quantitative research, qualitative research or mixed methods.

Why you chose such methods (and refer to research method sources).

Why you rejected other methods.

How well the method served your research.

The problems or limitations you encountered.

Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer at the Westminster School of Media and Communication, explains mixed methods research in the following video:

LinkedIn Learning Video on Academic Research Foundations: Quantitative

The video covers the characteristics of quantitative research, and explains how to approach different parts of the research process, such as creating a solid research question and developing a literature review. He goes over the elements of a study, explains how to collect and analyze data, and shows how to present your data in written and numeric form.

Link to quantitative research video

Some Types of Methods

There are several methods you can use to get primary data. To reiterate, the choice of the methods should depend on your research question/hypothesis.

Whatever methods you will use, you will need to consider:

why did you choose one technique over another? What were the advantages and disadvantages of the technique you chose?

what was the size of your sample? Who made up your sample? How did you select your sample population? Why did you choose that particular sampling strategy?)

ethical considerations (see also tab...)

safety considerations

validity

feasibility

recording

procedure of the research (see box procedural method...).

Check Stella Cottrell's book Dissertations and Project Reports: A Step by Step Guide for some succinct yet comprehensive information on most methods (the following account draws mostly on her work). Check a research methods book in your discipline for more specific guidance.

Experiments

Experiments are useful to investigate cause and effect, when the variables can be tightly controlled. They can test a theory or hypothesis in controlled conditions. Experiments do not prove or disprove an hypothesis, instead they support or not support an hypothesis. When using the empirical and inductive method it is not possible to achieve conclusive results. The results may only be valid until falsified by other experiments and observations.

For more information on Scientific Method, click here .

Observations

Observational methods are useful for in-depth analyses of behaviours in people, animals, organisations, events or phenomena. They can test a theory or products in real life or simulated settings. They generally a qualitative research method.

Questionnaires and surveys

Questionnaires and surveys are useful to gain opinions, attitudes, preferences, understandings on certain matters. They can provide quantitative data that can be collated systematically; qualitative data, if they include opportunities for open-ended responses; or both qualitative and quantitative elements.

Interviews

Interviews are useful to gain rich, qualitative information about individuals' experiences, attitudes or perspectives. With interviews you can follow up immediately on responses for clarification or further details. There are three main types of interviews: structured (following a strict pattern of questions, which expect short answers), semi-structured (following a list of questions, with the opportunity to follow up the answers with improvised questions), and unstructured (following a short list of broad questions, where the respondent can lead more the conversation) (Specht, 2019, p142).

This short video on qualitative interviews discusses best practices and covers qualitative interview design, preparation and data collection methods.

Focus groups

In this case, a group of people (normally, 4-12) is gathered for an interview where the interviewer asks questions to such group of participants. Group interactions and discussions can be highly productive, but the researcher has to beware of the group effect, whereby certain participants and views dominate the interview (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2015, p419). The researcher can try to minimise this by encouraging involvement of all participants and promoting a multiplicity of views.

This video focuses on strategies for conducting research using focus groups.

Check out the guidance on online focus groups by Aliaksandr Herasimenka, which is attached at the bottom of this text box.

Case study

Case studies are often a convenient way to narrow the focus of your research by studying how a theory or literature fares with regard to a specific person, group, organisation, event or other type of entity or phenomenon you identify. Case studies can be researched using other methods, including those described in this section. Case studies give in-depth insights on the particular reality that has been examined, but may not be representative of what happens in general, they may not be generalisable, and may not be relevant to other contexts. These limitations have to be acknowledged by the researcher.

Content analysis

Content analysis consists in the study of words or images within a text. In its broad definition, texts include books, articles, essays, historical documents, speeches, conversations, advertising, interviews, social media posts, films, theatre, paintings or other visuals. Content analysis can be quantitative (e.g. word frequency) or qualitative (e.g. analysing intention and implications of the communication). It can detect propaganda, identify intentions of writers, and can see differences in types of communication (Specht, 2019, p146). Check this page on collecting, cleaning and visualising Twitter data.

Extra links and resources:

Research Methods

A clear and comprehensive overview of research methods by Emerald Publishing. It includes: crowdsourcing as a research tool; mixed methods research; case study; discourse analysis; ground theory; repertory grid; ethnographic method and participant observation; interviews; focus group; action research; analysis of qualitative data; survey design; questionnaires; statistics; experiments; empirical research; literature review; secondary data and archival materials; data collection.

Doing your dissertation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Resources providing guidance on doing dissertation research during the pandemic: Online research methods; Secondary data sources; Webinars, conferences and podcasts;

Virtual Focus Groups Guidance on managing virtual focus groups

5 Minute Methods Videos

The following are a series of useful videos that introduce research methods in five minutes. These resources have been produced by lecturers and students with the University of Westminster's School of Media and Communication.

Case Study Research

Research Ethics

Quantitative Content Analysis

Sequential Analysis

Qualitative Content Analysis

Thematic Analysis

Social Media Research

Mixed Method Research

Procedural Method

In this part, provide an accurate, detailed account of the methods and procedures that were used in the study or the experiment (if applicable!).

Include specifics about participants, sample, materials, design and methods.

If the research involves human subjects, then include a detailed description of who and how many participated along with how the participants were selected.

Describe all materials used for the study, including equipment, written materials and testing instruments.

Identify the study's design and any variables or controls employed.

Write out the steps in the order that they were completed.

Indicate what participants were asked to do, how measurements were taken and any calculations made to raw data collected.

Specify statistical techniques applied to the data to reach your conclusions.

Provide evidence that you incorporated rigor into your research. This is the quality of being thorough and accurate and considers the logic behind your research design.

Highlight any drawbacks that may have limited your ability to conduct your research thoroughly.

You have to provide details to allow others to replicate the experiment and/or verify the data, to test the validity of the research.

Bibliography

Cottrell, S. (2014). Dissertations and project reports: a step by step guide. Hampshire, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lombard, E. (2010). Primary and secondary sources. The Journal of Academic Librarianship , 36(3), 250-253

Saunders, M.N.K., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2015). Research Methods for Business Students. New York: Pearson Education.

Specht, D. (2019). The Media And Communications Study Skills Student Guide . London: University of Westminster Press.

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Knowledge Base
Starting the research process

A Beginner's Guide to Starting the Research Process

When you have to write a thesis or dissertation , it can be hard to know where to begin, but there are some clear steps you can follow.

The research process often begins with a very broad idea for a topic you’d like to know more about. You do some preliminary research to identify a problem . After refining your research questions , you can lay out the foundations of your research design , leading to a proposal that outlines your ideas and plans.

This article takes you through the first steps of the research process, helping you narrow down your ideas and build up a strong foundation for your research project.

Step 1: choose your topic, step 2: identify a problem, step 3: formulate research questions, step 4: create a research design, step 5: write a research proposal, other interesting articles.

First you have to come up with some ideas. Your thesis or dissertation topic can start out very broad. Think about the general area or field you’re interested in—maybe you already have specific research interests based on classes you’ve taken, or maybe you had to consider your topic when applying to graduate school and writing a statement of purpose .

Even if you already have a good sense of your topic, you’ll need to read widely to build background knowledge and begin narrowing down your ideas. Conduct an initial literature review to begin gathering relevant sources. As you read, take notes and try to identify problems, questions, debates, contradictions and gaps. Your aim is to narrow down from a broad area of interest to a specific niche.

Make sure to consider the practicalities: the requirements of your programme, the amount of time you have to complete the research, and how difficult it will be to access sources and data on the topic. Before moving onto the next stage, it’s a good idea to discuss the topic with your thesis supervisor.

>>Read more about narrowing down a research topic

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

So you’ve settled on a topic and found a niche—but what exactly will your research investigate, and why does it matter? To give your project focus and purpose, you have to define a research problem .

The problem might be a practical issue—for example, a process or practice that isn’t working well, an area of concern in an organization’s performance, or a difficulty faced by a specific group of people in society.

Alternatively, you might choose to investigate a theoretical problem—for example, an underexplored phenomenon or relationship, a contradiction between different models or theories, or an unresolved debate among scholars.

To put the problem in context and set your objectives, you can write a problem statement . This describes who the problem affects, why research is needed, and how your research project will contribute to solving it.

>>Read more about defining a research problem

Next, based on the problem statement, you need to write one or more research questions . These target exactly what you want to find out. They might focus on describing, comparing, evaluating, or explaining the research problem.

A strong research question should be specific enough that you can answer it thoroughly using appropriate qualitative or quantitative research methods. It should also be complex enough to require in-depth investigation, analysis, and argument. Questions that can be answered with “yes/no” or with easily available facts are not complex enough for a thesis or dissertation.

In some types of research, at this stage you might also have to develop a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses .

>>See research question examples

The research design is a practical framework for answering your research questions. It involves making decisions about the type of data you need, the methods you’ll use to collect and analyze it, and the location and timescale of your research.

There are often many possible paths you can take to answering your questions. The decisions you make will partly be based on your priorities. For example, do you want to determine causes and effects, draw generalizable conclusions, or understand the details of a specific context?

You need to decide whether you will use primary or secondary data and qualitative or quantitative methods . You also need to determine the specific tools, procedures, and materials you’ll use to collect and analyze your data, as well as your criteria for selecting participants or sources.

>>Read more about creating a research design

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Finally, after completing these steps, you are ready to complete a research proposal . The proposal outlines the context, relevance, purpose, and plan of your research.

As well as outlining the background, problem statement, and research questions, the proposal should also include a literature review that shows how your project will fit into existing work on the topic. The research design section describes your approach and explains exactly what you will do.

You might have to get the proposal approved by your supervisor before you get started, and it will guide the process of writing your thesis or dissertation.

>>Read more about writing a research proposal

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

Sampling methods
Simple random sampling
Stratified sampling
Cluster sampling
Likert scales
Reproducibility

Statistics

Null hypothesis
Statistical power
Probability distribution
Effect size
Poisson distribution

Research bias

Optimism bias
Cognitive bias
Implicit bias
Hawthorne effect
Anchoring bias
Explicit bias

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Writing Strong Research Questions | Criteria & Examples

What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

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Dissertation Blogs

Dissertation Secondary Research In 4 Steps Explained – Uniresearchers

Are you looking for a comprehensive guide on secondary research ? Well, yeah!! You have come to the right place to shed away all your worries. The topic of secondary and primary research appears to be challenging for the students that makes them anxious, nervous and worried at the same time. As a result, they end up getting poor scores and lower grades in academics. Please don’t be ashamed of it, because this is a very common problem faced by the students amidst their tiring long days jam-packed with classes, lectures, seminars, part-time jobs, etc.

But let me tell you, secondary research is very simple than you have ever thought of. So here we have come to simplify the overall process of secondary research by completing it in just 4 steps. Want to know how? Here we go.

Before getting into details, let us understand what exactly “ secondary research ” is.

To be precise, secondary research refers to the collection of data from the existing research that has been conducted by others (Authors). In other words, secondary research indicates the “past data” that are usually collected from online or offline resources, government records, books, and journal articles pre-existing in the inventory. Secondary research goes exactly opposite to primary research where the main agenda is to conduct your research to collect raw and real-time data. The best part is, that secondary research saves a lot of time, effort and money in the process. To differentiate between the two, primary research is complicated enough which will consume a lot of time in finding the right participants who would provide the data findings to proceed with the research.

Now, we shall go ahead with the process of secondary research in 4 simple steps.

Step 1: You need to frame out your research questions

Yes, correct!! Secondary research will begin with the framing of research questions right after you have settled on the topic of investigation. Now your job is to find the research gap in the literature that will create a strong base for framing the research questions. Once you are done with the research questions, you have almost created the correct roadmap for your research study.

Step 2: Get the secondary data sets

Majority of the research proceeds with identifying the secondary data sets in the literature, which are perfectly reusable and aid in addressing the research question more thoroughly. It is your duty to identify useful secondary data which will perfectly fit your research questions.

Step 3: Simply evaluate the secondary dataset

The criteria for evaluating the secondary dataset stand on the following metrics –

Who collected the data
What were the purpose and goal
When and how the data was collected
Type of data and its consistency with other data sources.

All of these factors are essential for evaluating the secondary dataset because not always do the secondary data you have found appropriately align with the current research purpose. Moreover, the secondary datasets may lack the validity and reliability to answer your research questions. Hence, needless to say, the collection of wrong secondary datasets can limit the effectiveness of your study. So never forget to evaluate the secondary datasets that you have planned to present in your research.

Step 4: Prepare to analyze the secondary data

In dissertation writing services , we follow this part religiously as it becomes the key part of the secondary research . Firstly, we outline the variables of interest and transfer this data into the Excel file or new SPSS. The next part would be addressing the missing data and recoding variables when necessary. For analyzing the data, we have to select the most suitable technique of analysis that can be through the use of statistical methods, thematic analysis, descriptive, etc. Make sure to be perfect on your part to avoid inconsistencies in the data analysis.

If you find the facts are varying from one source to another, you must plan your primary research in the same context to get the facts correct using real-time raw data.

Get your own checklist

Hold on!! That’s not all!! With tremendous accessibility to the internet nowadays, the reliability and validity of secondary data have stooped down remarkably. So before utilizing external sources for secondary data, make a checklist to ensure the validity and accuracy of your secondary data. Be mindful, that failing to find the correct and valid data will lead you to inaccurate and poor analysis.

So all you need to do is, be attentive and focused throughout the research study.

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Our dissertation writing services come up with various other benefits in series. If you need any urgent assistance or support, our 24/7 support teams are always at your service. You must be thinking about how to place your order now. Well, it’s simpler than ever. Visit our website, fill out the order form with all the vital details, and make sure to specify the deadline to get an accurate response. Once your order is approved, we will assign you to the consultant who would lead your order. Trust me, your order for secondary research will be ready in a blink. Yes, it’s so much easy with us!!

Now shed off your hesitation, and take a step ahead to place the order. Well, do not forget to check our client reviews and testimonials on our website for better clarity on our services. We ensure all the comfort and safety of our clients by maintaining absolute confidentiality. So hurry up and place your order right now to build a bright future.

How To Do Secondary Research or a Literature Review

Secondary Research
Literature Review
Step 1: Develop topic
Step 2: Develop your search strategy
Step 3. Document search strategy and organize results
Systematic Literature Review Tips
More Information

What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review ("lit review" for short) is a specific type of secondary research used mainly in academic or scholarly settings. It consists of a compilation of the relevant scholarly materials (not popular materials such as news articles or general websites) on your subject, which you then read, synthesize, and cite as needed within your assignment, paper, thesis, or dissertation. See the chart below for the types of sources that are typically included in a lit review. For a systematic literature review, widely used in the sciences or engineering, see additional tips on the Systematic Literature Review tab.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions detailing one strategy for completing a literature review. Librarians can also help you with the lit review process. Contact your subject librarian to make a research appointment.

*If any suggestions on this guide conflict with specific assignment instructions, follow your instructor's (or adviser's) instructions.

Examples of lit reviews

Below are some examples of lit reviews from journal articles.

Bayesian study of relativisit open an dhidden charm in anisotropic lattice QCD The literature review is embedded in the introduction, found on pages 1-2 (before the Methods section).
Neuroticism modulates brain visuo‐vestibular and anxiety systems during a virtual rollercoaster task This Psychology-style literature review is found within the introduction, on pages 716-717.
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How To Do Your Dissertation Secondary Research?

A thesis or dissertation project requires a lot of research, with secondary research a need for any paper. The secondary research might be attempted to make the hypothetical foundation for the dissertation by producing the literature review, and it might likewise be utilized as an option in contrast to primary research.

What Is Secondary Research?

To respond to this inquiry, how about we first review what we mean by primary research happens where a researcher plans a project and afterward gathers the results directly from the first sources. The researcher utilizes real-time information, which implies that the information is gathered throughout a particular research project and is under the control of the researcher.

On the other hand, secondary research includes information that has been gathered by another person beforehand. This sort of information is known as past data and is normally open by means of past analysts, government records, and different online and offline assets.

Examples of secondary sources incorporate;

Past dissertations
Publications such as articles, books, and journal
internal organizational reports or Company accounts
radio broadcasts and Television
Official/government reports
conferences papers/proceedings

Methods And Purposes

At the point when you use a secondary set of data, the design is ordinarily to have a re-evaluation of information while suggesting a secondary research question. At the point when one chooses to utilize a couple of informational collections to do the research, it gets intended to discover the connection between the factors accessible in them or to have a correlation on the results from the past research. Then again, when you choose to combine both primary and secondary informational indexes, they need to acquire snippets of data that are now existing however one that illuminates the primary research.

Now, we need to inquire: What is the strategies for secondary research? When do we utilize every one of these techniques? Here, we can separate between three methods for secondary research: utilizing a secondary data set alone, joining two secondary data set, and consolidating secondary and primary data set. We should outline each of these independently, and furthermore disclose when to utilize every one of these methods.

At first, you can utilize a secondary data set – that is, without combining it with different data set. You discover an informational index that is valuable for your research purposes and afterward base your whole research on that arrangement of information. You do this when you need to re-evaluate a data index in light of a different research question.

Let’s learn it with a basic example. Assume that, in your research, you need to examine whether pregnant ladies of various identities experience different degrees of anxiety during different pregnancy stages. In light of the writing, you have shaped a thought that ethnicity might matter in this relationship between anxiety and pregnancy.

Assuming you needed to test this relationship by gathering the information yourself, you would have to enlist numerous pregnant ladies of various ethnicities and survey their anxiety levels all through their pregnancy. It would take you somewhere around a year to finish this research project.

Rather than undertaking this long effort, you hence choose to track down a secondary data set – one that examined (for example) a scope of troubles experienced by pregnant ladies nationwide. The first analysts may have laid out ladies’ ethnicity, yet weren’t especially keen on examining the connection between ladies’ identity and anxiety at various pregnancy stages. You are, hence, re-surveying their informational index in view of your own research question.

The Uses Of Secondary Research In A Dissertation

The main utilization of secondary research in a dissertation is to make the writing survey. The literature review depends absolutely on secondary research, drawing together articles on points pertinent to the fundamental theme. When undertaking secondary research, the survey needs to incorporate secondary research drawing on the exact research that created or set up the hypotheses that will be applied in the research. Great research will likewise incorporate extra research reviewing and testing the hypotheses to give a reasonable methodology.

Secondary research may likewise be embraced at the principle research approach as an alternative primary research. At the point when acted instead of primary research, the research system will be based on utilizing information gathered and distributed by others and reanalyzing, reworking, or looking into the information.

Secondary Research – Step By Step Guide

In the above sections of this guide, we have covered some primary parts of doing secondary research. We have defined secondary information, Now, you need to have a clearer comprehension of secondary research. Presently it very well might be valuable to zero in on the process of carrying out secondary research.

Think Of The Research Questions

For a student proposal, you are frequently given a particular research question by your professor. Yet, for different sorts of research, and particularly in case you are doing your alumni proposal, you wanted to show up at a research question yourself.

The initial step here is to determine the overall research area where your research will fall. For instance, you might be keen on the subject of anxiety during pregnancy. Since we have utilized this example already, it very well might be helpful to depend on them again to help understand the concept.

When you have your overall point identified, your following step comprises of reading existing papers and material thoroughly to see whether there is a gap in the writing that your research can fill. Having discovered your subject of interest and distinguished a gap in the writing, you really wanted to determine your research question.

Look Out For A Secondary Data Set.

As we mentioned above, most research begins by specifying what is already known on the topic and what knowledge seems to be missing. This process involves considering the kind of data previously collected on the topic.

It is at this point, after reviewing the literature and specifying your research questions, that you may decide to rely on secondary data. You will do this if you discover that there is past data that would be perfectly reusable in your own research, therefore helping you to answer your research question more thoroughly and easily

But how do you discover if there is past data that could be useful for your research? You do this by reviewing the literature on your topic of interest. During this process, you will identify other researchers, organizations, agencies, or research centers that have worked on your research topic prior. You will do this when you come to the finding of past data that can get well applied in your work to help you nail the question in a detailed form. You will review your literature and identify other researches or centers that have handled the topic you have before. You will need to get permission from the authors to utilize the data set that you will have collected.

Evaluate The Secondary Data Set

To do this right, you will need to know the following few factors, as the original author’s purpose could be way different from yours. Note the differences in the purposes of research in the data sets.

What Was The Aim Of The Original Study?

When evaluating secondary data, you first need to identify the aim of the original study. This is important because the goals of the original authors will have impacted several important aspects of their research, including their examples, population of choice, employed measurement tools, and the overall context of the research.

During this step, you also need to pay attention to any differences in research purposes and research questions between the original study and your own investigation.

Who Has Collected The Data?

A further advance in assessing secondary informational index is to ask yourself who has gathered the information. To what foundation was the Professional dissertation writer’s subsidiary? Were the first authors sufficiently proficient to trust their research? Normally, you will actually want to get this data through quick researches online.

Which Measures Were Utilized?

In case if the review on which you are grounding your research was led in an expert way, you can hope to approach all the fundamental data with respect to this research for your dissertation help UK.

Original writers need to have documented all their methods, sample qualities, measures, and protocols. This data can be acquired either in their last research report or through reaching out to the authors directly.

You must realize what sort of information was gathered, which measures were utilized, and regardless of whether such measures were solid and legitimate (in case they were quantitative measures). You likewise need to make a clear outline of the kind of information gathered – and particularly the information signs for your research.

When Was The Information Gathered?

While assessing secondary information, you need to likewise note when the information was gathered. The justification for this is direct: if the information was gathered quite some time ago, you might infer that it is obsolete. What’s more, in case the information is obsolete, why bother reusing it? Preferably, you need your secondary information to have been gathered within the last five years.

What Methodology Was Utilized To Gather The Information?

While assessing the nature of a secondary informational index, the evaluation of the utilized methodology might be the most primary step.

We have as of now noticed that you wanted to assess the dependability and legitimacy of utilized measures. Moreover, you wanted to evaluate how the example was acquired, regardless of whether the example was sufficiently huge, if the example was illustrative of the populace, in case there were any missing responses on employed measures, whether confounders were controlled for, and whether the utilized factual research was proper. Any downsides in the original methodology might restrict your own research too.

Analysis And Preparation Of Secondary Research

In this process, get to know past research. Outline every one of the factors you will require in your research. When done, distinguish and mark the missing information. Make new factors and register them if fundamental. Finally, break down the information.

Particularly, while secondary research may be used instead of primary research, there is also the potential to use it in conjunction with or as a replacement to primary research.

Sources Of Secondary Research

The two most common sources of secondary information are mentioned as external and internal.

External sources of data and information are those that are outside of an association or a research organization. This kind of information has been gathered by another person, in the literal sense of the term. The advantage of external sources of information is that they give thorough information – however, you may some of the time need more time and effort to acquire it.

Internal sources of information, on the other hand, are those that are inside the association being referred to. For example, in case you are doing a research project for an association (or research organization where you are an assistant, and you need to reuse a portion of their past information, you would utilize internal information sources.

The advantage of utilizing these sources is that they are effectively available and there is no related monetary expense of acquiring them.

Tips On Conducting Secondary Dissertation Research

Secondary research is basic and can finish in only four stages, as clarified in this article. It includes analyzing information that was gathered by another person, and you can get the information through past researchers, government files, professional dissertation writers, or online platforms. You get to reanalyze, read, and survey the gathered information for this situation. There are a number of Dissertation writing services in the UK that are available throughout the web to help you further.

Advantages Of Secondary Research

You have a gateway to an enormous amount of data
It is not expensive
You get data that is professionally analyzed
It is readily accessible
It consumes less time

Disadvantages Of Secondary Research

You have no control over the data that you retrieve
You may not get sufficient information from the original authors of the written pieces
It may have a different format than the one you are looking for
It may not serve your wants well
It may fail to answer the research question you are seeking to fulfill

Secondary Menu

Departmental newsletter: march 2024, april 1, 2024.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong had a great spring break in England! Laura Soter and Shanna Slank joined him for a workshop in London on comity at the beginning. Then Arielle Rothenberg and Ithika Senthilnathan (Duke undergrads) joined him for a workshop in Oxford on patient preference predictors at the end. Highlights included a trip to Darwin's house and talks with two Duke alumni groups.

Ben Sarbey presented this month on “The Vulnerable Populations Objection to Medical Aid in Dying” at the International Conference on the End of Life (Salt Lake City) and at the NC Philosophical Society (Davidson, NC)

There was a strong Duke presence at the 2024 Economic Methodology: Models, Measurement, and Interventions conference at Stanford University. Jennifer Jhun was a keynote speaker and Alex Rosenberg participated in a book symposium. Tzvetan Moev and alumni Kobi Finestone presented recent papers.

Yuan Dong's paper "Restoring Trust" has been accepted to the 12th East-West Philosophers' Conference which will take place in Hawaii from May 24 to 31.

Thomas Carnes won the South Carolina Society for Philosophy prize for best graduate student paper at this year's joint conference with the North Carolina Philosophy Society, held 15-16 March at Davidson College. Thomas's prize-winning paper is titled "Political Rioting as Negative Reciprocity," and argues that we should understand political riots that respond to severe and persistent injustice as fitting acts of negative reciprocity. One upshot of this view is that such instances of rioting can remain within the bounds of legitimate political practice. Thomas also presented a separate paper at the Pacific APA on 21 March, participating in a graduate student panel devoted to "expanding the borders of the immigration debate." Thomas's paper is titled "The Ontological Ambiguity of Certain Unauthorized Immigrants," and it identifies a novel form of ontological injustice (understood as an injustice that occurs in virtue of how one is socially constructed), which Thomas labels "ontological ambiguity." The paper shows how certain unauthorized immigrants are necessarily constructed as ontologically ambiguous. Realizing this, Thomas argues, requires us to reevaluate the literature surrounding these particular unauthorized immigrants. The overall aim of showing this, though, is to implore philosophers of immigration to bring tools of social ontology to bear on questions of migration justice.

Felipe De Brigard published a paper, titled "Looking at Mental Images: Eye-Tracking Mental Simulation During Retrospective Causal Judgment," in Cognitive Science . The paper investigates how people track evaluate causal relationships: "Using eye tracking and Gaussian process modeling, [Felipe et al.] investigated how people mentally simulated past events to judge what caused the outcomes to occur."

Ask Tayfun, Or Don’t: The (Unsolicited™) Advice Column

This month I have some advice for my future self concerning banking, but you might also find it helpful if, like myself, you hail from a country which doesn’t have many checks (or balances). If you have all your payments on direct deposit, don’t rest assured, since you may still get some of those pesky checks in the mail. Best to take those to the bank (or do the online thingy) sooner rather than later, since apparently they expire. Even the Holy Roman Empire—which, as Voltaire pointed out, was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire—did not reject Czechs, but Wells Fargo will, IF they have been issued more than 6 months ago—then again only sometimes, because other times they will accept them (though apparently they aren’t supposed to?). In short, it’s the luck of the draw—but as they say, better to be safe than have an empty safe.

If you have a question for Tayfun for the next newsletter, please send it to [email protected] ... though you may get some advice even if you don't.

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Get to know the people of Ohio State University's Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) through our series of Spotlight Stories. Read what our BME folks are up to-- you might learn about our labs' latest research, our faculty and their classes, our alumni and their careers, our postdoc's research, our student's research and their plans for the future, and more.

Developer Comments: Mech go zoom and D.Va bomb go boom.

Can now move backwards.
Can now be canceled with Crouch.
Canceling the ability with Crouch in the first .4 seconds reduces the cooldown to 1.5 seconds.

Knockback increased by 900%.

Developer Comments: Doomfist is a mobility hero, so there’s no reason he should be slowing down while blocking right?

Power Block and Meteor Strike also empower your next Quick Melee.

Movement Speed Modifier increased from .65x to 1.25x.

Junker Queen

Developer Comments: Leave it to Junker Queen to cut her way toward new heights.

Pressing Secondary Fire while the ability is active now magnetizes Junker Queen to Gracie.
Cooldown now starts when blade starts returning to Junker Queen.
Cooldown decreased from 6 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comments: Smallga

Health decreased from 350 to 25.
Mauga’s Scale has been reduced by 50%.

Hitting enemies who are ‘On Fire’ will Ignite them.

Developer Comments: Efi has made some changes to Orisa’s technology inspired by a completely hypothetical scenario where a certain archer rides her into battle.

Ricochets once.
Explodes when it sticks.

Developer Comments: We heard Ramattra wasn’t suffering enough so we’ve increased his suffering so that when he causes suffering his enemies will suffer as much as he has suffered.

Base armor increased from 100 to 225.

Moved from his Ultimate to Ability 1
No longer pauses its duration while dealing damage.
Movement Speed Increased by 20%.
Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
Damage Per Second Decreased from 30 to 20.
Radius decreased from 12 to 9 meters.

Moved from his Ability 1 to his Ultimate.
Always has Annihilation active while in use.
Fully heals Ramattra on use.
Pummel Damage increased from 60 to 75.
Pummel Range has been increased from 10 to 15.

Reinhardt Comment: HAHA! THIS IS JUST LIKE PING PONG! WATCH THIS, BRIGITTE! I WILL BE ENTERING THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR!

You can now press Primary Fire to reflects projectiles.
Health decreases by 20% every second while reflecting.
Barrier size decreased to 50% while Reflecting.
Camera Lock input now bound to Quick Melee.

Developer Comments: Much to the chagrin of his enemies, Roadhog has recently discovered baseball.

Projectile Speed increased from 26 to 80.
Projectile Damage increased from 0 to 40.

Developer Comments: Danger! Falling rocks.

Projectile Speed decreased from 37 to 30.
Projectile Gravity decreased from 18 to 2.
Pressing the ability button while Accretion is active will cause the rock to crash into the ground. When crashed, it will deal 50 damage in a 4-meter radius and stun anyone damaged.

Developer Comments: Empowering the “no aim” playstyle.

Secondary Fire now chains between enemies.

Punches also cause lightning to chain between enemies.

Wrecking Ball

Developer Comments: We're preparing to retcon Wrecking Ball into a crab. Hope these changes are sufficiently immersive.

Wrecking Ball’s sideways movement speed increased by 55%.

Deals increased damage as you continue to walk sideways.

Developer Comments: Please don’t burst Zarya’s bubble, no matter how big it gets.

Increases the size of the bubbled target by 1.75x.

Developer Comments: B.O.B.’s upset from being called the wrong name, so F.R.E.D.’s picking up the slack.

New Ability on mouse scroll.
Weapon Swap.
Call in F.R.E.D. to charge for a short duration before leaving.

Developer Comments: Yeah, we’ve switched up his configurations a little. So anyway, start blastin'.

Configuration: Assault is now the default form.
Movement speed penalty has been removed.
Configuration: Assault now has 150 Ammo.
Damage per bullet decreased from 12 to 5.
Now deals 1.5x damage for critical hits.

Now transforms Bastion into Configuration: Recon.
Grants a movement speed bonus of 35%.
Configuration: Sentry now fires shotgun blasts.

Developer Comments: Extra survivability is every cowboy’s dream – just don’t die.

New Passive
One enemy is marked. Kill them to gain 50 health until the next time you die. After 5 kills, you gain 1 health each time.

Developer Comments: Now bringing Mystery Heroes into other modes.

Targets within 8 meters of Echo take damage as if they’re under half health.

Can no longer choose who you duplicate.
Can now duplicate allies.
Duplicate’s Health no longer capped at 300 health.
Duplicate now gains an extra 100 Shields.
Bonus Ult Charge Gain Rate increased from 4 to 6.5.

Developer Comments: Parry this! *Not exclusive to casual players.

Press Primary Fire with perfect timing to critically deflect a projectile.

Developer Comments: Hanzo has always struggled to overcome his past, so it’s hard for him not to bounce back to old habits.

Number of ricochets increased from 1 to 3.
Number of projectiles per shot increased from 1 to 5.
Damage of each projectile decreased by 78%.

Developer Comments: Junkrat put bombs on his bombs. Not sure why this would surprise anybody.

You can now detonate Frag Launcher projectiles with Secondary Fire.

Developer Request: Definitely do not use this to get to spots on the map you’re not supposed to get to, thanks.

New Ability.
Press Jump in the Air to activate.
Creates a large Ice Pillar under Mei.
Can be canceled with Interact.

Developer Comments: You’ve used Hover Jets. You’ve used Jump Jets. You’ve used Jet Dash. But have you tried Jet Land?

Press Crouch in the Air to activate.
Dash downwards towards the ground.

Developer Comments: Someone’s taken a page out of Mauga’s book.

Primary Fire now only shoots one shotgun.
Damage per bullet reduced from 5.4 to 2.8.
Ammo increased from 8 to 16.
Secondary Fire now shoots the other shotgun.

Developer Comments: Vivian Chase? More like Vivian Pull.

Disruptor Shot now pulls enemies in on deploy.
You can deploy Disruptor Shot early by pressing E again.

Soldier: 76

Developer Comments: Run and gun? Sounds like fun!

Can now be used during Sprint.
Using Heavy Pulse Rifle while sprinting has a spread of 2.

Developer Comments: To keep fights fair, let the enemy team know that they should update their network anti-virus and firewalls as soon as possible.

Killing an enemy infected with Virus, it attempts to spread to a nearby enemy.

Developer Comments: Symmetra can’t troll you if you don’t press Teleport.

Only places exit Teleporter.
Any ally can use Teleporter regardless of their location.
Teleporter duration decreased from 10 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comments: Everyone deserves a pet turret.

The turret now sticks to walls, ceilings, and allies.

Developer Comments: krow slotsiP esluP ruoy woh gnignahc ,erutuf ro tsap eht ot uoy sdnes ylmodnaR

Randomly sends you to the past or future, changing how your Pulse Pistols work.

Developer Comments: Hooks + Headshot = Parkour

Now has 3 charges.
Getting a critical hit with Widow’s Kiss’s secondary fire replenishes one charge of the ability.

Developer Comments: Rise and shine! How’s this for a rude awakening?

Slept enemies slowly rise while Sleeping.
Enemies take fall damage when they land.

Developer Comments: Someone once advised Baptiste to keep moving forward. He’s really taken that advice to heart.

Now launches you forward rather than upward.

Increases speed of projectiles shot through it by 200%.

Developer Comments: Bigitte

Scale increased by 1.5x.
Armor increased from 50 to 150.

Health increased from 250 to 700.
Always uses bigger size.

Resets your Shield Bash cooldown.
Movement Speed bonus increased from 1.15x to 1.3x.

Developer Comments: Fixing a longstanding Illari bug, her solar powers are now fully functional.

After using Captive Sun, Illari becomes Solar Installed. She moves faster and charges her Solar Rifle Faster, her rifle always charges to full damage power.
Movement speed bonus 1.2x.
Attack charge time reduced by 40%.
Healing recharge bonus 1.2x.
New Passive.
Illari is always Solar Installed when the sun is out.

Dev Comment: You should see her on her trampoline.

Now also grants allies a 10% damage boost, 10% healing boost, 50% movement speed boost, and 700% increased jump height.
Increased duration from .65 to 1 second.
Kiriko can jump an extra time in the air

Developer Comments: Reach new heights with Lifeweaver through the power of photosynthesis.

Now raises 20m (up from 8m).

Developer Comment: Lucio’s gun is now keepin’ it in time.

Ammo increased from 20 to 30.
Recovery decreased from .14 seconds per bullet to .125 seconds per bullet.
Now Shoots 3 bullets per volley during Speed Boost and 5 bullets per volley during Healing Boost.

Knocks up enemies the sound waves hit.

Developer Comments: Goodbye, 0 damage numbers!

Damage boost from Secondary Fire removed.
Secondary Fire is now Damage Staff. (Ability 2 on Controller.)
Damage Staff Fires Caduceus Blaster projectiles.
Projectiles have a smaller size.
Size gets bigger during ult.
2 more damage.
Projectiles reload automatically while not firing.
Projectiles reload at twice the speed while healing or after 4 seconds without firing.
Can fire projectiles at a reduced firing speed if healing beam is active.
Healing beam can heal at a reduced rate if Damage Staff is active.

Dev Comment: Moira’s right arm is starting to melt from all the experimentation, so she’s switching it up.

Now deals damage instead of healing.

Now heals instead of doing damage.

Developer Comments: “Let Zen walk?” Not sure about that one.

Ammo increased from 25 to 32.
Secondary Fire charge time per projectile decreased from .52 to .47.
Secondary Fire projectiles fire 33% faster.
Secondary Fire damage decreased by 30%.
You can now charge up to 8 Orbs with Secondary Fire.
Zenyatta’s accelerates upward while charging Secondary Fire.

Live Patch Notes

These patch notes represent general changes made to the Live version of Overwatch and the balance changes listed affect Quick Play, Competitive Play, Arcade, and Custom Games.

Stay Connected

Researcher sees ‘alarming’ risk of political violence in US

A crowd amasses in front of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (Credit: CC image via Wikemedia Commons )

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Editor’s note: This article contains content around violence and racism that may be upsetting for some readers.

Regina Bateson first traveled to Guatemala in 2005 as a young foreign service officer working in the U.S Embassy in Guatemala City. At the time, the Latin American nation was less than a decade out from the peace accords that had ended its brutal civil war.

According to estimates, nearly 200,000 people died or vanished in the war between 1960 and 1996—most were Indigenous Maya, and most had been killed at the hands of the government or its agents. But, in some ways, Guatemala after the turn of the millennium was not much safer. By 2011, the homicide rate in Guatemala City had reached 104.5 deaths per 100,000 people, more than eight times the homicide rate in Denver in 2022.

Regin Bateson with a bookshop and colorful wall hanging behind her

Regina Bateson. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder)

Building painted with the words "Mercado Municipal del Joyabaj"

A market in Joyabaj, Guatemala, circa 2006. (Credit: CC photo via Wikimedia Commons )

Amid all that violence, Bateson, now an assistant professor of political science at CU Boulder, discovered a contradiction that shaped the rest of her life. She had assumed that the most deadly regions of Guatemala would also be the areas that had been the most wracked by war. But that wasn’t the case.

To the budding researcher, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the patterns of violence in her new home.

“That was puzzling to me. I talked to a lot of people about it when I was there, and nobody had a solid explanation for why that was,” she said. “That was what motivated me to go to graduate school.”

Today, Bateson studies vigilantism and other forms of political violence. Her time in Guatemala and elsewhere has taught her lessons about the ways that these acts can emerge around the globe. Vigilantism, she said, is almost always carried out by a group in power targeting people who have much less power, in many cases motivated by racism or xenophobia. She added that many of the warning signs for violence have reared up across the United States, including the spread of armed and organized militias.

When she returned to Guatemala for her dissertation research, for example, Bateson encountered an organization known as the Guardianes del Vecindario in Joyabaj—a small town in the department of El Quiché, where the government had perpetrated acts of genocide. The group, or la patrulla (“the patrol”) as locals called it, echoed the civil patrols that roamed the region during the civil war. The group’s several hundred members walked the streets at night, wearing black ski masks, stopping passersby and searching cars. In some cases, patrollers detained, beat and even tortured people they suspected of crimes.

“People are afraid to do anything bad now that the patrol is here,” one Joyabaj resident told Bateson at the time.

Closer to home, there’s still a lot that concerned people in the United States can do to resist an escalation in violence, Bateson said. In 2018, she ran as a Democrat in the primary to represent California’s 4th Congressional District, ultimately coming in third.

“The court system matters. The judiciary matters,” she said. “Our institutions provide a check on violent and authoritarian behavior that doesn't exist in many other places.”

Fuzzy lines

When talking about vigilantism, Bateson often points to the case of David Chen, owner of Lucky Moose Food Mart in Toronto.

In 2009, Chen and a few of his staff members chased down a man they believed had stolen plants from their market, tying him up and tossing him into a van. Police arrested both the vigilantes and the alleged thief. But in the years that followed, politicians including then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper showed up at the market to take photos with Chen. Eventually, the government passed a bill to expand the scope of citizens arrests in Canada, and Chen was cleared of all charges.

Bateson defines cases of vigilantism like this as “the extralegal prevention, investigation or punishment of offenses.”

Preventing political violence

Bateson says that concerned citizens in the United States can do a lot to strengthen democracy and prevent violence. Here are three ways you can help:

Support institutions

Many institutions in the United States, including the judiciary, provide important checks against political violence and vigilantism. Bateson urges people to support politicians and policies that seek to shore up these important bulwarks for democracy.

Support an independent media

Journalists play an important role in holding people in power accountable, Bateson said. Media reporting can even deter vigilantism and other forms of political violence.

Get involved and vote

People in the United States have the power to elevate elected officials and push their political parties toward adopting pro-democracy and pro-rule of law agendas.

Culturally, the word “vigilante” may conjure up images of Batman or Charles Bronson, star of the 1974 film “Death Wish”—lone wolves taking the law into their own hands. But, as Chen’s case shows, vigilantism is an inherently political act, Bateson said, and the lines between vigilantes and official state institutions can become “fuzzy.”

“Vigilantism threatens human rights and the rule of law,” Bateson said. “Vigilantism is also a way for people, usually those with more power in society, to shape public debate.”

She added that vigilantes around the world tend to draw on the same language and themes to justify their actions—whether that’s in countries with high violent crime rates, or in much safer places like Canada or Scandinavia. Often, vigilantes act on fears that may be unfounded or are deeply rooted in racism and xenophobia.

“They say, ‘We have to step in, and we have no choice because the state is either absent or not being aggressive enough,’” Bateson said. “But the people targeted by vigilantes may have done absolutely nothing wrong and are just perceived as a threat because of their identity.”

Alarming trends

The United States has not been immune to such deadly vigilante violence, including horrific acts by lynch mobs. The NAACP estimates that between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 people were lynched in the United States , more than 70% of whom were Black. This year, six former law enforcement officers from Mississippi were sentenced for a 2023 incident in which they broke into a home and tortured two Black men.

Bateson has seen “alarming” signs that the United States may be teetering on the brink of political violence today as extremist groups around the country become more organized.

In recent years, she said, far-right organizations, including some of those responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, have created robust social networks across the country. Even as some group members have faced prosecution, the Southern Poverty Law Center has found that militias have continued organizing online and underground. Armed militias are patrolling stretches of the southern border with Mexico, seeking to stop and detain migrants crossing north.

“Vigilantism is hard on a logistical level,” she said. “It's hard to carry out, but there's a lot of infrastructure in place to support it in the U.S. right now.”

Bateson also points to the rise in politicians using what she calls “dehumanizing” language.

“The fact that political rhetoric is singling out particular groups as ‘poisoning the blood of the country’ has really caught the attention of people who study political violence,” Bateson said. “Dehumanizing language like that is such a red flag. Throughout history, it has preceded significant violence targeting vulnerable groups.”

But there’s still time to reverse this trend. In the United States, the rule of law and political institutions, while under pressure, remain strong compared with many other parts of the world.

“Being pro-democracy and pro-rule of law is not an exclusively Democratic, Republican, Green or Libertarian agenda. It’s not a partisan position,” Bateson said. “Being active in your political party and promoting candidates whose values align with what you want to see for the country’s future is so important.”

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IOE alumni named winners of the 2024 BERA Master’s Dissertation and Doctoral Thesis awards

27 March 2024

Dr Emily Macleod (PhD) and Kate Fox (Education and International Development MA) have won the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Doctoral and Master’s Thesis prizes respectively.

Left: Emily Macleod. Right: Kate Fox. Image permission: Emily Macleod and Kate Fox.

The awards are given in recognition of academic excellence and research rigour within the field of educational research.

Emily Macleod won for her thesis, “The status and safety of teaching: A longitudinal study of why some young people in England become teachers, and why others do not.” She investigated young people’s motivations behind pursuing – or not pursuing – the profession amidst the context of national and international teacher shortages.

She completed her PhD at IOE’s Department of Education, Practice and Society in 2023, and was a co-host on IOE’s podcast series Research for the Real World . She continues on as an honorary postdoctoral fellow. She also worked on the ASPIRES research project studying young people's science and career aspirations, before which she was a secondary school teacher.

Kate Fox won for her MA dissertation entitled “Building bridges or barriers? A study of home, community, and school literacy practices in rural Tanzania.”

Her dissertation centres the experiences of parents from rural communities within the Tanzanian education system – and the diverse ways families and communities contribute to young children’s literacy learning.

Kate completed her Master’s degree at IOE in 2023. She is now a Research Officer with the IOE Research Development team, and a Research Assistant working on two multi-institutional projects: Climate-U and Equitable research cultures . Her career in education spans 20 years as a teacher, headteacher and teacher trainer in Tanzania and the UK.

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Write Your Dissertation Using Only Secondary Research
Just make sure you prioritise the research that backs up your overall point so each section has clarity. Then it's time to write your introduction. In your intro, you will want to emphasise what your dissertation aims to cover within your writing and outline your research objectives. You can then follow up with the context around this ...
What is Secondary Research?
Secondary research is a research method that uses data that was collected by someone else. In other words, whenever you conduct research using data that already exists, you are conducting secondary research. On the other hand, any type of research that you undertake yourself is called primary research. Example: Secondary research.
Dissertation Structure & Layout 101 (+ Examples)
Time to recap…. And there you have it - the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows: Title page. Acknowledgments page. Abstract (or executive summary) Table of contents, list of figures and tables.
How to do your dissertation secondary research in 4 steps
In a nutshell, secondary research is far more simple. So simple, in fact, that we have been able to explain how to do it completely in just 4 steps (see below). If nothing else, secondary research avoids the all-so-tiring efforts usually involved with primary research.
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Secondary research is also used to justify the need for primary research as well as to justify and support other activities. For example, secondary research may be used to support a proposal to modernize a manufacturing plant, to justify the use of newly a developed treatment for cancer, to strengthen a business proposal, or to validate points ...
What Is a Dissertation?
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program. Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you've ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating ...
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The structure of a dissertation depends on your field, but it is usually divided into at least four or five chapters (including an introduction and conclusion chapter). The most common dissertation structure in the sciences and social sciences includes: An introduction to your topic. A literature review that surveys relevant sources.
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The main benefit of utilizing secondary research in dissertations is its time and cost efficiency. Unlike primary research, which can be both time-consuming and expensive, secondary research relies on existing data that is readily available. This eliminates the need for data collection and expensive surveys.
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Step 1: Define your research topic and question. Start with a thorough literature review; Ensure that the research question has clinical or policy relevance and is based on sound a priori reasoning. A good question is what makes a study good, not a large sample size
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Research "own" the data collected. Research is based on data collected from previous researches. Primary research is based on raw data. Secondary research is based on tried and tested data which is previously analysed and filtered. The data collected fits the needs of a researcher, it is customised.
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Any of the drawback that are present in the original methodology help identify any limitation for your research. Step 4: Prepare and analyze. The final step is to move on to preparing the secondary data set after the evaluation. In case of quantitative research outline every variable that will be used in your dissertation.
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IOE alumni named winners of the 2024 BERA Master's Dissertation ...
Kate completed her Master's degree at IOE in 2023. She is now a Research Officer with the IOE Research Development team, and a Research Assistant working on two multi-institutional projects: Climate-U and Equitable research cultures. Her career in education spans 20 years as a teacher, headteacher and teacher trainer in Tanzania and the UK.

Write Your Dissertation Using Only Secondary Research

So, where do you find secondary data?

What are the two different types of secondary data?

Getting started

The body of your dissertation

Literature Reviews

Theoretical Frameworks

Concluding your dissertation

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6 Process of Conducting Secondary Research

Step 1: Define your research topic and question

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Primary vs Secondary Research – A Guide with Examples

Introduction

What is the Difference between Primary Sources and Secondary Sources?

Examples of Primary Sources

What are Secondary Sources?

Examples of Secondary Sources

What Type of Research you Should Base your Dissertation on – Primary or Secondary?

Hire an Expert Writer

Primary Research

Sampling in Primary Research

Reasons Why you Should Use Primary Research

Reasons Why you Should not Use Primary Research

What data collection method best suits your research?

Secondary Research

The Steps for Conducting Secondary Research

Reasons Why you Should Use Secondary Research

Reasons Why you Should Not Use Secondary Research

Key Differences between Primary and Secondary Research

The Caveat