What is Primary Data?

Primary data is important for all areas of research because it is unvarnished information about the results of an experiment or observation. It is like the eyewitness testimony at a trial. No one has tarnished it or spun it by adding their own opinion or bias so it can form the basis of objective conclusions.

Identification

Primary data is the specific information collected by the person who is doing the research. It can be obtained through clinical trials, case studies, true experiments and randomized controlled studies. This information can be analyzed by other experts who may decide to test the validity of the data by repeating the same experiments.

Significance

Suppose that you are researching the effects of a certain new substance on the nervous system of mice. Because yours will be the first such experiment, the data that you collect will be considered prospective in nature. It can be used to establish a baseline from which other follow-up experiments can be devised. In the education context, prospective primary data about the kindergartners in a school district might be to collect the actual test results from the first day of school showing how many could write their names, count to 20, and retell a simple story in a logical way. The information forms the base-line from which the district must move their students so that they can meet the state standards for entering first graders within the next 180 days.

Types

Primary data can also be retrospective, interventional and observational in nature. Retrospective primary data gathers information about past conditions or behaviors. The researcher may be investigating a cause of a preventable disease, for instant as in the connection between smoking and lung cancer. Interventional primary data may be gathered to see the effect of a new drug or therapy. A recent study reported in the Journal of Ophthalmology, for example, described an interventional study about treatments for convergence insufficiency. Patients with this diagnosis received one of three treatments over a 12-week period to determine which intervention would be the most effective. Observational studies gather primary data by means of case studies such as the work done by naturalists like Jane Goodall on chimpanzees in the wild.

Features

Two strategies are commonly employed when researchers gather primary data: randomizing and blinding. Both of these strategies serve to keep the results objective. Both involve limiting the information given either to the researcher or the subject about which test group a subject has been assigned. The researcher is prevented from imposing her bias on the data so she may be a more careful observer. The subject is prevented from becoming either encouraged or discouraged by any previous opinions about the treatment, in a drug trial for example, that he may have started with.

Potential

Once the primary data has been gathered, analysts study it using other research methods. They look for relationships between factors that may suggest the designs for new studies. When they combine the primary data from more than one study, they are using integrative methods. Their findings present secondary data, a synthesis of several streams of primary data.

Resources

• National Library of Medicine: Primary Data and Integrative Methods
• Jane Goodall: Observational Research About Chimpanzees