Primary research is research done on material created by you rather than relying on an intermediary to do analysis on your behalf. So, any analysis of a data set you do is primary research (a caveat here, of course, is that you worked with other people in that someone created the data set and data could have been collected by others or on others, so not just “you,” right?).

Secondary research is research done on material that others have analyzed or researched. This work is crucial. To only rely on your own analysis of one data set limits what you can say because you only have one entry point into learning about something. Furthermore, to learn more about your data set, you’ll have to have some knowledge about what it even is (which is relevant to what we did on the previous page of “clicking around”).

In the Data Set Critical Biography as well as the later Data-Driven Argument piece you work on in the middle of the semester, I will expect you to do some secondary research to help you make sophisticated arguments about your data.

If you are not used to it, or just need a refresher, this page will provide some helpful hints on the best practices for finding high-quality secondary research.

 

Learn About Who Made It

It is imperative that you spend a lot of time learning about the person, people, group, or organization that produced the data set. They will offer anything from definitions of variables, to descriptions of how data were collected, to the reasons why they collected the data, etc. This will all help you answer questions in the Data Set Critical Biography assignment as well as give you necessary information to perform a well-informed analysis of the data.

Often, you won’t find out everything you need to know (sometimes very little, unfortunately), but you can find enough to give you a solid basis for understanding your data a bit more–knowing that you don’t know everything you should know is important information to have a critical orientation toward you data.

 

Learning About Your Topic

Academic sources of information are the most reliable just because they are vetted. Articles and books produced by academics are usually peer reviewed, meaning that other experts in the field have read the work prior to publication and have prodded it for weak points that the author(s) then respond to. It produces strong work, usually.

To find academic sources, the best ways are to use the main library search function here: Newman Library | Baruch College – (cuny.edu). You can select the kinds of sources in the drop bar and then type in keywords.

You can also use library databases here: Start Here – Databases – Research Guides at Baruch College (cuny.edu). Some databases specialize in certain kinds of academic research. This can make searching a little less overwhelming because you can restrict the search by topic.

Contacting a librarian about places to look for information can always be really helpful, too. You will learn a ton because they are smart people who specialize in doing exactly what you are just learning to do: find and evaluate information. You can schedule a research consultation here.

 

Searching Tips

• When finding a good source, always check the reference list! It can lead you to more good stuff.
• When searching, use Boolean operators to help return more accurate search results: and, or, not. Good source on this: Boolean Searching – How to Do Library Research – Research Guides at Colorado State University Fort Collins (colostate.edu)
• When searching, use quotes to keep phrases together (e.g., “war on drugs” will return more accurate search results than just typing war on drugs…you might get texts that contain the words “war”, “on,” and “drugs” at high rates rather than those words as all in the same three-word phrase).