Differences between primary and secondary - Research Paper Example

“These original documents (i.e., they are not about another document or account) are often diaries, letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and other such unpublished works” (University of California Santa Cruz, 2011). The primary source is original and encapsulates a lot of creativity. The information is factual rather than interpretive. Primary references report the scientific discoveries in detail. In scientific studies, they not only narrate the conclusions, but also sufficiently discuss the clinical trials as well as the experiments that make part of the research.

The discussion is completely factual. Secondary research upon humanities encapsulates analysis and interpretation of the primary sources. The event discussed happens in the past and only a second-hand account of the same is generated. Creative works are interpreted in the secondary research. In the secondary research, research outcomes and scientific discoveries are analyzed and interpreted. Primary sources consume more time in retrieving than the secondary sources. This is because of the fact that to retrieve information from the primary sources, the researcher needs to approach the respondent.

The first and the foremost obstacle in way of retrieving information from a primary source is that the researcher needs to take an appointment from the respondent. . It is for the researcher to decide whether the interview has to be structured, semi-structured or non-structured. Once everything is ready, the researcher still might encounter inconvenience collecting the data as the respondent might not feel comfortable discussing certain issues that are of prime interest to the researcher. Therefore, most researchers refer to the primary data only when there is insufficient information in the secondary sources (Duval, 2005).

Nevertheless, because of the researcher’s use of “telephone surveys, computerized data analysis, and use of cell phones and pagers” (Benfield and Szlemko, 2006, p. 2), primary data is not as difficult to collect in the present age as it used to be in the past. On the other hand, secondary sources are very easy to retrieve the information from. All the researcher needs is access to the required material. “Marketing researchers use secondary information because it can be obtained at a fraction of the cost, time, and inconvenience of primary data collection” (McDaniel and Gates, 1998, p. 75). Examples of the primary sources about humanities are letters, diaries and journals.

Data is retrieved from magazines and newspapers. Photographs, government records, one-to-one interviews with the concerned parties and paintings are all included in the primary resources. Sources conventionally used for the scientific research include but are not limited to the published results of experiments, conferences and clinical trials. Examples of the secondary sources include histories, biographies, books, newspaper articles and scientific journals (Thomas, 2010). Nielsen