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How To Do Secondary Research or a Literature Review

Step-by-step guide to forming keywords and searching for articles for a literature review.

Secondary research can be a powerful and efficient approach, but its success depends on knowing when it is appropriate, how to plan effectively, and how to navigate its unique advantages and limitations. This section outlines critical factors to consider when deciding to use secondary research in your project.

When to Use Secondary Research

Secondary research is particularly useful in the following scenarios:

  • There is a substantial body of published research relevant to your topic.
  • You need to establish a knowledge baseline before launching primary research.
  • Your timeline or budget does not allow for original data collection.
  • Historical or longitudinal data is required for your analysis.
  • Your research question can be adequately addressed using existing information.
  • You aim to identify patterns and trends across multiple studies or contexts.
  • You need to demonstrate the justification for conducting new, primary research.

Planning and Execution

Effective secondary research is not passive—it requires thoughtful, systematic planning to ensure that sources are credible and findings are relevant. Key planning considerations include:

  • Source Quality Assessment: Critically evaluate the reliability, methodology, and potential bias of all sources consulted.
  • Search Strategy: Develop a clear and replicable plan for locating relevant materials, including keywords, databases, and search filters.
  • Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: Define in advance which types of studies or data will be considered relevant or irrelevant to your scope.
  • Data Extraction Methods: Use structured templates or coding strategies to consistently record and organize extracted information.
  • Currency and Relevance: Decide how recent your sources need to be based on the topic and field; some areas require very up-to-date data, while others can benefit from historical perspectives.

Advantages of Secondary Research

Secondary research offers a number of compelling benefits:

  • More time-efficient and cost-effective than primary data collection.
  • Grants access to large-scale or long-term datasets that would be otherwise inaccessible.
  • Enables analysis across broader demographic, geographic, or temporal ranges.
  • Facilitates a comprehensive understanding of existing knowledge and theoretical foundations.
  • Helps identify research gaps and shape future primary research agendas.
  • Allows synthesis of patterns and trends across diverse sources and contexts.
  • Prevents unnecessary duplication of previously conducted studies.

Challenges and Limitations

While secondary research is powerful, it comes with inherent constraints:

  • Findings are limited by the quality and design of the original research.
  • Existing data may not precisely align with your research question or variables.
  • Information could be outdated, incomplete, or inconsistently defined across sources.
  • You have limited control over data collection methods, sampling strategies, and measurement tools.
  • Some fields are affected by publication bias, where only significant or positive results are widely published.
  • Proprietary or unpublished data may be difficult or impossible to access.
  • There is a risk of relying too heavily on readily available sources, which may skew findings.