Question

Which of the following is an advantage of secondary data?

a) The definitions and categories in secondary data are always apt and correct.
b) Secondary data help researchers save time.
c) Compared with primary data, secondary data are more flexible.
d) Secondary data generally provide up-to-date and relevant information.
e) Compared with primary data, secondary data are usually more specific to the problem being studied.

Answer 1

Secondary data help researchers save time as they can utilize already collected information, avoiding the expense of gathering new data. This also allows for nonreactive research, not influencing subject behavior.

Step-by-step explanation:

One of the advantages of secondary data is that it helps researchers save time. Secondary data refer to information that has been collected by someone else in the past and includes a range of materials such as books, articles, previous research reports, and statistics.

Because the data has already been collected, researchers can avoid the often significant expenditure of time and resources needed for gathering primary data. Moreover, secondary data allows for nonreactive research, which means it does not involve direct contact with subjects thus avoiding the risk of influencing their behavior - a contrast to primary data collection methods.

While definitions and categories in secondary data are not always guaranteed to be correct, and the data may not always be up-to-date or specific to the researcher's problem, the main advantage is the efficiency in time and resource management that secondary data provides by being readily available.