Secondary Data Analysis

Using secondary data (that is, data collected by someone else, usually a government agency or large research organisation) has a number of advantages in social science research: sample sizes are usually larger than can be achieved by primary data collection, samples are more nearly representative of the populations they are drawn from, and using secondary data for a research project often represents significant savings in time and money. This short course, taught by Dr Deborah Wiltshire of the UK Data Archive, will discuss the advantages and limitations of using secondary data for research in the social sciences, and will introduce students to the wide range of available secondary data sources. Students will learn how to search online for suitable secondary data by browsing the database of the UK Data Archive.

• Postgraduate students and staff
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here

Number of sessions: 2

This module is not assessed.

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