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primary data — English
A series of observations, measurements, facts, and so forth pertaining to the sampled population (see “demographic data”) in a specific research problem in a specific place at a specific time. There are various recognised methods of data collection, such as literally standing at one street corner and counting the numbers of motorcars, minibus taxis, pedestrians, senior citizens, young males wearing a certain brand of shoe, and anything else which/who passes that specific point in a specific time. It might also be counting the number of invader plants flourishing in a specific area, or measuring the distance between baobab trees in a specific area. These observations, facts, measurements and occurrences are simply ticked off on a clipboard or recorded in the researcher’s field notes. Data collection might also be done by checking official documents to establish the number of people who have legally entered the country over a specific period, the number of people who are living with HIV, the number of indivuals receiving social grants, the number of people who do not pay their taxes, the number of individuals incarcerated for sexual offences, the number of rhinos annually poached in conservation areas, and many more. A commonly used data collection tool is the filling out of questionnaires. All of the above-mentioned examples of data collection are called “data collection by field-work”, although it might be done in a city! The data collected by researchers and their trained research assistants, is unprocessed, raw, primary data. By means of various data processing techniques, the data is then sorted, coded, grouped, mapped and converted into information, such as percentages, indices (indexes) and graphic representations, all of which are easily compared with the same information from other areas. Processed data, might become primary data in another research project, provided the accuracy of the original primary data can be verified and found reliable.
