What is a Desk Research ?

Introduction

Secondary research or desk research is a type of research in which data and information from previously available literature is used for answering specific research questions. Unlike primary research wherein one collects all the data and information from scratch, either using questionnaires, interviews or field observations, desk research uses information that has already been made available or collected by other researchers. Since desk research involves reviewing already available sources, it is usually a very cost-efficient and quick process.

For conducting desk research, a researcher has to review a large number of sources that can be:

1. Academic journals and research articles
2.  Government documents and official statistics
3. Industry and corporate reports
4.  Newspapers, magazines, and credible online databases

There are many ways in which desk research can be carried out, for instance through literature reviews, statistical analysis, and case studies.

Examples:

• Public Health and Disease Control

Researchers in India carried out a "meta-analysis" (an intensive statistical desk research study) in order to study the extent of success in eradicating Tuberculosis by 2025. Rather than talking to patients, the researchers analyzed the information that was already available to them.

• Market Assessment for Consumers

The students in business studied the industry by carrying out an analysis called "A Study on Consumer Perception Towards Electric Vehicles Among the Citizens of Nashik City". In order to carry out this analysis, they made use of desk research to collect secondary data from various websites, newspapers, journals, and company reports prior to collecting primary data using their questionnaires.

• Higher Education and Disabled Students

A study carried out in Europe through desk research analyzed the need for accessible higher education systems for people who are visually and hearing-impaired in Sweden. They reviewed non-discrimination legislation, governmental policies, internet database, and literature in order to build up a base for an accessibility questionnaire.

• Technology in Urbanization

A group study was carried out by evaluating "IoT (Internet of Things) in Smart Cities". They analyzed the issues associated with the IoT by carrying out desk research and reviewing case studies in the global environment without having to make any smart city themselves.

Analysis of Political Trends Using Desk Research

The researcher who analyzes the political trends of the past may conduct desk research analyzing the transcripts of the historical campaign speeches. Counting the frequency of words such as "unemployment," "jobs," and "work" may help the researcher make conclusions about the socio-economic values of those times.

The Importance and Advantages of Desk Research

There are several important aspects making desk research (secondary research) necessary for researchers and organizations:

            Economically Efficient

Secondary research only uses analysis of the already available data and literature; thus, it is economically efficient and can be used if there is not enough money to conduct the primary research

Effective Time Usage

Secondary research is more effective in terms of time as it involves gathering and analyzing the information from different sources.

 Diverse Access to Information

Researchers have diverse access to information from journals, news articles, open source, historical literature, etc.

The Basis for Future Primary Research

Secondary research is helpful in terms of evaluating the need and cost of the future primary research.

How to do desk research?

In carrying out desk research (secondary research), there are some steps to take to make sure that the findings you have are valid and reliable. In accordance with the sources mentioned, this is the step-by-step method you need to follow in order to carry out desk research.

Step 1: Identification and Definition of the Topic and Objectives of Your Research

Identification and Definition of the Topic and Objectives of Your Research are the first steps you need to take when doing desk research. To avoid being confused by irrelevant information, you should clearly define the aim of your research before starting.Here is the detailed plan of what you need to do at this step:

•   Pose Clear Research Questions: The next step involves creating particular Research Objectives (ROs) and Research Questions (RQs). By beginning with formulated questions or hypotheses, you will clearly determine the directions for conducting your research.
•   State the Boundaries: If you choose a very wide topic, there will be an abundance of information collected. In order to avoid this situation, it is necessary to state what population, focuses, and variables you want to research.
•    Outline the Main Characteristics and Goals of the Study: It is highly suggested to create a detailed list of characteristics and goals of your research before starting searching for information.
•   The Use of the PICO Approach: In order to formulate research questions more precisely, you may use the PICO approach (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome).

Follow this Example:

Consider that your topic of choice is "Electric Vehicles (EVs)". Now, if you directly type "EVs" in the search engine, you'll find millions of irrelevant articles related to battery science, Elon Musk, stock price, and many more.

Rather than that, you have to perform Step 1 of defining your topic and objectives;

•   Defining the Topic and Target Population: Rather than saying, "EVs", you will have to narrow your focus to: "Consumer perception towards Electric Vehicles among the citizens of Nashik City"
•    Defining Specific Research Objectives: You have to define specific research objectives for your research project, like:

A.    To find out the awareness of electric vehicles among citizens of the particular city.

B.     To know the exact factors which lead customers to purchase electric vehicles.

Step 2: Identify Relevant Information Sources

Identify Relevant Information Sources is all about finding out exactly where to find the required information. Since this step is purely based on secondary data, you'll have to conduct an extensive online research from multiple sources of credibility.In order to accomplish this efficiently, scientists should come up with a certain searching approach and decide which kind of sources are the most precise and useful in relation to their particular theme.This list includes the most popular sources identified by scientists and used while working on this stage:

•   The Internet and Databases of Academic Literature: Web-based resources such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, JSTOR, Scopus, PubMed.
•   Public Libraries and Archives: Such places have huge archives of past scientific researches, official governmental documents, directories of businesses and historical documents.
•   Government Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): Ideal sources for finding official statistical information, demographics data, employment rate, laws and policies.
•   Educational Establishments: Universities and other research institutions often publish dissertations and theses connected to certain scientific field.
•   Business and Media: Newspapers, magazines and TV channels provide scientists with first-hand information about market trends, economic changes and customer behavior.

Follow these examples to clearly understand the above points.

Example 1: Conducting Research on Accessibility in Education (The ISOLearn Project)

§  The Objective: Scholars from Sweden sought to determine what the educational needs of visually and hearing-impaired students were in universities.

§  Locating the Source: Rather than simply conducting a generalized web search, they opted to look specifically for highly reliable sources. These included governmental sources, from which they located relevant legislative documents, such as the Discrimination Act and The Education Act. They also searched the archives of NGOs and Disability Associations, locating reports ranging from the Swedish disability movement to the United Nations. Finally, they located existing surveys of education, such as one investigating the effects of a bad acoustics environment in universities.

Example 2: The Analysis of the Market for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Nashik City

§  The Objective: A group of business students wished to know consumer attitudes towards and market trends of electric vehicles.

§  The Sources Identified: To establish the theoretical basis for their work, they chose several secondary sources. They used the Internet and Academic Databases to identify certain scholarly papers (e.g., "A Study on the Adoption of Electric Vehicles in India," as well as papers on comparisons of EV motor technologies). At the same time, they collected information about wider environmental needs and challenges within the industry using Company Reports, Industry Websites, and Journals before conducting a survey among local people.

Example 3: Medical Meta-analysis (TB & Dengue in India)

§  The Objective: Scientists were interested in measuring progress in the control of diseases and mortality from TB and Dengue fever in India.

§  The Sources Identified: Since public health science demands the highest possible methodological accuracy, researchers ignored magazines and newspaper articles. Instead, they identified specialized medical databases (e.g., PubMed and Scopus) as their primary source. Inside these databases, they focused on peer-reviewed journals and official laboratory-confirmed case reports, leaving other sources aside.

Step 3: Collect and Evaluate Existing Data

Collection and Evaluation of Available Data is the stage when you collect the necessary data from those sources that have been found in Step 2 and analyze their validity. As all the research is based on other people’s results, one can not believe everything that has been written; one needs to filter out all the information thoroughly in order to make sure the conclusions made will be true.

This step includes the following stages:

§  Data Extraction: The extraction involves retrieving the actual data that you require from the sources in relation to the study characteristics, sample size, statistics, and outcome.

§  Assessment of Reliability and Validity: The reliability and validity of the data should be assessed, whereby one should prioritize peer-reviewed scholarly sources over opinion-based articles.

§  Bias Checking: It is essential to check for possible biases in the data by assessing the affiliation of the author of the source and those funding the research. Methodological quality can be checked through tools such as the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool.

§  Data Tracking: To ensure transparency and accountability in your research, it is important to keep proper records of the keywords you used in the process of searching, the database you searched in, and inclusion/exclusion criteria for various sources.

Follow these examples to clearly understand the above points.

Example 1: Making Education Accessible (The ISOLearn Project)

§  The Aim: To assess the needs of visually impaired and hearing impaired students at universities in Sweden.

§  Data Collection and Evaluation: In contrast to simply reading articles on the Internet, the researchers looked for more specific information in the form of legal documents, such as Swedish Discrimination Act and The Education Act, making sure that they had the most accurate and credible information on national regulations. Besides, they also retrieved data from a very reliable survey carried out by Novus Opinion, which included 1,527 respondents from five particular universities on how bad sound environment affected them.

Example 2: Medical Meta-Analysis (Tuberculosis in India)

§  The Objective: To assess the progress and difficulties of TB eradication in India up until 2025.

§  Data Collection and Analysis: In medical desk research, the quality of data can literally be a question of life and death. Data were specifically statistical data that came from various previous studies. They included such statistics as incidence reduction, mortality statistics, and treatment success statistics. Importantly, researchers analyzed all these studies to make sure they are scientifically valid in order to correctly analyze the effects of such programs as DOTS and multidrug resistance TB difficulties.

Example 3: Analyzing the Electric Vehicle (EV) Market in Nashik City

§  The Purpose: The aim was to analyze consumer perception of the Electric Vehicle market.

§  Collecting and Evaluating: The business students conducted secondary research based on reports by the industry, companies, and academic sources. In this phase, the students would need to evaluate the available literature to see whether it applies to their current market setting. In doing so, they would extract information from recent studies where the role of price, no charging facility, and range anxiety were highlighted as being major deterrents for buying EVs.

Step 4: Combine, Compare, and Validate (Triangulation)

Combining, Comparing and Validating (Triangulation) is the point at which you bring all your data together to make sense of it and establish its validity. After collecting your data from different platforms, you need to combine and compare the information into a usable form, and ensure that there are no duplicates. It is essential to validate your data through making sure that your data is from reliable sources to avoid compromising your entire investigation.

It is vital in this step to carry out triangulation as a technique of validating your data by comparing the same information in various sources. If there are discrepancies, meaning that your sources do not agree with one another, you should not simply ignore them; you need to conduct an analysis of the discrepancies.

Follow these examples to clearly understand the above points.

Example 1: Public Health Meta-Analysis (Tuberculosis in India)

§  The Process: A meta-analysis is an analytic technique that depends on nothing other than synthesis and comparison of the findings of several studies to detect patterns. When analyzing how well India has achieved the goal of eliminating Tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, researchers synthesized the data from many various studies about the death rate, rate of reduction of incidence, and effectiveness of the DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course) strategy.

§  The Validation: Instead of believing in the statement in one hospital's report, they verified the information between several medical databases. In doing so, they were able to confirm that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV co-infections are the main hindrances in the proper treatment process.

Example 2: Analysis of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Industry

§  Process: Researchers who were conducting an industry analysis on the perception of Electric Vehicles in Nashik City conducted secondary research by collecting data from various sources such as reports of companies, articles from journals, information available from the internet and newspapers.

§  Validation: For them, it was necessary to integrate and analyze all the collected data in order to get an insight into the market environment. They used the data collected from journals related to EVs in order to validate the universal constraints of high cost and restricted driving range through comparing it with the newspapers and reports of companies.

Example 3: Enhancing the Access to Education (ISOLearn Initiative)

• The Process: In order to learn about the particular educational requirements of students with visual and auditory impairments, Swedish researchers used several layers of existing documents.
• The Validation: They collected information regarding Swedish legislation (for example, the Discrimination Act, The Education Act) as well as European policy mappings (documents by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education). Through juxtaposition of the two sets of documents, they could triangulate the data to determine what schools were obliged to do in accordance with the law for students with disabilities.

Step 5: Data Analysis and Conclusion

Data Analysis and Conclusion is the final and the most important stage of a desk research. Having gathered and validated your secondary data, you need to analyze it in order to draw conclusions from it and answer your initial research questions.

The following points show what this stage entails.

§  Theory-driven Data Analysis: The next thing you do is analyzing the consolidated data, looking for any possible patterns and their broader implications that can be drawn based on it. Researchers usually use theoretical models to interpret their findings,.

§  Checking Objectives: The other thing that needs to be done is checking whether the analysis of your data has answered all the research questions formulated in Step 1,. In case there are some unanswered questions, you need to conduct further research and address them.,.

§  Interpretation and Conclusion: At the very end, you need to interpret your findings. Consistency of your findings will help you confirm your hypothesis, while high variability of them may point to the need for further primary research.

See below some examples to get an idea of what is stated above.

Example 1: Public Health Meta-Analysis (Tuberculosis in India)

§  Explanation of the Analysis: In the meta-analysis study (statistical desk study) aimed at assessing the extent to which India has managed to eliminate Tuberculosis by 2025, researchers looked into various data on the rates of disease incidence reduction, mortality rate as well as effectiveness of the available means of treatment.

§  The Conclusion: Based on their interpretation of the trends, they made the conclusion that MDR-TB and HIV co-infections were the major obstacles to effective treatment. This particular conclusion helped formulate actionable recommendations for India's public health strategies for TB elimination.

Example 2: Digital Payment System

§  Explanation of the Analysis: To better understand the concept of digital payment systems in developing countries, researchers reviewed and analyzed 25 papers written between 2015 and 2023.

§  The Conclusion: Based on the analysis of the trends observed across all the articles through the theoretical framework (Technology Acceptance Model), they concluded that there were only two factors—ease of use and security—that determined the decision of the user to adopt the technology.

Example 3: Challenges in the Market for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Nashik City

§  The Analysis: Consumer attitudes about Electric Vehicles have been examined through the analysis of business data and survey responses by business students interested in consumer perceptions regarding electric vehicles,. Several data points were identified including the fact that even though 64% of the respondents had knowledge about the significance of EVs and 62% believed that EVs help fight global warming, their purchase rates were quite low.

§  The Conclusion: The data helped them arrive at the exact reason for low consumer adoption, which was that 34% did not have trust in technology, 28% were discouraged by short driving ranges and 22% were restricted by the high cost of the technology.

Example 4: Global Best Practices in the Media Industry (Amazon and Meta)

§  Analysis: The desk research analysis examined global best practices in the entertainment and media industry through innovation and investments made by the leading companies.

§  Conclusion: Through analyzing Meta Platforms Inc., they arrived at a conclusion that the company’s dominance and success is due to their strategic investments and expansion in digital spaces such as the Metaverse. Likewise, analyzing Amazon helped arrive at a conclusion that their dominance is due to disruptive customer-focused practices, consistently low prices, and a global product range.

Conclusion

In conclusion, desk research, alternatively referred to as secondary research, is an extremely cost- and time-efficient methodological tool which involves analysis of information collected through existing data rather than conducting new data collection on the ground. By carefully selecting and evaluating information obtained from credible sources such as peer-reviewed journals, official government reports, and public archives, scientists can make certain conclusions about specific issues, uncover patterns, and develop conclusions using minimum budget necessary for fieldwork. In other words, proper execution of desk research leads to obtaining an information base which is both useful for academic purposes and for making practical decisions in the real world.

Thank You.