Data Collection Methods

Data Collection?

 The process through which researchers collect

information to give the answer of a research
problem or for making of decision(s).

 For data Collection, it needs to decide

o Which data needs to collect (Targeted Contents)
o Where data resides (People, Files, environment)
o When to Collect New data (Secondary data is not available)

o How to collect (Method?)

 Main Sources of Data?

Primary Source Secondary Source

•Data is collected by •Data collected,
researcher himself compiled or
written by other
•Data is gathered researchers e.g. books,
through questionnaire, journals, newspapers
interviews, •Any reference must
observations etc. be acknowledged
Data collection Choice
 If that data exist in secondary form,
then use them to the extent you can,
keeping in mind its limitations.

 But if it does not exist, and you are

required to use/apply primary data
collection method.

 And this will be the method of choice.

Secondary Data –
Examples of Sources
 Dataset available in Published Documents
(Articles, books, Standards etc.)
 Governmental Records (e.g. Tax. Record, NADRA)
 Census (Birth Records, Death certificates/records)
 Hospital, clinic, school records
 Other Private Informative databases
 News papers, television reports
Secondary Data –
Limitations
– It May be outdated
– It might be incomplete (missing of info.)
– It may be inaccurate
– May not be consistent with desired needs.
– Chances of having some biases in it
Benefits of Secondary Data

 Easily accessible
 Less expensive
 Sometime more accurate than primary
data
 Sometime information only available in
secondary data (E.g. population count)
 It can enhance primary data (year wise Samples)
 Provides basis for comparison
 Ensure no duplications
Primary Data - Limitations

 More expensive method

 Time consuming to collect data
 Inaccurate feedback.
 Duplications may exist
 More chances of having biased attitude
 Due to uniqueness it may not be able to
compare to other populations
 Human/Experimental analysis errors
Benefits of Primary Data

Data Interpretation/explanation is more

easier
Provides most recent and latest data

Targeted issues can be clearly focused

Collector of data is its owner and did not

required any permission etc.
Primary Data - Examples

 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Questionnaires
 Experiments and observational study
Un-documented
(Pic, Audio, Video)

Structured Semi-structured
Un-Structured Focused Groups
 Observation Method
 Watching carefully what is happening without
asking the respondent
 Oldest data Collection Method
 Steps of observing
 Sensations (Use 5 senses to collect information)
 Attention (Watch only relevant information carefully and attentively)
 Perception (Predict something from the gathered information)
 Examples
– Traffic patterns, land use patterns
– Layout of city and rural areas, quality of housing
– Condition of roads, conditions of buildings
Ways of Recording
Observations
Observation (Conti…)

 Used when interview method becomes

inadequate (e.g. in Forest observation of animals)

 It gives answers of all “W” category

questions and usually descriptive but
predicted naturally.
Observation Task

Observe this video carefully to prepare report.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEnohs6yYw
Benefits of Observation
 Provides exact and real information that what is
going on in any event or place.
 Inexpensive method
 Can be initiated or stopped at any time
 All obtained data is useable
 All subjects are potential respondents
 Produces large dataset
 It eliminates biases at respondent’s end
Disadvantages of
Observation
 Observer should have proper trainings and
Skills
 Biases might be involved at observer’s end
 In case of one or more new events the
single observer cannot be present
everywhere.
 Past observations cannot be evaluated
Common Types of
Observations
 Participant Observation: In which Observer(s)
participate(s) in ongoing activities and then records
observations mostly by knowing them that they are
being observed .
 Non-Participants Observation: In which Observer
did not participate in on going activities but just
observe the subjects mostly by knowing them.
 Structured Observation: Observer follows planned
set of rules to observe when to observe what? for how
much time.
 Unstructured Observation: Freely observations by
observer without following the predefined rules etc.
Main Roles of Observer During
Observation
 Complete Participant (the observer becomes a member
of the group being studied and does not tell the members
that they are being observed).
 Complete Observer (the observer observes as an
outsider and does not tell the people they are being
observed).
 Participant-as-observer (the observer spends full time with
the group as an insider and tells the members they are being
observed).
 Observer-as-participant (the observer spends a limited
amount of time in observing the group members and tells the
members that they are being observed).
Library Example with
Observation Method
 Observation method is used in libraries, collected data is analyzed,
and the outcome is used for improvement of the library

 User’s Study Behavior: (Information seeking behavior of users; their

attitude, reading habit, feedbacks etc.)
 Frequently Used Documents/Books: (Frequently used
documents can be observed for new acquisition or order).
 Suppliers/Vendors Observations: (which supply book timely
with affordable prices)
 Library Staffs interaction with students : (Interaction of the library
staffs with the users)
 Electronic Resource Usages: (Handle the users of different
categories according to their standard and quality etc.)
Interview Method

 The process of asking questions,

listening to individuals and
recording their responses
 OR it is a meeting between at least 2
persons
 Kvale (1996) regarded interviews as
“an interchange of views” between
two or more people on a topic of
mutual interest
Effective way
of gathering Involves verbal
information Questions

INTERVIEW

Can be conducted
face to face, by telephone,
online or through Email
Common Types of
Interviews
 Fully Structured or Directive Interview
 Unstructured or Non-directive interview
 Focused or Semi-Structured Interview
 “Focus-Group” Interview
Structured or Directive
Interview
 Interview questions are made by following a
standardized/fixed or planned patterns
 The same questions with same orders and wordings
are asked from each respondent
 Changes in question’s wording and order are not
permitted
 Usually this method follows for large scale surveys
having large population.

 Example: Intelligence level assessment interview

Unstructured or Non-
directive Interview
 Interview questions are made with free choice
without following any standardized/fixed or
planned patterns

 You may ask any questions from a set of questions

 During interview question(s) can be changed

according to the situation.
 Question order can also be changed

 Useful for case studies

 Example: Interview at any public market about the
prices of some products
Focused or Semi-Structured
Interview
 It includes open ended questions to ask and after
listing respondent’s opinion the interviewer may
focuses on particular points to go in-depth
and may add or omit any question accordingly.

 E.g. order of some most important questions can be

changed according to situation.
 Inappropriate question can be omitted
 Any question can be replaced with new question
When to Use Interview
Method
• When there is a need to attain highly
personalized data.
• When in-depth information and clarifications
are required
• When results are required urgently or
speedily.
• When you cannot observe the latest
information directly
Focus Group
(Interview)

 A focus group consists of a small group of

people usually (10-12), to focus discussion
on given topic/issue.
 People from similar backgrounds or
experiences are gathered to discuss specific
topics of interest to discuss related issues or
opinions.
 The group participants are guided by the
moderator or facilitator, who introduces
topics for discussion
Why to conduct a focus
group?
 To obtain in-depth and face validated information about
a topic of interest.
 To generate research hypotheses that can be submitted
to further research and testing using more quantitative
approaches.
 To stimulate new ideas and creative concepts.
 To realize the potential for problems/issues associate with
the topic.
 To learn the opinion of others, how the others talk about
the phenomenon of interest
 To interpret previously obtained quantitative results.
Advantages of Focus
Group
Rich source of collecting qualitative data from group of people.

Allow others to express their own ideas or views related to the given
topic/issue
Gives in-depth understanding, and new insights related to the topic

Able to reach many participants at a single place.

Data has high face validity.

Data is collected with optimal cost.

Disadvantages of Focus
Group
Training required for moderator

Sometime difficult to collect too many people at single

place due to their busy schedule

Sometime it may be more costly than other data collection

methods (e.g. in case of international participants)

Difficult to analyze too many suggestions

Question to Avoid in Interview
 Long questions
 Double-barrel (or multiple-barrel) questions: It retains two
responses against a single question. E.g. how is the taste &
appearance of our Pizza? It is better to ask one by one
1. Please rate the taste of our Pizza?
2. Please rate the appearance of our Pizza
 Questions involving jargon: Avoid un-familiar words (BP, JT, FX)
 Leading questions: Leading the respondent to give answer in a
certain direction of your choice e.g. Most of parents are careless
in doing the vaccination of their child timely. Do you do? Ask
like do you think child should be vaccinated timely?
 Biased questions: A biased question is one where the speaker is predisposed
to accept one particular answer as the right one all the time. (Huddleston &
Pullum 2002:1989) e.g. Hindu will always say, Hinduism is good
Disadvantages of
Interview
 Its too Time Intensive and Take More
time to complete
 Geographical limitations
 Costly
 Biases may involved
 Gender hesitations may cause
outcomes
 Language barrier
Questionnaire Method

 A series of multiple choice like

questions designed to gather
information from the respondent(s)
mostly on a Performa.
 Simple method of data collection
 Less time consuming
 Good way to collect data from a large
population samples
Disadvantage of
Questionnaire
 Misprinting
 Printing is Costly
 Respondent may leave some questions un-
attempted
 Length of questionnaire either too long or
too small
 Chances of misunderstood
 Chances of occurring some biased, leading
and jargon questions inside a questionnaire.
Questionnaire (Cont..)
 Collective Questionnaire: Collect data via
questionnaire from people’s groups or function
where large no. of people available e.g. class rooms

 Emailed Questionnaire: sending of questionnaire

via email to collect data.