Primary research is information gathered through self-conducted research methods, while secondary research is information gathered from previously conducted studies. Secondary research is usually where most research begins.
Examples of primary research data are student thesis, market research and first-person accounts of trauma survivors while examples of secondary research data include newspapers, books, academic journals and magazines.
Quantitative data is numbers-based, countable, or measurable. Qualitative data is interpretation-based, descriptive, and related to language.
Quantitative data tells us how many, how much, or how often in calculations. Qualitative data can help us to understand why, how, or what happened behind certain behaviours.