Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data

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Recommended: The importance of data analysis in qualitative research

This essay aims to examine the practice of secondary analysis on qualitative data in terms of barriers to overcome and advantages of its practice. Over the last decades, archives of qualitative data have become widely accessible to research-es and there has been a smaller revolution in the practice of secondary analysis on such data. (Seale, 2004) There are both practical and methodological ad-vantages for researchers to use data that has been collected by others in order to pursue new research. However, this approach is not unproblematic. One of the most prominent features of qualitative research is its emphasis on contextual understanding and data- generating process between the researcher and partici-pants, which is to some extent lost when secondary analysis is pursued. The con-textual problem translates into methodological and ethical issues, which needs to be acknowledged and resolved. Furthermore, there are practical barriers, which surrounds the same pillars of context, ethics and methodology.

Initially, I will define key concepts of qualitative research and secondary analysis on qualitative data. Second, I will identify certain limitations and barriers to pur-sue secondary analysis in the order of contextual information barriers, methodo-logical barriers and ethical issues. Third, I will briefly discuss how such barriers can be overcome and why researchers should pursue secondary analysis. Doing so, I will look at using research in the pilot stage, economic reasons and method-ological advancements.

Qualitative research involves the methods of case- studies, in- depth interviews, text/discourse analysis and historical analysis, focusing on a few cases with the primary purpose of gain in- depth understanding of the resea...

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...tive issues’ Sociological Research Online 15:1
Heaton, J. (2008) ’Secondary analysis of Qualitative Data: An Overwiev’ Historical Social Research 33:3 pp. 33-45
Hinds, P.,Vogel, R., and Clarke-Steffen, L. (1997) ’The possibilities and pitfalls of doing secondary analysis of a qualitative data set’ Qualitative Health Research 7:3 pp. 408-424
Irwin, S and Winterton, M (2011) ‘Debates in Qualitative Secondary Analysis: Critical Reflections’ ESRC: A Timescapes Working Paper No. 4
Mason, J. (2007) ’Re-using” qualitative data: on the merits of an investigative epistemology’ Sociological Research Online 12:3
Mauthner, N.S., Parry, O. and Backett-Milburn, K. (1998) ’The data are out there, or are they? Implications for archiving and revisiting qualitative data’ Sociology 32:4 pp. 733 – 745
Moore, N. (2007) ’(Re)Using qualitative data?’ Sociological Research Online 12:3

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