This ppt is all about data, sources of data and different methods of their collection. In addition, merits and demerits of different methods are also outlined.

1. Data: Types & Methods of their Collection
by
Dr. Mohmed Amin Mir
Assistant Professor
PG Department of Commerce
Islamia College of Science & Commerce (Autonomous with CPE Status)
Srinagar - 190002, Jammu & Kashmir, India
+91-9797178402
Email: aamin.icsc@gmail.com
@ Copy Rights Reserved with the Author

2. DATA COLELCTION
 Data is the basis of every type of research
 Process of collecting data for research purposes
 Gathering of information (figures, words or responses) that describes some situation from which
conclusions can be drawn
 Data may relate to an activity of our interest/ a phenomenon/ a problem or a situation under study.
 They derive as a result of the process of measuring, counting and/or observing.
 Statistical data are the basic raw material of any type of research study
 Refer to those aspects of a problem situation that can be measured, quantified, counted, or
classified.
Statistical Data can be of two broad categories:
Quantitative data and Qualitative data. This classification is based on the kind of characteristics that
are measured.
1. Quantitative data are those that can be quantified in definite units of measurement. These refer
to characteristics whose successive measurements yield quantifiable observations.

3. Types of Data
2. Qualitative data refer to qualitative characteristics of a subject or
an object. A characteristic is qualitative in nature when its
observations are defined and noted in terms of the presence or
absence of a certain attribute in discrete numbers
i. Nominal data: Are the outcome of classification into two or more categories of
items or units comprising a sample or a population according to some quality
characteristic.
 For Examples: Classification of students according to sex - Males and Females
 Workers according to skill - Skilled, Semi-skilled, and Unskilled
 Employees according to the Level of education - Matriculates, Undergraduates & Post-graduates
ii. Rank data: Are the result of assigning ranks to specify order in terms of the integers
1,2,3, .....n. R
 Ranks may be assigned according to the level of performance in a test, a contest, a competition, an
interview, or a show etc.

4. Collection of Data
Is the Foundation Stone of Statistical Investigation/ research on which the
entire structure of investigation is constructed
Data must be collected with Maximum Efficiency, Ability & Accuracy
Any deficiency in this process, conclusions drawn will be Fallacious &
Unreliable
1. Primary data: Those data which do not already exist in any form, and
thus have to be collected for the first time from the primary source(s). By
their very nature, these data require fresh and first-time collection covering
the whole population or a sample drawn from it.
2. Secondary data: They already exist in some form: published or
unpublished - in an identifiable secondary source. They are, generally,
available from published source(s), though not necessarily in the form
actually required.

5. Difference Between
Primary Data &
Secondary Data
Primary data is used as RAW-MATERIAL/ORIGINAL while
Secondary data is ALREADY AVAILABLE (like manufactured
goods)
Primary data is collected by INVESTIAGATOR HIMSELF
whereas secondary data is collected by OTHER PERSONS
Primary data is used for enquiry itself whereas
secondary data need not to be appropriate to the
objective
1. ORIGINALITY
2. COLLECTION
3. RELATION WITH THE OBJECTIVE

6. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
I. Observation Method
II. Interview Method
III. Questionnaire Method
IV. Socio-Metric Method
V. Schedule Method
VI. Other Methods
a. Projective Techniques
b. Unobtrusive Measurement
c. Multi -Method

7. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
I. Observation Method
 In which the population of interest is observed to find out relevant facts
and figures
 Observing a person/situation is an art
 Researcher observes things/situation for a particular reason
 Behavior of the individual in that situation, the reason for their behavior,
the impact of their behavior on other individuals and society
Example:
A researcher observes that in a retail showroom some people are buying
products while some people are not buying anything

8. Sub-Methods of Observation Method
i. Natural Method
Without any intervention to observe activities, movements, gestures & facial expressions
ii. Contrived Method
Researcher takes the information from the people in an indirect way
Example: Researcher approaches different shopkeepers as a customer to buy some products
iii. Direct Method
Researcher waits for a particular experiment or behavior to occur
Example: A researcher is observing the sale of new products in an automobile showroom

9. Sub-Methods of Observation Method
iv. Indirect Method
Observing the behavior that have occurred in the past
v. Structured Method
Researcher knows what is to be observed
Example: If a researcher has to know about a particular brand of a car.
vi. Unstructured Method
Researcher doesn’t know what exactly he has to observe
Used in exploratory research like Observing the behavior of people for
different brands of the same product
vii. Mechanical Method
Use of some devices to observe people's response like video-
cameras and audiometers.

10. Limitations of Observation Method
Researcher cannot remain present at every place when a new event occurs
Researcher may fail to observe the minute occurrences
Researcher cannot study the behavior of some people as they don’t reveal their true behavior all the time
ADVANTAGES
Helps in getting no-biased
responses from the respondents
Provides accurate data for the
research
Helps the researcher in getting
the relevant data
DISADVANTAGES
• Doesn’t allow the researcher to
evaluate past data
• Is used to study only the present
scenario
• Makes it difficult for the
researcher to accurately judge the
attitudes of respondents

11. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
II. Interview Method
 Basically used to do an in-depth study of the research problem
 Researcher asks the respondents to react or speak on a particular
topic/situation
 Researcher is in a better condition to study the attitudes, motivations and
opinions of respondents
 Researcher should make the interview environment comfortable to get the
answers of personal questions from respondents

12. TYPES OF INTERVIEW METHODS
i. Structured Interviews: Researcher prepares questions & decide their
sequence before the interview
ii. Unstructured Interviews: Questions are not predefined but
according to the situation and environment of the interview
iii. Individual in-depth Interviews: Researcher takes the interview of
one respondent at a time but is time consuming
iv. Group Interviews: Interview of a group of respondents at a time & are
more structured (focus groups)

13. TYPES OF INTERVIEW METHODS
v. Telephonic Interviews: To save time & cost
vi. Computer-Assisted Interviews
a. CAPI : Interviewees can administer their interview themselves with the help of
software installed in their systems. They can directly feed their responses in the
computer system
b. CATI: A computer system is connected with the telephone of the interviewer. The
questions appear on the screen of the computer ad the interviewer asks those questions
through telephone

14. Pattern Used for Interviews
i. Introduction
ii. Objective of the Interview
iii. Initiating Interview (General to specific questions)
iv. Providing Help
v. Conclusion

15. Limitations of Interview Method
Allows the interviewer to draw the biased (favorable) results by framing biased questions
Makes it difficult for the interview to create a comfortable environment, if more than one respondent is
interviewed at a time
Makes it hard to ask questions on each and every aspect of the research topic because respondents may not
provide all the answers correctly
ADVANTAGES
• Provides an in-depth knowledge
of the topic
• Helps in getting responses from
a large population
• Reduces cost with the use of
telephonic and CAPI technique
DISADVANTAGES
• Does not rule out the influence of
interviewer on the respondents
• Needs a trained interviewer
• Consumes more time as the
interviews are quite long

16. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
III. Questionnaire Method
 Represents the written form of an interview
 Easy to code a questionnaire than an interview
 Questions in a questionnaire are mostly quantitative form while questions
of an interview are mostly in qualitative or exploratory form
 Directly approaching respondents or through mails or online questionnaire
 Designing the questionnaire is the most important part of a questionnaire
to get desired results

17. PHASES OF DESIGNING QUESTIONAIRRE
1. Defining objectives of the Questionnaire
2. Deciding the types of Questions
3. Writing Questionnaire (open-ended & Closed-ended)
4. Evaluating Questionnaire (by Pilot test)

18. Limitations of Questionnaire Method
Making it difficult for the researcher to define the extent of simplicity of questions in a questionnaire
bcz understanding level of every person is different and it depends on educational and cultural
background, age group & experience of researcher
Demanding a lot of time of the researcher, if the sample size is large
Making it difficult for the researcher to motivate people to fill up the lengthy questionnaire
Making it difficult for the researcher to interpret the data collected with the help of questionnaire if
the questions are qualitative in nature
ADVANTAGES
• Offers structured responses that
are easy to analyze
• Increases the coverage area for
data collection with the help of
internet & e-mail
• Diminishes the effect of the
observer or researcher on
respondents
DISADVANTAGES
• Give less responses as compared to
other methods when distributed
through e-mails or internet
• Makes it difficult to identify the
respondents
• Enhances the chances of getting
wrong data when the questionnaire
is not designed properly

19. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
IV. Socio-Metric Method/Test
 Enables the researcher to analyze a social group or work group by
studying attractions & repulsions among group members
 A social group is taken & its members are asked to perform some activities
in a particular situation
 Is used to understand the interaction, communication & choices of the
individuals in a group
 Used to find out the relationship pattern within a group
 On the basis of the choices of an individual, a socio-gram or socio-matrix is
built to study these patterns

20. Process of Socio-Metric Method
1. Introduction
2. Gathering Information
3. Conclusion

21. Limitations of Socio-Metric Method
Requires building an appropriate activity for the respondents to collect data
Doesn’t provide accurate results, if the respondents get to know the purpose of the activity
ADVANTAGES
• Presents an insight of flow of
information within a social
group
• Aids in understanding the
behavior pattern within a group
DISADVANTAGES
• Increases the necessity to have a
skilled researcher
• Limits the research to a group bcz
here researcher can analyze a
group interaction only whereas
lots of other factors may affect the
research

22. METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA
V. Schedule Method
 Same as questionnaire method except that in Schedule method
ENUMERATORS are appointed to conduct the research
 Enumerators personally meet respondents and fill questionnaire
themselves/ by respondents in presence of enumerators
 Mostly used by govt agencies, research institutes or big organizations

23. Process of Schedule Method
1. Appointment of Enumerators
2. Designing of Schedule
3. Field Work
4. Interpretation

24. Limitations of Schedule Method
Requires highly skilled enumerators for conducting research & it is difficult to find such enumerators
Requires extra efforts from enumerators side when the respondents are unable to understand the
questions. They also have to put efforts to make the illiterate people understand the whole concept of
research or a single question.
ADVANTAGES
• Presents an insight of flow of
information within a social
group
• Aids in understanding the
behavior pattern within a group
DISADVANTAGES
• Increases the necessity to have a
skilled researcher
• Limits the research to a group bcz
here researcher can analyze a
group interaction only whereas
lots of other factors may affect the
research

25. SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA
Two categories:
I. Published Sources and
II. Unpublished Sources
I. PUBLISHED SOURCES
 There are a number of national (government, semi-government and private organizations and also
international agencies which collect statistical data relating to business, trade, labour, prices,
consumption, production, industries, agriculture, currency and exchange, health, population and a
number if socio-economic phenomena and publish their findings in statistical reports on regular basis
(monthly, quarterly, annually, ad-hoc).
 These publications of the various organizations serve as a very powerful sources of secondary data.
Some of these sources are as under:
1. Official publications of central Government
2. Publications of semi-government statistical organizations like RBI, IEG, IIFT etc.
3. Publications of research institutions
4. Publications of commercial and financial institutions
5. Reports of various committed and commissions appointed by the government
6. Newspapers ad periodicals
7. International Publications by UNO, IMF, IFC, WHO et.

26. SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA
II. UNPUBLISHED SOURCES
 The statistical data need not always be published.
 There are various sources of unpublished statistical
material such as the records maintained by private firms or
business enterprises who may not like to release their data
to any outside agency.
 The various departments and offices of the central and
state governments.
 The researches carried out by the individual research
scholars in the universities or research institutes.

27. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION
Two methods of investigations:
1. CENSUS METHOD and
2. SAMPLING METHOD
UNIVERSE/POPULATION: Denotes all that area or all those units of investigation about which
information is to be obtained. In simple language, universe means ALL UNITS RELATED TO
INVETIGATIONS.
1. CENSUS/ COMPELTE COUNT/ENUMERATION METHOD
 Conclusions are drawn after studying EACH UNIT OF THE GROUP/UNIVERISE/POPULATION.
For Example:
i. Population census in India.
ii. Studying average weight and height of a class.

28. METHODS OF INVESTIGATION
2. SAMPLING METHOD
 Some units/ items are selected from the universe and the characteristics of
the universe are identified on the basis of the findings of the sample
 Sampling is simply the process of learning about the population/universe on
the basis of a sample drawn from it
For example:
i. Single drop of patient’s blood is used for investigating of whole-body profile
ii. A housewife examines one or two potatoes whether they are boiled or not?
iii. Examination of 2 hours to test the level of learning of a student for the
whole year etc.

29. Types of Statistics
There are two major divisions of statistics such as descriptive statistics and inferential
statistics.
I. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
 Deals with collecting, summarizing, and simplifying data, which are otherwise quite
unwieldy and voluminous.
 Descriptive include measures of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis
etc. which constitute the essential scope of descriptive statistics.
 It seeks to achieve this in a manner that meaningful conclusions can be readily drawn
from the data.
 Descriptive statistics may thus be seen as comprising methods of bringing out and
highlighting the latent characteristics present in a set of numerical data.
 It not only facilitates an understanding of the data and systematic reporting thereof in
a manner; and also makes them amenable to further discussion, analysis, and
interpretations.

30. Types of Statistics
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
 The first step in any scientific inquiry is to collect data relevant to the problem in
hand.
 When the inquiry relates to physical and/or biological sciences, data collection is
normally an integral part of the experiment itself.
 The problem of identifying the nature and the kind of the relevant data is thus
automatically resolved as soon as the design of experiment is finalized.
 In the case of social sciences, where the required data are often collected through a
questionnaire from a number of carefully selected respondents, the problem is not
that simply resolved.
 Further, the data collected need to be assembled, organized, and presented in the
form of appropriate tables to make them readable.
 Wherever needed, figures, diagrams, charts, and graphs are also used for better
presentation of the data.

31. Types of Statistics
II. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS, ALSO KNOWN AS INDUCTIVE STATISTICS
 It consists of methods that are used for drawing inferences, or making broad
generalizations, about a totality of observations on the basis of knowledge about a
part of that totality.
 The totality of observations about which an inference may be drawn, or a
generalization made, is called a population or a universe.
 The part of totality, which is observed for data collection and analysis to gain
knowledge about the population, is called a sample.
 The desired information about a given population of our interest; may also be
collected even by observing all the units comprising the population. This total
coverage is called census.
 Thus, obtaining a particular value from the sample information and using it for
drawing an inference about the entire population underlies the subject matter of
inferential statistics.

32. Types of Statistics
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
 For Example: To know about average body weight of all the college students in Srinagar city during
a certain year. A quick and easy way to do this is to record the weight of only 500 students, from
out of a total strength of, say, 10000, or an unknown total strength, take the average, and use this
average based on incomplete weight data to represent the average body weight of all the college
students.
 Inferential statistics helps to evaluate the risks involved in reaching inferences or generalizations
about an unknown population on the basis of sample information. For example, an inspection of a
sample of five battery cells drawn from a given lot may reveal that all the five cells are in perfectly
good condition.
 This information may be used to conclude that the entire lot is good enough to buy or not.
 There is always a risk of an inference about a population being incorrect when based on the
knowledge of a limited sample.
 This requires an understanding of the what, why, and how of probability and probability
distributions to equip ourselves with methods of drawing statistical inferences and estimating the
degree of reliability of these inferences.