Dr. A. Dinesh Karthik discusses primary and secondary sources in research, emphasizing the differences between them. The document outlines qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, detailing the research process, data collection methods, and example research problems related to food marketing. It also highlights the significance of citation indexes and patents in scientific literature and research.

2. Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK
HEAD, P G & RESEARCH DEPT. OF CHEMISTRY
SHANMUGA INDUSTRIES ARTS & SCIENCE COLLEGE,
TIRUVANNAMALAI-606603.
dineshkarthik2008@gmail.com.
Cell: 9486887461/9500260601
UNIT-I: primary and secondary
sources - citation index for scientific
papers and journals - patents.
2017 -2018 / 2020 – 2021
REGULATION
PCH 34 A / MCH 34 A / DCH 34A

3. An Introduction to
Primary and Secondary Sources

4. Primary vs Secondary data
Primary data: Data originated by a researcher
for the specific purpose of addressing the
problem at hand
Secondary data: Data collected for some purpose
other than the problem at hand
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

5. Original Documents (excerpts or translations
acceptable): diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters,
interviews, news film footage, autobiographies,
official records
Creative Works: poetry, drama, novels, music, art
Relics or Artifacts: pottery, furniture, clothing,
buildings
Examples
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

6. Examples of primary sources include
Books, magazines,
newspapers
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

7. Examples of primary sources
Personal Records
Diaries,
journals,
records
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

8. Examples of primary sources
Artifacts
Tools, ornaments, objects
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

9. A comparison of primary and secondary
data
Primary data Secondary data
Collection purpose Problem at hand Other problems
Collection process Very involved Rapid and easy
Collection cost High Relatively low
Collection time Long Short
Source: Malhotra, 1999
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

10. Qualitative research methods
• Qualitative research is a form of exploratory
research which
– Provides an understanding of the problem and
its underlying factors
• Is unstructured and flexible
• Based on small samples
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

11. What are secondary sources?
• A secondary source interprets and
analyzes primary sources. These
sources are one or more steps
removed from the event. Secondary
sources may have pictures, quotes or
graphics of primary sources in them.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

12. Examples of secondary sources
Textbooks, biographies,
histories, newspaper
report by someone who
was not present
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

13. Examples of secondary sources
Charts, graphs, or
images created
AFTER the time
period.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

14. Against…
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Results cannot be uses as conclusive
• Results cannot be generalised to any
population
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
“Then thousand times nothing is still nothing”
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

15. Situations where Qualitative R. is
useful
• Impossible to use quantitative research (e.g.
Developing Countries)
• People unable/unwilling to answer questions
• Need for “emotional” or “affective”
information
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

16. The research process
(with primary data)
1. Formulate a research problem
2. Determine the research design
3. Design data-collection method and forms
4. Design sample and collect data
5. Analyse and interpret the data
6. Prepare the research report
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

17. An example of research process
• A lecturer doesn’t know the starting level of
IT and statistical knowledge of its student and
would like some extra information for better
calibrating the module. Also, he would like to
elicit students’ preferences about the mid-
lecture break
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

18. 1. The research problem
• Objectives
– Determine the general level of IT knowledge of
the class
– Determine the level of statistical knowledge
– Determine the percentage of students that have
used Excel or SPSS at least once
– Determine students’ preferences about the mid-
lecture break
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

19. 2. Determine the research design
• Exploratory research
• Conclusive research
– Informational need
– Sample
– Data collection
– Analysis (averages, percentages)
– Report
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

20. 3. Design data-collection method and
forms
• Primary data collection
• Questionnaire submitted in class before the
break
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK
The questionnaire

21. 5. Analyse and interpret the Data
• Data tabulation
• Summarised statistics
• Correlations allows to show the link
between knowing statistics and having used
SPSS… or the link between knowing
statistics and wanting no lecture at all.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

22. 6. The research report
• Finally, a research report is provided. Results are
summarised and conclusions are drawn.
• E.g. Student showed a good knowledge of IT tools,
but SPSS needs to be explained from the
foundations. Lectures should start at 11 and end at
12.40, with a ten minutes break
• The demand about “having heard of statistical
terms” was not appropriate to infer the knowledge
of statistics (as it emerged from preliminary
qualitative research)
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

23. Some research problems related to
food marketing
• Packaging of a food product (e.g. plastic or
glass bottle for milk) - Product
• Communication to be given to consumers
(e.g. beef after BSE scare) - Promotion
• Pricing for organic food - Price
• Development of on-line retailing… - Place
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

24. Preparing a Research Proposal
• The Research Problem
• Purpose of the research project
• Data sources and methodology
• Time, personnel and costs
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

25. The Research Problem
• It is crucial to give a clear definition
• It is useful to identify its specific
components
• How to define the problem
– Discussion with the decision maker (final user)
– Interview with experts in the topic
– Secondary analysis
– Qualitative research (e.g. Focus Groups)
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

26. Objectives : the research questions
• They are detailed statements of the specific
components of the problem
• Research questions depend on:
– Problem definition
– Theoretical framework
– Analytical model adopted
• For conclusive research, it is very helpful to reach a
further detail and formulate hypotheses, i.e.
unproven statements about a factor or a
phenomenon of interest
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

27. Data sources
• Explore available secondary data sources
• Primary data collection
– Exploratory research
– Qualitative research
– Survey plan
1. Identification of the reference population
2. Definition of the research questions
3. Choice of sampling criteria
4. Definition of the estimation methodology for
making inference on the surveyed parameters
5. Choice of sample size
6. Choice of the data-collection method (method of
administration)
7. Questionnaire design
8. Costs evaluation
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

28. Methodology of analysis
• Data preparation & coding
• Cleaning and consistency checks
• Select a data analysis strategy
– Statistical techniques
• Univariate techniques
• Multivariate techniques
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

29. Univariate techniques
t-test
Z-test
One Sample
Two-groups t-test
Z-test
One-Way ANOVA
Independent
Paired t-test
Related
Two or more samples
Metric data
Frequency
Chi-square
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Binomial
One Sample
Chi-square
Mann-Whitney
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA
Independent
Sign test
Wilcoxon test
McNemar
Chi-Square
Related
Two or more samples
Nonmetric data
Univariate techniques
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

30. Science Citation Index
• As seen in the SciFinder search tutorials, it
is possible to track papers that have cited a
particular article or author. A publication
that can greatly facilitate literature
searching is Science Citation Index (SCI),
begun in 1961. This publication, which is
quite different from any other mentioned in
this chapter, gives a list of all papers in a
given year that have cited a given paper,
patent or book.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

31. Science Citation Index
• Its utility lies in the fact that it enables the user
to search forward from a given paper or
patent, rather than backward, as is usually the
case. For example, suppose a chemist Is
familiar with a paper by Jencks and Gilchrist
(J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1968, 90, 2622) entitled
‘‘Nonlinear Structure–Reactivity Correlations.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

32. Science Citation Index
• The chemist is easily able to begin a search for
earlier papers by using references supplied in
this paper, and can then go further backward
with the aid of references in those papers, and
so on. But for obvious reasons, the paper itself
supplies no way to locate later papers.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

33. Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

34. Science Citation Index
• The publishers of SCI also produce another
publication, called Index to Scientific Reviews, that
appears semiannually. This publication, which began in
1974, is very similar to SCI, but confines itself to listing
citations to review articles. The citations come from
2500 journals in the same general areas as are covered
by SCI. The review articles cited appeared in 215
review journals and books, as well as in those journals
that publish occasional review articles. Like SCI, the
Index to Scientific Reviews contains citation, source,
corporate, and Permuterm indexes. It also contains a
‘‘Research Front Specialty Index,’’ which classifies
reviews by subject.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

35. JOURNALS
• The primary literature has grown so much in
recent years that attempts have
• been made to reduce the volume. One such
attempt is the Journal of Chemical
• Research, begun in 1977. The main section of
this journal, called the ‘‘Synopses,’’
• publishes synopses, which are essentially long
abstracts, with references. The full
• texts of most of the papers are published only
in microfiche and miniprint versions.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

36. JOURNALS
• 1 Angewandte Chemie (1887)
• 2 Angewandte Chemie International Edition (1962)6
• 3 Australian Journal of Chemistry (1948)
• 4 Bioorganic Chemistry (1971)
• 5 Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters (1991)
• 6 Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (1926)
• 7 Canadian Journal of Chemistry (1929)
• 8 Carbohydrate Research (1965)
• 9 Chemistry, a European Journal (1995)
• 10 Chemistry, an Asian Journal (2006)
• 11 Chemistry and Industry (London) (1923)
• 12 Chemistry Letters (1972)
• 13 Chimia (1947)
• 14 Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications (1929)
• 15 Doklady Chemistry (1922) Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

37. JOURNALS
• 17 European Journal of Organic Chemistry (1998)
• 18 Helvetica Chimica Acta (1918)
• 19 Heteroatom Chemistry (1990)
• 20 Heterocycles (1973)
• 21 Indian Journal of Chemistry (Section B)
• 22 International Journal of chemical Kinetics (1969)
• 23 Israel Journal of Chemistry (1963)
• 23 Journal of the American Chemical Society (1879)
• 25 Journal of Carbohydrate Chemistry (1981)
• 26 Journal of Chemical Research Synopses (1977)
• 27 Chemical Communications (1965)
• 28 Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry (2000)
• 29 Journal of Computational Chemistry (1979)
• 30 Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (1971) ect……
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

38. Patents
• In many countries, including the United States,
it is possible to patent a new compound or a
new method for making a known compound
(either laboratory or industrial procedures), as
long as the compounds are useful.
• It comes as a surprise to many to learn that a
substantial proportion of the patents granted
(perhaps 20–30%) have been chemical patents.
• Chemical patents are part of the chemical
literature, and both U.S. and foreign patents
are regularly abstracted by Chemical
AbstractsTM.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

39. In addition to learning about the
contents of patents from this source,
chemists may consult the Official
Gazette of the U.S. Patent Office,
which, published weekly and
available in many libraries, lists titles
of all patents issued that week.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

40. Patents are also available via
SciFinder
Although patents are often very
useful to the laboratory chemist,
and no literature search is
complete that neglects relevant
patents, as a rule they are not as
reliable as papers. There are two
reasons for this:
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

41. 1. It is in the interest of the inventor
to claim as much as possible.
Therefore, they may, for example,
actually have carried out a reaction
with ethanol and with 1-propanol,
but will claim all primary alcohols,
and perhaps even secondary and
tertiary alcohols, glycols, and
phenols.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

42. An investigator repeating the
reaction on an alcohol that the
inventor did not use may find
that the reaction gives no yield at all.
In general, it is safest to duplicate
the actual examples given, of which
most chemical patents contain one
or more.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

43. 2. Although legally a patent gives an
inventor a monopoly, any alleged
infringements must be protected in
court, and this may cost a good deal
of money. Therefore some patents
are written so that certain essential
details are concealed or entirely
omitted.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

44. This practice is not exactly
cricket, because a patent is
supposed to be a full disclosure, but
patent attorneys are generally
APPENDIX A PRIMARY
SOURCES 1875 skilled in the art
of writing patents, and procedures
given are not always sufficient to
duplicate the results.
Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK

46. Dr.A.DINESH KARTHIK
dineshkarthik2008@gmail.com