Collection Of Data

To be effective, data needs to meet the following criteria:

• It must be available when needed.
• It should be relevant and useful in making business decisions.
• It must reflect the actual situation, with sufficient checks built in to ensure that errors or deliberate malpractice do not go undetected.
• It must be auditable, which means the data can be checked for validity and accuracy once it has been processed so that any error can be identified and traced.
• It must be complete, which means there must be enough data to enable you to make decisions about the resulting information.

Sources Of Data

A statistical inquiry may require the collection of new data from scratch, referred to as primary data, or it may be possible to use existing data, referred to as secondary data, or it may require some combination of both sources. To ensure you obtain the best possible data, you first have to be certain that your sources are reliable, up to date and relevant.

Primary sources can include:

• Interviews, diaries, letters, journals, speeches, autobiographies, and witness statements
• Articles containing original research, data, or findings never before shared
• Original hand-written manuscripts
• Government documents and public records
• Art, photographs, films, maps, fiction, and music
• Newspaper and magazine clippings
• Artefacts, buildings, furniture, and clothing

Secondary sources can include:

• Textbooks
• Review articles and critical analysis essays
• Biographies
• Historical films, music, and art
• Articles about people and events from the past