SOURCES OF DATA

COLLECTION
By
Puan Sazuliana Sanif
FSTPi

Sources of data collection

Primary sources

Secondary sources

- Your own data collection from own

investigation

From publications, government

documents, brochures,
newsletters, annual reports
Look for recent reports, check
on the authors qualification and
the reputation of the publisher
-

Document the sources through

footnotes, endnotes or reference
list
-

Collecting Primary Data

The 5 main ways to collect primary data:
1.

Documents
- can be primary or secondary source
- from own company files, business documents such as sales
reports, policy statements, correspondence with customers,
suppliers, contracts and log book.

2.

Observation
- informal observation by using eyes or ears based on the
researcher visiting a facility or observe operations
- specific observations with a checklist on what to look out for
- useful when studying objects, physical activities, the
environment or human behaviour
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- the disadvantage depends on the reliability of the observer as

people have the tendency to see what they want on their own
experiences. Therefore, proper instructions and trustworthy
observer is essential.
3.

Surveys
- includes single interviews to the experts to distribution of
thousands of questionnaires to outsiders.
- a formal survey can consist of face-to-face interviews, phone
calls or printed questionnaires.
- how many individuals should be contacted to get reliable
results?
- what specific questions should be asked?

Types of survey questions

a.

Open-ended question
Eg: How would you describe the way the van driver drove the
van?

b.

Either-or
Eg: Do you think that the van driver obey the Safety Regulation
while
driving on the road?
Yes / No

c.

Multiple choice
Eg: What is best way to educate the van drivers?
a.
UTHM should give often reminder
b.
By distributing flyers and brochures to the drivers
c.
Never renew the permit if they have safety offends
d.
Suspend their services

d.

Scale- to compare different items using a common scale

Eg: Please mark an X on the scale to indicate how you feel
regarding
your safety while traveling on the vans provided by UTHM.
1

VS

US

VUS

Key: 1
2
3
4
5

Very safe (VS)

Safe
(S)
Moderate (M)
Unsafe
(US)
Very unsafe (VUS)

e.

Checklist

f.

Ranking- to compare different items directly to one another

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Guidelines when making survey questions

i.

Provide clear instructions; especially on how to fill out the

questionnaires or provide explanations on why the research is
conducted,

ii.

Keep the questions short and easy to answer

iii.

Create questions that are easy to tabulate or analyse; eg. numbers

iv.

Ask only one thing at one time.

NOT: Do you read books and magazines regularly?

v.

Pretest the questionnaire on a sample group

4.

Experiments
- for technical fields to see the differences between two factors/
elements/ variables, eg. Experiments done on animals or two groups of
people

5.

Interview
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