Secondary Research

Secondary Research Patterns

Source Categories and Quality Tiers

Tier 1: Primary Sources (Highest credibility)

• Government data (census, BLS, SEC filings)
• Academic peer-reviewed journals
• Company's own financial filings (10-K, 10-Q)
• Regulatory filings and court records
• Raw datasets from research institutions

Tier 2: Secondary Sources (High credibility)

• Established research firms (Gartner, Forrester, IDC, McKinsey)
• Industry associations and trade groups
• Central bank publications
• Major newspapers and wire services (FT, WSJ, Reuters)
• Think tanks (Brookings, Pew Research)

Tier 3: Tertiary Sources (Use cautiously)

• Wikipedia (verify primary sources; good for overview)
• Industry blogs and analyst commentary
• Press releases (marketing language; verify claims)
• Social media (signal detection only, not citation)

Data Sources by Domain

Business and Market Data

Technology and IT Research

Academic Sources

Consumer and Demographic Data

Research Process

Systematic Desk Research Protocol

1. Define the question precisely
   - What specific claim or gap needs to be filled?
   - What level of certainty is required?

2. Identify likely source types
   - What type of data would answer this? (quantitative/qualitative)
   - Who would collect/publish this data?

3. Search sequence
   a. Government/regulatory (most authoritative)
   b. Academic journals (peer-reviewed evidence)
   c. Major research firms (market-specific)
   d. Quality news sources (recent developments)
   e. Industry sources (practitioner knowledge)

4. Triangulate
   - Find 3+ independent sources supporting key claims
   - Note when sources contradict — investigate why

5. Document sources meticulously
   - URL, publication date, author, methodology notes
   - Note when accessed (web content can change)

Search Operators for Research

Google advanced search:
site:gartner.com "cloud market" 2024
filetype:pdf "market report" "SaaS" 2023
"market size" "$" billion "CAGR" "2024" -site:press-release.com

Google Scholar:
"machine learning" "fraud detection" after:2021

EDGAR full-text search:
EDGAR → Full-Text Search → search 10-K filings

Source Credibility Assessment

CRAAP Test

Red Flags

• No author or anonymous
• No publication date
• No citations or methodology
• Published by an organization with a financial stake
• Contradicted by multiple other sources
• Uses emotional language in factual claims
• URL ending in .com for statistical claims (prefer .gov, .edu, .org)

Paywalled Content Access

Legitimate free options:
- Institutional library access (university alumni cards)
- Interlibrary loan
- Author's ResearchGate profile (often shares freely)
- Preprint on arXiv or SSRN
- Open Access version (Unpaywall browser extension)
- Google Scholar → "All X versions" for OA copy
- Email the corresponding author directly

Citation Management

Citation Formats

APA 7th (common in business and social science):
Smith, J. A., & Jones, B. (2023). Market dynamics in SaaS. 
Journal of Business Research, 45(2), 123–145.
https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxx

Chicago (footnote style, common in humanities):
Smith, John A. "Market dynamics in SaaS." Journal of Business Research 
45, no. 2 (2023): 123–145.

For web sources (APA):
Gartner. (2024, March). Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure. 
Retrieved April 15, 2024, from https://www.gartner.com/...

Research Log Template

Research Question: _______________
Date: ___

| Source | URL/DOI | Date Published | Key Finding | Credibility | Notes |
|--------|---------|---------------|-------------|-------------|-------|
| Gartner | [url] | 2024-01 | Cloud market $600B | Tier 2 | Subscription required |
| BLS | [url] | 2024-02 | Unemployment 3.9% | Tier 1 | — |
| TechCrunch | [url] | 2024-03 | X raises $50M | Tier 3 | Verify with Crunchbase |

Synthesis notes:
- Sources agree on: ___
- Sources conflict on: ___
- Gaps remaining: ___

Working with Reports

Extracting Value from Paid Reports

Gartner Magic Quadrant — read:
1. Criteria for inclusion (who was evaluated)
2. Your vendor's position and description
3. Competitors' positions and strengths/cautions
4. Gartner's market definition and size estimate

Forrester Wave — look for:
1. Score breakdowns (strategy vs. current offering)
2. Vendor-specific commentary
3. Market trend analysis in introduction

McKinsey/BCG Reports:
1. Executive summary first
2. Methodology appendix (sample size? scope?)
3. Headline stats + context around them
4. Check if commissioned by an industry group

Chart and Statistic Verification

Before citing a statistic, verify:
□ Original source (not a chain of citations)
□ Sample size and methodology
□ Date of data collection (vs publication date)
□ Scope (geography, industry, company size)
□ Whether it's been updated since
□ Full context (sometimes headline contradicts detail)

Common misquotation pattern:
Report: "X% of companies that have implemented Y see benefit Z"
→ Often cited as "X% of companies use Y"
Always read original to confirm what was actually measured