Desk Research

Desk Research (sometimes known as secondary data or secondary research) involves gathering data that already exists either from internal sources of the client, publications of governmental and non-governmental institutions, free access data on the internet, in professional newspapers and magazines, in annual reports of companies and commercial databases to name but a few. In many projects, carrying out an initial desk research stage is strongly recommended to gain background knowledge to a subject as well as providing useful leads that will help to get the maximum from a research budget.
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see Secondary Research.

research which uses existing sources of information, usually called secondary data.