ABSTRACT
Existing data are also known as secondary or administrative data and are essential to many research projects that public administrators conduct. In this chapter, you will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of existing secondary data sources and strategies for identifying, accessing, and evaluating secondary data. The main takeaway from this chapter is that the administrative environment has many sources of data, but knowing where to find them is critical to secondary data analysis research projects. The Census in particular is very important for communities across the United States, and other administrative sources of data like vital records are often used. Advancements in administrative big data, such as data warehouses and open data, are opening up new sources of administrative data to researchers. However, researchers need to take similar care and precautions that the secondary data they are using are high quality. In practice, secondary data analysis enables administrators to conduct studies that are otherwise not feasible. It also opens up data to public scrutiny, allowing for verification, refinement, or refutation of the original results, which may improve data and research quality.
