ABSTRACT
It is not surprising to come across case studies or cost-benefit analyses in public administration research. Some research approaches more accurately describe its primary data collection method or analysis strategy such as survey research or cost-benefit analysis. Still, they are often referred to as research designs. Some commonly used research approaches outside the Xs and Os framework are secondary data analysis, evaluation synthesis, content analysis, survey research, case studies, and cost-benefit analysis. There is also a mix-and-match quality to research designs and approaches. This chapter provides an overview on some of these different research approaches. It identifies the situations in which they might be used, and highlights some key issues specific to these approaches. The primary advantage of conducting secondary data analysis is that it is quicker and cheaper than doing original data collection. In the planning phase, researchers might want to consider whether the data they need have already been collected.
