There are many kinds of research, and these include experiments, documents, participant observation, qualitative interviews, quantitative interviews, secondary analysis, unobtrusive measure and surveys. Documents are incredibly popular when it comes to research as they are able to offer a huge range of material and are accessible from pretty much anywhere these days. People once went to the library when they first started looking for documents, but these days the Internet offers even more. If you can't find what you want on the Internet, however, and the research you're looking for are relatively local to your area, then your local library may be able to help you - so don't rule it out.
One major difficulty is that research has often already been done and if you're looking at previous research, you will obviously not be able to go back in time and ask the questions you want to ask. If you can find the person who created the research, however, then there's nothing stopping you asking the person your questions and using that as your own primary research.
Telephone books are often useful, too. They offer a small amount of material for a large amount of individuals and these books are often used by businesses and survey agencies. Diaries can provide detailed materials for one individual, too, as well as a few others that have been observed by a person, so if you're doing a study then there's nothing stopping you from using this material if it is on offer to you.
For historical information, newspapers are a great source of information as well. They provide fantastic amounts of historical data, though they are generally collected for what will sell, rather than for their relative quality of observation and scientific interest, so always take what newspapers say with a pinch of salt.
One major difficulty is that research has often already been done and if you're looking at previous research, you will obviously not be able to go back in time and ask the questions you want to ask. If you can find the person who created the research, however, then there's nothing stopping you asking the person your questions and using that as your own primary research.
Telephone books are often useful, too. They offer a small amount of material for a large amount of individuals and these books are often used by businesses and survey agencies. Diaries can provide detailed materials for one individual, too, as well as a few others that have been observed by a person, so if you're doing a study then there's nothing stopping you from using this material if it is on offer to you.
For historical information, newspapers are a great source of information as well. They provide fantastic amounts of historical data, though they are generally collected for what will sell, rather than for their relative quality of observation and scientific interest, so always take what newspapers say with a pinch of salt.