How often have you come across this simple expression original data? I’ve always struggled to understand what the authors want to tell us by describing their data as original. Sometimes it seems they mean newly collected; sometimes it seems they mean little used data or data not usually used for this particular research question; sometimes I really have no clue beyond a vague notion that the they want to tell me that they did it well. Aren’t all data original (– or what are unoriginal data)?
Sociologist. Quantitativist. University of Neuchâtel.
Didier Ruedin 
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