Basic requirements for scientific data are that it should be reliable and impartial. In Sociology these conditions are hard to meet. Yet numerous methods are used to minimize errors in data. Some of the commonly used sources in collecting data are:

Existing materials including the official statistical record and historical and contemporary documents.
Social surveys through questionnaire and schedules
Interviewing
Observation- Participants and non-participant

Existing Material

Statistical Sources

Government statistics particularly census or statistics produced by large industrial or commercial firms, trade unions or other organizations provide one important account of data which sociologist can use in their analysis. An outstanding example of the imaginative use of official statistics in the positivist tradition is the study of suicide made by the famous French sociologist Emile Durkheim in the 19th century. However official statistics are the kind of data that are not collected by sociologists themselves and so there problems while analyzing the data.

Historical documents

Records and accounts of qualitative kind for example relating to belief, values, social relationship or social behavior may also be contemporary or may refer to earlier periods. There are several difficulties immediately present themselves in the use of records from the past. Few chroniclers of social relation and social action record observations in the systematic way in which the sociologists are interested. There are often intriguing and sympathetic records but the information that is vital to the sociologist is often missing.

Contemporary Records

Contemporary records relating to social relationship and social behavior are seldom used as the sole source of information and sociological research. They are usually one source of a particular account or achievement.

Next:-Social Survey

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