Which is an example of a primary data source?

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Gathering data directly for your study is primary data collection. When you design and run a survey yourself, you’re obtaining raw responses specifically for your research questions, with control over what is asked, how it’s measured, who is surveyed, and when data are collected. That first-hand collection yields data tailored to your analysis.

The other options involve data that someone else collected or produced for different purposes and then made available for use. Published industry reports are analyses created from various sources to summarize trends, not raw data you gathered. Data from a compiled database has been aggregated or curated by another party, not collected by you for your current study. Government statistics from a third party are official data produced for broad use, not data you personally collected. These are all secondary sources.