Instruments of data collection are tools and materials with which you collect data for your research. There are variety of instruments in research parlance. Here we’ll look at a number of them. Note that the instrument you adopt in collecting data is solely dependent on the type of research you’re undertaking.

INSTRUMENTS:

Questionnaires: Involves collecting information from respondents through well-structured questions.

Field Observations: Involves visitation to study areas in order to gather relevant data on the recent happenings in regards to the subject matter under study.

Oral Interviews: Involves collecting information from respondents through personal interview. The interview can be one-on-one or vide telephone call.

Archival Documents: Involves collecting relevant information from government records or stored materials. You can equally collect data from the National Bureau of Statistics or any related establishments.

Laboratory Experiments: Data collected from laboratory results can be classified under data source.

Scales: This involves data or results from measurements obtained. They can form part of data sources.

Important:

All sources as stated above may not be used at the same time. Each of them has a purpose they serve and are adopted based on the researcher’s discipline and type of research carried out. Moreover, 3 out of the 6 sources listed above are mostly used and are instrumental for collecting valid data. These 3 are:

Questionnaires – Widely used in both qualitative and quantitative research

Interview – Suitable for qualitative research

Observation – Suitable for both qualitative and quantitative research