I don't quite understand your question, but do you mean descriptive data about your research interview participants, for example?

Could you refer to your research diary if you are keeping one, or otherwise, could you 'brainstorm' about things you remember about collecting your data? You may have remembered more than you think you have. An example of this is, that I still remember a participant feeling pain but wanting to carry on with the interview, so she was in bed and had her 'Oramorph' by her side.

Good luck with this,

Mary

Thank you Mary C R Wilson for the reply

The school sent out a link with my survey questionnaire to participants. I forgot to add age, sex, years of service, unit worked..... now i have answers to my questionnaire but no descriptive data for sample participants. I have a whole section in the chapter for to discuss sample descriptives.... does that make sense?

Maggie Sabay. I think that, by descriptive data, you mean demographic information. Your failing to collect that information does present problems. Are you able to provide some idea about the nature of your respondents, for example on the basis of the people to whom the link was sent, or the response rate?

Apart from that, I guess the lesson to be learned is that a lot of care needs to be taken at every stage of research. Obsessive? Yes, probably. :-(

If the participant's name, full address or phone number is mentioned in the questionnaire, you can contact each participant and take the descriptive data.

I did not collect demographics. No phone numbers or addresses were collected. Participants were employees of a specific institution. They must have been >18 , must be enrollment counselors and faculty. Must have been in their respective positions of at least 6m....I will not be able to determine gender differences or ages...

I guess my question now is... is this a fatal limitation for my study? Should I start collecting data afresh, or can I still use what is available and state this as a limitation and implications/recommendations for future studies??

Maggie, at least you have some broad demographic variables that you could describe.

I would consult your supervisor(s) concerning what you might do. Furthermore, I guess that the size of the problem might depend a bit on the level of your dissertation. If it is at undergraduate level, maybe things are not as problematic as they would be at master's or PhD level. It might also depend on who is likely to see your data and examine your dissertation.

Apart from that, if your sample is as specific/narrow as seems to be the case from your description, it might be good if you did NOT ask for - or conduct your analyses in terms of - demographic information such as sex and age because that could easily breach confidentiality and also have disinclined some participants from having responded fully to your survey. Your cloud might have a silver lining.

Yes, the sample was very specific/actually my coworkers, reason anonymous survey was a better option. This is a PhD level dissertation. My chair/supervisor is flexible and thinks that this is part of research- missed opportunities present limitations and implications for future research

... however, I have a whole section on chapter 4 that requires the description and analysis of descriptive data. I need to include those specific tables (of which I have no figures to set and analyze on SPSS). I am not sure if and how I can set the ambiguous descriptions on my spss (age >18, must be enrollment counselor or faculty---- all the descriptives were on the informed consent so participants who qualified just hit a button to agree to participation)....

Hello Maggie,

Ah, the plot thickens. Under the circumstances, particularly given that the participants were your coworkers, it might be good that you didn't obtain specific demographic information.

A remaining question is whether you needed to conduct any analyses in terms of demographic variables, or do you have enough substance in your data without those variables being taken into account? You haven't given us enough information about the nature of your research question(s), so it's difficult for outsiders to advise you specifically. I'd discuss this extensively with your supervisor(s).

Given the nature of doctoral dissertations in some countries (including Australia), your not having demographic information might constitute a major flaw. However, doctoral dissertations in the USA are often less substantial, so you might get away with what you've done.

All the best with sorting it out!

Robt.

I don't suppose that you could use your initial data collection as a pilot study and you could then use the knowledge you have acquired (and the awareness of the need for the data that you didn't collect and other details that you feel need changing) to carry out a study appropriate for your PhD? Or was your data collection too extensive to be able to label it as a pilot study?

Again, very best wishes with this, Maggie,

Mary

You have a committee that is familiar with your work. You need to ask them this question.

The study does not qualify to be a pilot study. I do not need the specific demographic data to answer my research question, however, I need it for answering/writing a specific subsection in chapter 4. We have very specific templates and what should be in each of them.

I appreciate all of you for taking the time to help open my mind-provide some direction.

Do you intend to use the demographic data for the analysis of your data or you just need it for descriptive only?

I need for analysis

its depend on the questionnaire, if you put email or cellphone number you can get it again.