Research could be undertaken using existing reports. Contents would need converted, or original datasets sourced for data analysis. As these reports have been created for specific objectives there may be elements of bias in the reports that could skew findings.

Data could also be manually captured using surveys. This would allow data to be collected specific to the problem, as the ability to set specific questions would allow the collection of data relevant to the project. Ultimately this could provide bespoke results to specific questioning which would help to address the problem. This would potentially need considerable time and effort dedicated to transform it into usable data.

There are several open-source datasets relating to the gender pay gap including the Office for National Statistics (2022) dataset. The UK government provides datasets monitoring the gender pay gap (UK Government, 2023). Kaggle provides several open-source datasets providing authentic data. The Scottish Government’s provides open access statistics relating to the gender pay gap per Scottish Council area (Scottish Government, 2021).