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Explore Source Types: Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources
Learning Objectives
After completing this module, you will be able to:
Distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources
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Primary vs Secondary vs Tertiary Sources
Primary Sources
- Records of events or new discoveries
- No interpretation or commentary
- Other research may be based on it
- Original thinking
- Share fresh information
- Diaries and letters
- Academic journal articles reporting NEW data and findings (usually peer reviewed)
- Speeches
- Experiments, clinical trials, case studies
- Memoirs and autobiographies
- Maps
- Interviews
- Survey or poll data
- Works of art (visual or performance)
- Works of literature
- Oral histories
- Official records from a government, court, or company
- Eyewitness news reports (only if they are reporting on a recent new event)
- Objects like clothing, tools, furniture, buildings, etc.
Secondary Sources
- Offers analysis, criticism, or restatement of primary source information
- May describe or explain primary source material
- Works that summarize, interpret, or reorganize
- Academic journal articles that discuss, analyze, or interpret previous research
- Editorials and articles that interpret or review primary sources
- Criticisms or reviews of a work of art, music, or literature
- Some nonfiction books written for the general public and not scholarship
- Some textbooks
- Literature reviews
- Political commentary
- Biographies
- Newspaper or magazine articles that synthesize others' research or primary materials
Tertiary Sources
- Index, organize, compile, or digest other sources
- Repackaging the information
- Usually not credited to a specific author
- Dictionaries
- Encyclopedias
- Bibliographies
- Some textbooks
- Abstracts
- Bibliographies
- Indexes
- Handbooks
- Wikipedia
- Fact books
- Guides
- Almanacs
- Library Catalog
Examples of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources by Discipline
|
Primary |
Secondary |
Tertiary |
English, Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Religion |
Letters written by Nelson Mandela while in jail during Apartheid in South Africa |
Book about Mandela's writings from a full-text database |
Encyclopedia on Apartheid in South Africa |
Sciences |
Marie Currie's diary |
Book about Marie Currie's life |
Encyclopedia of Physics |
Business, Political Science, History, Sociology, Psychology, Education
|
Notes taken by a clinical psychologist |
Journal article about the psychological condition |
Textbook on clinical psychology |
Art |
Falling Water--Building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright |
Article critiquing the building |
Encyclopedia article on Frank Lloyd Wright |
Allied Health & Nursing |
Peer reviewed journal article reporting clinical test results of a new drug therapy for hyperthyroidism |
Article in a news or health magazine/journal that reports on the original article/study results |
General book about the treatment of hyperthyroidism |
Performing Arts |
Movie filmed in 1951 |
Biography of the director |
Guide to the movie |
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