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Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources
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Primary Sources:
- original research
- usually 1st appearance of results
- research conducted BY authors of paper
Examples:
- Proceedings of meetings, conferences and symposia
- Technical reports
- Dissertations or theses
- Patents
- Newspaper articles
- Data sets, such as census statistics
- Listservs, newsgroups, and email
- Scientific journal articles reporting experimental research results
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Secondary Sources:
- describe, interpret, analyse, evaluate, comment on, and discuss primary sources
- repackage and reorganize information
Examples:
- Dissertations or theses (may also be primary)
- Databases
- Books (may also be primary)
- Newspaper articles (may also be primary)
- Review articles
- Magazine articles
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Tertiary Sources:
- compile, analyse and condense secondary sources into a convenient, easy-to-read form
- tend to be factual
Examples:
- Dictionaries and encyclopedias
- Databases (may also be secondary)
- Textbooks
- Course specific webpages
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