Primary Sources
A primary source is an original document or item. It is the raw material or first-hand information. In the natural aciences (biology, chemistry, etc.), the results of an experiment are considered raw data. Therefore, journal articles that present this original raw data are considered primary sources.
Primary research articles can usually be identified by a commonly used format. If the article contains the following elements, it is usually a primary source document:
Sometimes a short research article will not contain these separate components. In this case, look at the wording used. Phrases such as "we tested," "we used," and "in our study, we measured" will usually tell you if original research is being reported.
Secondary Sources
A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Think of this as secondhand information. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research.
Primary and Secondary Sources for Science
In the Sciences, primary sources are documents that provide full description of the original research. For example, a primary source would be a journal article where scientists describe their research on the human immune system. A secondary source would be an article commenting or analyzing the scientists' research on the human immune system
| Primary Source | Secondary Source | |
|---|---|---|
| DEFINITIONS | Original materials that have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation by a second party. | Sources that contain commentary on or a discussion about a primary source. |
| TIMING OF PUBLICATION CYCLE | Primary sources tend to come first in the publication cycle. | Secondary sources tend to come second in the publication cycle. |
| FORMATS (dependent on the kind of analysis being conducted) | Conference papers, dissertations, interviews, laboratory notebooks, patents, a study reported in a journal article, a survey reported in a journal article, and technical reports. | Review articles, magazine articles, and books |
| Example: Scientists studying Genetically Modified Foods. | Article in scholarly journal reporting research and methodology. | Articles analyzing and commenting on the results of original research; books doing the same |
from the University of Albany
Scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research sources. However, not every article in those journals will be an article with original research. Some will include book reviews, opinion columns, and other materials that are obviously secondary sources. More difficult to differentiate from original research articles are review articles.
Both types of articles will end with a list of References (or Works Cited). Review articles are often as lengthy or even longer that original research articles. What the authors of review articles are doing is analyzing and evaluating current research or investigations related to a specific topic, field, or problem. They are not primary sources since they review previously published material. If it is a review article instead of a research article, the abstract should make that clear. If there is no abstract at all, that in itself may be a sign that it is not a primary resource.
Review articles can be helpful for identifying potentially good primary sources, but they aren't primary themselves.
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