Primary Sources - provide original ideas, participation in events, or direct observations of research/study. They can be historical documents written in the time period of the topic being researched. Examples include:
Scholarly and Primary Sources
About Primary Sources
Primary sources are the original data, images, or artifacts created at the time an event occurred, or soon after, by a participant in the events being studied. Primary sources provide direct evidence about events, phenomena, or a person’s thoughts or actions. Original creative works are also considered primary sources.
Primary sources can be books (or articles or reports) written by an author (or organization) using original concepts, such as:
A scholarly article written by the creator of a study and reporting that study.
A book written by an author using his original ideas.
A research report written by a commercial organization such as the Rand Corporation (at https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP70551.html)
or by a nonprofit organization such as New Jersey Education Association.
Government documents such as congressional hearings with testimony from various participants, laws, agency reports, congressional committee reports or investigations.
Historical videos and documentaries
(Also, newspaper accounts of an event that just happened, maps, paintings and other artifacts, photographs, records such as patents, autobiographies, journals, diaries, narratives and oral histories.)
Description of a Scholarly Journal
Long articles, small print
Author is a subject expert –academic or clinical
Editor is a subject expert
Charts, graphs, statistical illustrations
Written for professionals, in technical language
Few, but targeted advertisements
Contains a bibliography and parenthetical references or footnotes
Often is peer-reviewed (or "refereed")
May be a primary source
Types of Scholarly Articles
Study – Describes a particular piece of research. Has a method section describing original research by the article’s author(s). It is a primary source.
Literature Review – Reviews the published works of other authors in relation to a specific topic. Although, it may be a scholarly source, it is not a primary source.
Parts of an Scholarly Article
Multiple authors
Author’s credentials
Headnotes/Abstract
Introduction (literature Review/ Background)
Body (Methods/methodology/Results)
Conclusion (Discussion)
References
Secondary Sources - analyze, describe, or restate information in primary resources or other secondary resources. Examples include:
Tertiary Sources - provide overviews of topics by compiling information gathered from other resources. Examples include: