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Identifying primary and secondary sources in the sciencesBy Jeanne Hoover
What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is original research conducted by a scientist.
Examples:
Lab notebooks
Lab reports
Scholarly research articles
What is a Secondary Source?
A secondary source seeks out primary sources, analyzes or reviews them and creates a response to them.
Examples:
Magazine or news articles
Scholarly review articles
Encyclopedias
Textbooks
You . . .
Do an experiment in your class
You write down your results
You write a research article on your experiment
These are primary sources
As a Result of your published article . . .
A science journalist reads your article and references it in his article in National Geographic
A publisher decides to add information about your article in a new Biology textbook
These are secondary sources
When it gets complicated . . .
Most of the scholarly research articles that you find in journals are either original research (primary sources) or review articles (secondary sources). It can be tricky to tell them apart.
Similarities Between Original Research Articles and Review Articles
Authors are experts in the field
Academic journals publish them
Typically includes the following sections: Abstract, introduction, and a reference list
Geared towards other scientists and college students
Very technical or advanced in their topic or study
Original Research Article or Primary Source Article
These articles cover one study or experiment that was completed by the authors
The title or topic will be very specific
Look for the following sections for clues that you’re looking at a primary source article
Methodology Section explaining how the experiment was setup
Results Section which includes the data or results from the experiment
Review Articles or Secondary Source Articles
These articles analyze or compare multiple original research articles on a topic (aka. a literature review)
The article gives an overview of a specific topic or technique
These articles may have “review” in the journal or article title
The authors of the article did not do a study or experiment
The article usually has headings related to the topic
