To practice evaluating different types of sources and how they are used to support writing, we will consider the citations in the following article. Skim the abstract and read the first paragraph of this article. Use this article to answer the questions in this spreadsheet. 

Clues that an article is a primary source: 

• Analyzes data collected by the authors. 

• Often very narrow in scope.

• Abstract may include phrases like "we observed," "sampling was conducted," etc. 

• Usually includes a methods section. 

• Will cite past work by others to provide context for original data collection and analysis.

Primary source examples: 

Peer-reviewed scholarly article, conference poster or paper, thesis or dissertation, lab notebook, correspondence, patents.

Clues that an article is a secondary source: 

• Describes the work of other scientists: synthesizes several articles to draw broader conclusions.

• Surveys the state of research within a narrow field of study. 

• Title or abstract includes the terms "review," "systematic review," "or meta-analysis". 

• Any methods section would describe how a search for articles was conducted, not how original data was collected.

• Newspaper or popular magazine articles that summarize original research are included in this category. 

Secondary Source Examples: 

Review articles, articles that summarize primary scientific articles in everyday language, laws and government policies.