| Primary Sources |
- Peer Reviewed
- Published in a scholarly journal
- Contains first-hand reports of research presented by the person or team that did the research.
- We cite these to reference the results and discussion of their research.
|
- Not peer-reviewed
- Published anywhere
- E.g. Someone doing their own experiment and posting it on their blog
- E.g. A news organization conducting their own research and releasing their own data visualizer
- (In the social sciences and humanities, these can be historical documents, art, speeches, etc. But we don't use these in the sciences)
- We don't cite these because they haven't been peer reviewed.
|
| Secondary Sources |
- Peer reviewed
- Published in a scholarly journal
- Draw on other scholarly publications to come up with their own conclusions
- There are two main types: "Narrative Reviews" and "Systematic Reviews/Meta Analyses"
- We cite systematic reviews because they mathematically compare studies on the same topic to determine an overall trend
- Narrative reviews do not systematically compare studies, only mention them, so we generally cite primary-source studies instead of these.
- Narrative reviews are generally considered "expert opinion", which is weaker evidence than the results of a study.
|
- Reports on and draws conclusions from primary scholarly sources.
- Published anywhere
- News article, press release, trade publication, blog post, etc.
- We don't cite these because if they just report on a primary source, we should go to the primary source itself, and if they provide analysis, that analysis hasn't been peer reviewed.
|
| Tertiary Sources |
- Gives an overview of information accumulated from primary and secondary sources
- Does not provide original interpretations or analyses
- You use these in the beginning of your research process to learn about your topic.
- You may or may not cite these depending on your audience:
- Facts that would be common knowledge to your audience don't need to be cited.
|
- Gives an overview of information gathered from primary and secondary sources
- Does not provide original interpretations or analysis
- Not operated by a scholarly institution or organization.
- Wikipedia.
- You won't cite these, but you'll use them in the beginning of your research process to learn about your topic.
|
