What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources are original materials that present initial thinking, report on discoveries, or share new information. Examples of primary source material include:
- Firsthand documents presented during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event.
- For example: Legal documents, such as U. S. Code, or court records; Historical records, such as the Declaration of Independence; Interviews; Diaries, autobiographies, personal journals; News reports; etc.
- Research results generated by experiments, investigations, surveys, studies, etc.
- For example: Books or scholarly journal articles reporting original research results; Books or papers about a specific theory; Census data; Statistics; etc.
- Original works of literature, art, and music.
- For example: Poems; Novels; Films, music recordings; Paintings, sculptures, photographs; etc.
What is a Secondary Source?
Secondary sources are materials written about primary sources. Examples of secondary source material include:
- Biographies
- Interpretations of or discussions about firsthand documents.
- For example: Law reviews; Books or articles in newspapers, magazines or journals about historical documents, news, etc.
- Evaluations or analysis of someone's original research results.
- For example: Books or papers in scholarly journals about original research reports; Books and papers about a specific theory or thought; Encyclopedias; Handbooks; etc.
- Commentary or criticism of original literature and art works.
- For example: Literary criticism; Art criticism; Book reviews; Movie reviews; etc.
What is a Tertiary Source?
Tertiary sources are similar to secondary sources in that they include both primary and secondary sources but the difference is that they do not present any new information nor offer an analysis of information sources. Examples of tertiary source material include:
- Reference Books
- For example: Encyclopedias; Dictionaries; Thesauruses; Atlases; Almanacs; etc.
- Guidebooks
- For example: Subject guides; Handbooks; Manuals; Style guides; etc.
- Indexes and Abstracts
- For example: Bibliographic indexes; Abstracting and indexing services; Database records; etc.
- Summaries and Digests
- For example: Abstracts; Summaries of research articles; Review articles; etc.
