Primary - A primary source is usually a document or result that is being reported first hand. In other words, primary sources are original sources, not interpretations made by someone else.
The following often function as primary sources:
works of fiction
diaries
interviews
official documents, such as census data and legal texts
objects, such as archaeological findings
numeric data
corpora
Secondary - Secondary sources value, discuss or comment on the primary source, or on sources analogous to the primary source that is being analyzed.
The following are examples of such secondary sources:
research articles
biographies
Monographs or books
In many assignments you will have a minimum number of sources and your professor might say you have to have so many scholarly-peer reviewed sources or say that you have to use a primary source. Check with your assignment, syllabus, or faculty member if you have questions about what type of sources are acceptable.
One important step to research is understanding the types of sources that are available for you to use and when to use them. Each type of source has a best time to use, so it is good to know what the types are and how you could use them.
Books - Books provide both in-depth and broad information on a specific topic. They are great for historical and biographical information. They are usually well-researched in a specific area, which means that it can take years for a book to be published, which means that a current or popular topic right now may not have any books published yet. Remember you don’t have to use an entire book. One chapter or section might be all you need, so just read the areas that you think will be beneficial to your topic to save time. You would search for books in our catalog or the MOBIUS catalog.
Articles – Articles are often the go to source for many students because they are shorter in length and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are popular and usually shorter and some are scholarly and are typically longer and more detailed. Articles provide specific information about a topic and are published quicker than books, so they are good sources for current or popular topics. Scholarly articles provide bibliographies or references that you can use to find other sources related to your topic. Articles are found published in journals and are searchable through our databases.
Book Reviews and Commentary Article – Book Reviews and Commentary Articles are an excellent source to finding whether a book or article could be of use to you. These should not be used as sources for a paper or project though as they are just summarizing or reviewing a larger work without actually giving you any additional information. If you find one of these that is interesting, then go and find the work that it is describing and use that source in your paper or project.
Dissertations – Dissertations are a great place to mine for sources or to read the literature review to see what information is out there on a topic, but they are not always the best source to use in your paper. They are not considered scholarly-peer reviewed even though a doctoral committee does review the work before it is published.
Websites – Websites can be an excellent source of information, but you need to evaluate them to make sure the information is reliable. If you need statistics, often government websites are the best place to go. If you are looking for information about a specific entity like a company or university, going to their website is often the best place to start.