Intro to Academic Research

Primary and Secondary Sources

When you are conducting research, whether it be in the social sciences, humanities, or natural sciences, the ability to distinguish between primary and secondary source material is important. The distinction between primary and secondary sources illustrates the degree to which the author of a source is removed from the actual event being described, informing the reader as to whether the author is reporting firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art or if the author is evaluating another person's original research and providing a second-hand account of an event.

Primary Sources

Primary sources provides original, direct, and/or firsthand accounts about an event, person, object or work of art. Primary sources include, but are not limited to:

  • Diaries, speeches, and correspondence
  • Interviews
  • Autobiographies
  • Government documents
  • News film footage
  • Works of art
  • Oral histories
Primary sources in the natural sciences are typically empirical studies—research where an experiment was performed or a direct observation was made. The results of these empirical studies are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences.

 

Examples of Primary Sources

Gettysburg Address image
The Gettysburg Address
Nelson Mandela Autobiography image
Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom (Autobiography)
The Scream Painting image
NThe Scream by Edvard Munch

 

Secondary Sources

The goal of secondary sources is typically to describe, discuss, interpret, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. Secondary sources include, but are not limited to:

  • Biographies
  • Textbooks
  • Reference Sources
  • Scholarly journal articles
  • Encyclopedias
  • Literary criticisms

Examples of Secondary Sources

Ordinary Men Book image
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
Lincoln at Gettysburg Book image
Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
Picasso's War Book image
Picasso's War by Russell Martin